The control and management of diabetes was the focus of the latest LTN event, held on Wednesday 31 January 2007 at the Institute of Child Health, London
More than 90 representatives attended the event - drawn from opinion leaders in both industry and academia.
Attendees from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Smith and Nephew were among the industry members represented - rubbing shoulders with leading scientists from University College London, St Bart's and the London, St George's University of London, and more.
The evening began with talks on the latest advancements and challenges in the field from key invited speakers.
Desmond Johnston, clinical professor in the division of medicine at Imperial College London, chaired the session and outlined the key issues for type 1 and 2 diabetes.
Michelle Swift, head of medical affairs at Takeda (UK) assessed the viability of new drugs, before David Matthews, Oxford University's professor of diabetes medicine looked at new technologies surrounding islet transplantation.
Finally, Leonard Fass, director of academic relations at GE Healthcare emphasised the importance of industry/academia collaboration.
Attendees were then invited to network among displays of the latest technologies - representing work from universities across London, the east and south-east of England.
They included the latest in vivo studies in food transit times from the University of Westminster and Cranfield University's catalytic and affinity sensors and work on non-invasive diagnostics, among many others.
Event feedback:.
"I found the event very useful for meeting top industry representatives ...
"The most valuable thing was getting examples of how industry might tap into this fundamental science.
"And then for everybody - industry and academia - to go into the networking session with the same hat on".
- Kieran Tuohy, lecturer in department of food biosciences, University of Reading.
"It was certainly an interesting event in terms of interacting with potential academic partners.
"And there was a good mix of speakers - especially David Mathews from the University of Oxford and his work on islet transplantation.
"It stirred a lot of interesting discussions and questions".
- Dunstan Cooke, licensing manager, Thiakis .
