Close
Find out about our Faculty alumni community, register for our alumni events and download the latest newsletter.
Save the Date! Life Sciences Lecture Series Summer 2025
5 June 2025
Speaker: Yanlan Mao, Professor of Developmental Biophysics at UCL Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology.
More information will be available shortly.
Previous Faculty of Life Sciences Alumni events
Life Sciences Lecture Series Winter 2024 | A future we can get to safely: Why and how biodiversity matters
4 Dec 2024, 6:00pm-9:00pm
JZ Young Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, followed by reception at the Grant Museum
Jon Bridle discussed the value of biodiversity, and how its rapid loss affects poverty, health and social justice. He highlighted the role of biological research - and universities more broadly - in tackling the ecological and the climate crisis, and the way that these emergencies interact. Jon described GEE research on biodiversity and its consequences for ecological resilience, and why and how it matters, using examples from European daisies and butterflies, to tropical fruitflies, and the emergence of novel diseases. He also highlighted UCL’s important work to understand when and where populations can evolve and persist in response to environmental change, and biology's lessons for those humans who want to live on this planet as if we intend to stay here.
Life Sciences Series Summer Lecture | Gut feelings – how gut health impacts disease
4 July 2024, 6:00pm-8:00pm
UCL Anatomy Building
Professor Simon Gaisford delved into the fascinating world of the human gut, with a particular emphasis on the microbiota—the diverse collection of microorganisms that reside within us. He examined how imbalances in the microbiota are implicated in a range of diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Furthermore, drawing on his extensive research, he discussed the potential benefits of probiotic supplements in managing and improving gut health.
2024 FLS Anne McLaren Lecture | Celebrating Women in Science
24 April 2024, 4:00pm-7:00pm
WIlkins Building
Professor Uchegbu spoke about the design, synthesis and construction of nanotechnologies and nanoenabled medicine candidates and their translation into human medicines. This research is aimed at addressing significant unmet medical need.
Life Sciences Series Winter Lecture | Past Lives
29 February 2024, 6:00pm–8:00pm
UCL Anatomy Building
Dr Laura Porro, UCL Department of Cell & Developmental Biology and Centre for Integrative Anatomy, gave the Winter Faculty of Life Sciences Alumni lecture. Laura detailed her recent work exploring the evolution of skull form and function across two major evolutionary transitions: the conquest of the land by vertebrates nearly 400 million years ago and the rise of early dinosaurs to dominate life on land.
Life Sciences Series Winter Lecture | Bench to Bedside: bringing insights from basic research towards treatment for patients
5 February 2020, 6:30pm–8:30pm
Cruciform Building
UCL Life Sciences alumni were invited to hear Professor Stephanie Schorge reveal how basic 'blue sky' research into the behaviour of neurons has led to funding for a clinical trial to treat patients with severe epilepsy. Building on UCL’s neuroscience tradition, they explored how mutations in human genes that cause neurological disease such as epilepsy, cause the behaviours of neurons to change. Stephanie presented how the first study of gene therapy in a rat model of epilepsy was able to stop seizures. Since this first study, Stephanie and her collaborators have developed a portfolio of new possible ways to stop seizure activity in different models. Stephanie commented ‘This work represents the best of collaboration at UCL, where basic scientists in NPP, clinicians and scientists in the Queen Square ION, as well as surgeons in the NHNN, and experts in translational neuroscience at the School of Pharmacy have joined together to bring basic research through to clinical trial.’
