Wezi Sendama

Incredibly pleased to have been awarded a BIOREME Starter Grant! I'll be visiting the Statistical Biophysics lab at École Normale Supérieure in Paris to learn about probabilistic modelling of T cell receptor generation. I'll also be visiting as many local patisseries as possible.

Skimmed this and looks an incredible piece of work. Looking forward to digging into it a little more. Nicely done!

Even if the trial is negative, the real primary outcome was the friends you made along the way

me, please!

Was an absolute privilege, though, to see Nobel Laureate Peter Ratcliffe (!) give the plenary talk! Great rundown of his research career and great parting tip for early career researchers: don't be afraid to be bold with your research direction.

Fantastic speakers in my session, all tough acts to follow! Survived, and co-chair dutifully asked a question I planted during the talk, which was lovely

Behind the lectern myself this afternoon ("Biography of a lung" session), can I get a "good luck" from chat pls

Caitlin Notley (UEA) busting myths about e-cigarettes and reiterating CMO message: if you don't smoke, don't start vaping, but if you do smoke it likely helps you quit.

In a similar vein, Mahdi Sheikh from WHO making the case that it shouldn't be considered too late at a lung cancer diagnosis to stop smoking. 25-50% smoking at diagnosis, but ~25% reduction in mortality at two years after diagnosis in those who quit at time of diagnosis!

Highlights from yesterday from my notes: Matt Evison (Manchester) presenting compelling evidence of the almost immediate mortality benefit of a standardised smoking cessation intervention for inpatients. Varenicline/cytisine + NRT + hospital service referral for as many inpatients as possible!

Maybe worth adding #BTSWinter2024 while I'm waiting for the tobacco dependence session to start

Went undercover in an occupational lung disease session: one particularly cool talk on OLD in workers in the UK wind energy sector (Thomas McLay, Manchester). Indoor blade makers higher risk than outdoor workers, but the latter still at risk of hazards (isocyanates, bird guano, algal blooms).

That's very kind of you to say, thank you! It'd be great to see if we can do it in prospectively collected data without the limitations of the datasets we had access to, and with some knowledge of at least some of the causative antigens.

Hopping into a canoe and paddling up the train tracks to Westminster for the BTS Winter Meeting

T cell receptor sharing in hypersensitivity pneumonitis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.13.623392v1 Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) is characterised by an excessive pulmonary T cell response in susc

T cell receptor sharing in hypersensitivity pneumonitis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.13.623392v1

T cell receptor sharing in hypersensitivity pneumonitis Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) is characterised by an excessive pulmonary T cell response in susceptible individuals after exposure to inhaled antigens. The most effective treatment for the conditi...

New preprint! We think it's possible to use TCR repertoire profiling to identify antigens in hypersensitivity pneumonitis. If two individuals with HP share disease-related TCRs, knowing one patient's HP antigen means you also know the other's.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Back on here, I think. As good a time as any to mention that I'm giving a talk on ageing and pulmonary inflammation at the BTS Winter Conference in a couple of weeks... Maybe need to make the slides at some point

Editor-in-Training at the Blue Journal? Don't mind if I do

I don't think it's right to have a grant application window that opens in late November and closes at the end of January

Every day for me, but the only thing that will change tomorrow is the size of the building and the importance of the people!

Fewer than 24 hours until I have a chance to walk into a big building and make a fool of myself in front of some very important people

I have only ever met one person who has been able to convince me that they understand the kidney

I'm a pulmonologist who was at Aarhus University Hospital for a week earlier this year! (Presumably you recognise the header image on my profile?)

I do it for the warm, fuzzy feeling it gives my CV

Editor-in-chief sending me more manuscripts to send out for review when I'm already fighting for my life trying to find reviewers for the ones I had before

Congrats! Enjoy it. What are your schedules like over there? How frequent is call?

I would struggle to do this now with ggplot2

Nice to see some growing #PCCM representation from the UK!

This is a bit of a novice's question, but is there a good tool that answers "given this peptide and HLA type, what is the likelihood that this TCR recognises the pMHC"?

Thanks again for the invite code!