Autumn Conference 2016
 
Meet our keynote speakers

The Arts and Rheumatology 
Thursday 13 October, 16.30 - 17.10



Professor Peter Taylor
Professor of Musculoskeletal Science 

Oxford University


Prof Peter C. Taylor trained at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and gained a PhD from the University of London. He holds the Norman Collisson chair of musculoskeletal sciences at Oxford where he is Director of Clinical Sciences and leads rheumatology clinical trials at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology within the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences. 

Professor Taylor has specialist clinical interests in inflammatory arthritis. He has over 20 years’ experience in clinical trial design and international leadership in studies of biologic and small molecular therapies in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis including the earliest seminal trails of anti-TNF and anti-IL-6 receptor therapy. His research expertise is in mechanisms sustaining inflammation and clinical trials of new therapies with development of novel outcome measurements for application in assessment of response to therapy including ultrasonographic and high-field magnetic resonance imaging technology. In experimental medicine studies, Professor Taylor employs targeted therapies as probes of pathogenesis to investigate the in vivo biology of the target in the pathobiology of the disease phenotype under investigation. His interest in novel outcome measures also includes new tools for the personalised assessment of well-being which can be used adjunctively to clinical outcome measures in informing management decisions.

  

Raynaud's disease 
Thursday 13 October, 10.00 - 10.45



Professor Ariane Herrick 
Professor of Rheumatology and Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust


Prof Ariane Herrick qualified from the University of Aberdeen, trained in general medicine at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow and in rheumatology in Salford. She was appointed honorary consultant rheumatologist in 1993, and Professor of Rheumatology in 2011. Her major clinical and research interests are Raynaud’s phenomenon and systemic sclerosis-spectrum disorders. Her research programme is disease based, investigating different aspects of pathogenesis, measurement and treatment of Raynaud’s phenomenon and systemic sclerosis. She has a particular interest in nailfold capillaroscopy and in other methods of measuring digital vascular structure and function. 

She is Principal Investigator in a number of clinical trials/studies. Prof Ariane Herrick collaborates with members of the UK Systemic Sclerosis Study Group, the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium, and the EULAR Scleroderma Trials and Research Group (EUSTAR). A major remit of these three organisations is to facilitate collaborative studies investigating systemic sclerosis-spectrum disorders.



Infection and arthritis
Thursday 13 October, 13.30 - 14.15


Professor Robert Moots
Professor of Rheumatology
University of Liverpool

Prof Robert Moots qualified in Medicine with distinction in London, he earned his PhD in immunology at the University of Oxford and subsequently moved to Harvard Medical School to continue his research, before returning to the UK to establish a new academic rheumatology group at Liverpool. 

Professor Moots’ research focuses on clinical and laboratory aspects of inflammatory rheumatic diseases, from bench to bedside and a major interest in neutrophils in inflammation. He has published extensively, is active in international societies and committees and each year receives invitations to lecture all around the world. 

He advises the pharmaceutical industry globally, advises the UK National Institute for Health Care Excellence NICE (including devising national quality standards for RA), is medical advisor to UK patient groups and has recently ended a successful term as Editor-in-Chief of Rheumatology. Clinical service remains an important part of Professor Moots’ work and, amongst other achievements, his unit has recently been designated UK National Centre for Behçet’s disease.

  

Spondyloarthropathies
Friday 14 October, 09.30 - 10.15


Professor Walter Maksymowych

Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology 
University of Alberta

Prof. Walter Maksymowych is the 2012 recipient of the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Canadian Rheumatology Association. He graduated from the University of Manchester School of Medicine, United Kingdom, in 1981 and completed his postgraduate training at the University of Alberta and the Children's Hospital Medical Centre, Cincinnati, Ohio. His primary research interests are the imaging, genetics, and treatment of spondyloarthritis, and the clinical validation of biomarker technologies for rheumatic diseases. 

He has published over 200 research articles and is a member of numerous international societies related to arthritis research. His research activities involve a global network of investigators and major partners in the pharmaceutical, imaging, and biomarker industries. He has spearheaded numerous international collaborative networks that have culminated in the development of multiple scoring systems based on imaging and biomarker technologies for use in both diagnostic and therapeutic settings as well as clinical trials research.

  

Vasculitis
Friday 14 October, 13.20 - 14.05

 

Dr David Jane

Director of the Vasculitis and Lupus Service
Addenbrooke’s Hospital

Dr. Jayne received his bachelor of surgery degree and medical degree from Cambridge University. He received postgraduate training at several London hospitals and Harvard University. He is a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh, and the Academy of Medical Science. He is a certified nephrologist and an Honorary Consultant Physician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge UK. He is a medical advisor to UK, US, and EU regulatory bodies, patient groups, and professional organizations. 

He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and reviews. He was elected the first President of the European Vasculitis Society in 2011 is a member of the ERA-EDTA immunopathology working group. His research includes investigator-initiated international trials and the introduction of newer therapies in vasculitis and SLE with collaborators in five continents. Dr Jayne has a research interest in Vasculopathy, Nephropathy, Immunotherapy, Spasmodic Torticollis, Cardiac Arrest, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Pathogenesis.