Fantastic to have so many people join The SPARK Seminar today in person and online.
Professor Sara MacLennan, co-Director of the Aberdeen Cancer Centre, chaired the seminar.
We were delighted the Cancer Centre team had invited Professor Mieke Van Hemelrijck to join us from King’s College London to kick off the seminar with her keynote presentation: Transforming Cancer Outcomes through Research, and to be part of our discussions and hear more about our cancer research from across the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition.
The keynote set the scene beautifully for our University of Aberdeen presentations:
Professor Angus Watson talked about Colorectal Surgery and Innovation in Diagnosis — changing surgical and diagnostic practice for better colorectal cancer outcomes.
Professor Gerald Lip presented the work with Professor Lesley Anderson and the team on Radiology and AI in Breast Cancer - Innovation in diagnosis with AI-assisted breast cancer detection.
Professor Valerie Speirs presented her work in Molecular Oncology and the Role of Breast Cancer Tissue Biobanks in advancing breast cancer research and informing clinical practice.
Dr Rosalind Adam talked about Primary Care Across All Cancers and the role of digital health technologies for better outcomes across all cancers.
With this amazing line up of speakers and people in the audience from IAHS, IMS, Rowett Institute, Computing Science, Bioengineering, and Law at the University and from NHS Grampian the discussions were interesting and long lasting. It was great that so many people stayed in the room after the seminar for more discussions, to make connections, and hopefully SPARK new ideas for new multidisciplinary research projects.
It was a real pleasure for IAHS to host this SPARK Seminar and hopefully many of you will be able to continue conversations at the NHS Grampian Conference, 14-15 May 2026 which is also focusing on Better Cancer Outcomes.
Please get in touch if you would like more information about the seminar, the speakers, or IAHS research: iahsadmin@abdn.ac.uk.