Abstract

Venue: Department of Pharmacology, Seminar Room, Level 2

Dr Javier Aguilera Lizarraga Research Associate, Smith Group Intestinal nociceptive signalling beyond gut pain and the strength of the ‘naked’ mucosal barrier

Biography: Javier obtained his BSc and MSc in Biotechnology in Health Sciences at the University of Lleida, in Spain, and then moved to Belgium to perform his doctoral studies at KU Leuven. In 2019, he completed his PhD in Biomedical Sciences and continued his postdoctoral training in the same lab in Belgium. During his PhD and first postdoc, Javier investigated the impact of immune mediators on afferent nerves as a mechanism underlying the development of visceral pain. In June 2022, he joined the group of Ewan St. John Smith at the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral scientist to work on the Advanced Discovery of Visceral Analgesics via Neuroimmune Targets and the Genetics of Extreme human phenotypes (ADVANTAGE) consortium, as part of the MRC Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP). Furthermore, he has continued to study neuro-immune mechanisms in the context of pain, expanded his research to investigate the (patho)physiological consequences of pain-sensing neuron activation in the gut microenvironment, and also explored the gastrointestinal tract of naked mole-rats.

Dr Anwit Pandit Research Associate, Sawarkar Group Title TBC

Biography: Anwit completed his Bachelors in Microbiology from the University of Pune and Masters in Microbiology from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in India. After gaining some research experience in mammalian cell biology at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, he joined the Sawarkar Lab at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany funded by the CIBSS Centre For Integrative Biological Signalling Studies in 2019. Anwit is a part of the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM). Anwit moved to the MRC Tox Unit, Cambridge along with the lab in 2021, where he is continuing his PhD.