Seminars
Wednesday 18th November 2009, Mile End
Programme:
- 5-5.20pm: "Improving medical decision-making with Bayes" By Prof Norman Fenton.
- 5.20-5.30pm: Discussion
- 5.30-5.50pm: "Connexin 26: a link between deafness mutations and the gut barrier?" Professor David Kelsell.
- 5.50-6pm: Discussion
- 6-7pm: Refreshments
Speakers:
Professor Norman Fenton, Professor of Computer Science, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.
Norman Fenton is Professor of Computer Science at Queen Mary (London University) and is also Chief Executive Officer of Agena, a company that specialises in risk management for critical systems. At Queen Mary he is the Director of the Risk Assessment and Decision Analysis Research Group (RADAR). Norman is renowned for his work on quantitative risk assessment, which typically involves analysing and predicting the probabilities of unknown events using Bayesian statistical methods including especially causal, probabilistic models. This type of reasoning enables improved assessment by taking account of both statistical data and also expert judgment. Norman's experience in risk assessment covers a wide range of application domains such as legal reasoning (he has been an expert witness in major criminal and civil cases), medical trials, vehicle reliability, embedded software, transport systems, and financial services. Norman has a special interest in raising public awareness of the importance of probability theory and Bayesian reasoning in everyday life (including how to present such reasoning in simple lay terms) and he maintains a website dedicated to this. Norman has published 6 books and over 100 referred articles and has provided consulting to many major companies world-wide. He is currently leading the Government funded DIADEM project, which is a consortium of medical practitioners and researchers, mathematicians and computer scientists, investigating how improved data-analysis can transform healthcare in the UK. In addition to his research on risk assessment, Norman is renowned for his work in software engineering (including pioneering work on software metrics) ; his book “Software Metrics: A Practical and Rigorous Approach” has sold over 35,000 copies worldwide.
Email: norman@dcs.qmul.ac.uk
Professor David Kelsell, Professor of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Cell and Molecular Science.
The main research focus of Professor David Kelsell research group is the identification of the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying inherited hyperproliferative skin diseases such as the palmoplantar keratodermas (PPK) and ichthyoses. These studies have identified the important role of proteins involved in the regulation and formation of epidermal cell junctions specifically gap junctions, adherens junctions and desmosomal junctions. These junctions are responsible for cell-cell adhesion, cell signalling and communication, key properties to maintain the normal cellular phenotype and tissue architecture. More recently, he has developed two additional research programmes: one is investigating the genetic and molecular events occurring in Basal Cell Carcinoma and the other study is the genetic and epidemiological investigation of atopic eczema in the Bangladeshi population of East London .
Recent highlights include the identification of the gene that causes one of the most severe skin diseases, Harlequin ichthyosis and also demonstrating that RSPO4 mutations underlie anonychia, the first genetic defect specifically associated with nail development. In addition, SNP array profiling of the most common cancer, Basal Cell Carcinomas revealed two striking findings. Firstly, somatic recombination (UPD) is a major mechanism in BCC genetics, and secondly, the vast majority of BCCs (90% plus) have a defect at the Patched locus.
Email: d.p.kelsell@qmul.ac.uk
