Wolfson JRF delivers lecture at the NEC symposium, Chicago

Dr David Fawkner-Corbett is a Junior Research Fellow of Wolfson who was recently invited to speak at the Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC) Conference in Chicago. This symposium is the largest international meeting dedicated to NEC and is a family-led conference which was attended by over three hundred scientists, clinicians and research funders. This talk was kindly supported by the Wolfson Academic fund and gave a deep insight into this devastating disorder.

NEC is a life-threatening condition which is primarily prevalent in newborn babies and is therefore often encountered on the neonatal intensive care unit. Sessions focused on the diagnosis, risk prevention and treatment of this disorder whilst aiming to transform the care of future babies at risk of NEC.

David Fawkner-Corbett was one of the leading experts who delivered a keynote talk focusing on ‘Next Generation Patient-Partnered Strategies for Understanding and Preventing NEC”. As part of the University of Oxford research team, he is currently utilising cutting-edge multi-omic techniques to research intestinal development all the way from the foetus to adult life. Utilising single-cell resolution sequencing methods and sub-cellular spatial transcriptomics, every cell in the developing intestine is being extensively mapped. This hitherto unknown understanding of this critical time period of intestinal development will inform further research and enable us to treat this devastating condition. The opportunity to share this cutting edge work led to new international collaborations.