Innovation UK > News > Innovation News > Research agenda on Vitamin D in health and disease

Vitamin D has been known for some time to be important for healthy bones, now new research suggests it has possible benefits in other aspects of health including immune function, tuberculosis, asthma, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, gut function, skin, and the prostate, all of which will be addressed at the one-day event, being held on Tuesday 30 March at the Centre for Health Sciences in Whitechapel, London.

Attended by expert researchers from around the world the conference aims to stimulate debate, advance understanding, and set the research agenda in this exciting and increasingly topical field.

The programme is as follows:

Session 1 ? Epidemiology and Diabetes
10.15am Dr Elina Hyppönen
University College London

Vitamin D in health and disease ? insights from epidemiology

10.45am Professor Chantal Mathieu
Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Endocrinology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Vitamin D and type 1 diabetes mellitus
 
11.15am Dr Barbara Boucher
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Vitamin D and type 2 diabetes
Session 2 ? Immunomodulatory actions of Vitamin D

12.00pm Dr Jürgen Schauber
University of Munich, Germany
Vitamin D and the cutaneous innate immune system

12.30pm Professor Margherita Cantorna
Pennsylvania State University, USA
Vitamin D and autoimmune disease
 
1.00pm Professor Kasia Hawrylowicz
King?s College London

Vitamin D, regulatory T cells and allergic disease

Session 3: Clinical aspects 1: prostate and gut

2.15pm Dr Luciano Adorini
Chief Scientific Officer

Intercept Pharma, Italy
Vitamin D receptor agonists in the treatment of inflammatory prostatic disease

2.45pm Dr Julian Walters
Imperial College, London

Vitamin D and the gut

Session 4 ? Clinical aspects 2: tuberculosis and multiple sclerosis

3.30pm Dr Adrian Martineau
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Vitamin D and tuberculosis
 
4.30pm Professor George Ebers
Oxford University
Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis

The event will be chaired by Professor Chris Griffiths of the Centre for Health Sciences at Barts and The London Medical School.

Ongoing research into the health benefits of Vitamin D at Barts and The London School of Medicine include a British Lung Foundation-funded TB trial, NIHR-funded and Asthma UK-funded trials in asthma/COPD, and clinical trials in type-2 diabetes.

If you wish to arrange an interview, or attend any of the presentations contact:

 
Alex Fernandes                                                              Bridget Dempsey

Communications Office                                                  Communications Office

Queen Mary, University of London                                 Queen Mary, University of London

Tel: 020 7882 7910                                                        Tel: 020 7882 7927

Mobile: 07932 557 056                                                   Mobile: 07932 640 759
[email protected]                                               [email protected]

Queen Mary, University of London
 
Queen Mary, University of London is one of the UK's leading research-focused higher education institutions with some 15,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Amongst the largest of the colleges of the University of London, Queen Mary?s 3,000 staff deliver world class degree programmes and research across 21 academic departments and institutes, within three sectors: Science and Engineering; Humanities, Social Sciences and Laws; and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Queen Mary is ranked 11th in the UK according to the Guardian analysis of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and has been described as ?the biggest star among the research-intensive institutions? by the Times Higher Education.
 
The College has a strong international reputation, with around 20 per cent of students coming from over 100 countries.

Queen Mary has an annual turnover of £220 million, research income worth £61 million, and generates employment and output worth £600 million to the UK economy each year.
 
Queen Mary, as a member of the 1994 Group of research-focused universities, has made a strategic commitment to the highest quality of research, but also to the best possible educational, cultural and social experience for its students. The College is unique amongst London's universities in being able to offer a completely integrated residential campus, with a 2,000-bed award-winning Student Village on its Mile End campus.