New series of lectures focus on rodents, medicines and drug developments

Rodents, medicines and drug developments are all on the agenda during a new series of public lectures being staged by the University of Greenwich's Faculty of Engineering & Science.

The events are free to attend and open to all, and will take place at the university's Medway Campus from October.

First up in the ever-popular series is Dr Alison Edwards, Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Medway School of Pharmacy, with a lecture entitled A Spoonful of Sugar: Blood, Drugs and Materials, on Wednesday 2 October. Dr Edwards will be looking at examples of the vital biological roles played by sugars, which may be used to develop new drugs, while also focusing on some of the most recent advances in technology and knowledge. She is a committee member of the Carbohydrate Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Peptide Research Network of Excellence.

The second lecture in the series addresses the fact that many medicines are not effective or safe for all patients. In Personalised Medicine: Getting the Right Medicine to the Right Patient, Professor Jeremy Everett will review new approaches to ensure that the most appropriate medicine is given to each patient, and thathe treatment is both effective and safe. He will also reveal new insights into the ways in which bacteria that we carry in and on our bodies affects our health and our responses to medicines. The lecture takes place on Wednesday 30 October.

Jeremy Everett is Professor of Pharmaceutical Technologies within the university's School of Science, and has previously held a variety of global drug discovery technology leadership positions in Pfizer and SmithKline Beecham.

Society's rat problems form the subject of the public lecture delivered by Dr Steven Belmain, an ecologist at the university's Natural Resources Institute, on Wednesday 27 November. In Rats, Disease Outbreaks and their Impact/Management in Developing Countries, Dr Belmain will highlight the importance of improving rodent management in the developing world, in terms of reducing poverty and improving livelihoods.

His research has been crucial in understanding the transmission risks of Lassa fever and plague and has attracted widespread media interest. Dr Belmain's work has also been the subject of a documentary produced for the Discovery Channel about rat swarms in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Three more public lectures are planned for the new year. Speakers include Professor Mike Bradley, Director of the Wolfson Centre (22 January); Dr Gabriella Gibson, Reader in Medical Entomology at the Natural Resources Institute (19 February); and Dr Nazanin Zand, Lecturer in Food Sciences & Nutrition, School of Science (19 March).

Lectures will be held in Pembroke Building and will begin at 6.30pm. Admission to these lectures will be by registration only, with places allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.