From Disease Diagnosis to Bioinspired materials

A special symposium was held in May 2023 to celebrate the career and research of Professor Roy Quinlan. Hosted by the Biophysical Sciences Institute and organised by his colleagues, attendees came from around the world to take part. Participants joined from across the UK and from further afield from Universities of Turku, Cornell, Washington and the Skin Research Institute Singapore.

The symposium focused on topics covering the breadth of Roy’s research with sessions on cytoskeletal organisation and mechanics, protein self-assembly and biomaterials and presentations on the applications of biophysics research to disease and diagnostics. There were also tributes paid to Roy at the Symposium Dinner and during the day sessions, quotes from which can be seen below. 

Roy is incredibly collegiate, he’s really willing to help people, that's a really important thing. I'm saying for everyone here, and for everyone that we contacted, thank you very much Roy. You've been a wonderful colleague. Thank you. 

Professor John Girkin (Durham University, Physics)

Further quotes from colleagues Anders Aufderhorst-Roberts and John Girkin (both Durham Physics), as well as a symposium photograph and a list of speakers can be found below.

Speakers

• Professor Birgit Lane, Skin Research Institute of Singapore
• Professor Justin Benesch, University of Oxford
• Professor John Clark, University of Washington
• John Eriksson, University of Turku
• Professor Jan Lammerding, Cornell University
• Dr Jen McManus, University of Bristol 
• Dr Alan Prescott, University of Dundee
• Dr Paola Vagnarelli, Brunel University London

Symposium Photograph

Image above: Symposium attendees (from top left): Back row: Prof. Colin Jahoda (Durham University), Prof. Steven Cobb (Durham University), Prof. Justin Benesch (University of Oxford), Dr Matteo Degiacomi (Durham University), Dr Joanne Robson (Durham University), Ms Ianthe Calder-Doumas (Durham University), Dr Arto Maata (Durham University), Dr Tim Hawkins (Durham University). Middle row: Dr Beth Bromley (Durham University), Dr Jen McManus (University of Bristol), Dr Aakash Basu (Durham University), Prof. Paola Vagnarelli (Brunel University London), Prof. Viki Allan (University of Manchester), Dr Alan Prescott (University of Dundee), Prof. Martin Goldberg (Durham University). Front row: Prof. Birgid Lane (Skin Research Institute of Singapore), Dr Will Trewby (Durham University), Ms Ruth McTiernan (Durham University), Dr Tim Davies (Durham University), Prof. John Girkin (Durham University), Prof. Roy Quinlan (Durham University), Anders Aufderhorst-Roberts (Durham University).

Quotes and Tributes 

Immediately when I came here [Durham], I was met by people, not just by Roy but by people like Tom McLeish who were here at the time as well. I felt immediately welcomed, and felt the Durham was a place where you felt respected and treated as an equal. Even if you weren't a group leader, even if you weren't a PI, even if you weren't going to collaborate on the next grant, it was a place where there was just open discussion and I think a lot of that probably led to my decision to come here to Durham.

Dr Anders Aufderhorst-Roberts (Durham University, Physics)

Durham is this really amazing place, because of the biophysical sciences Institute and because of other organizations, people just get chatting and you meet all sorts of people. The nice thing was that I spent all my Summer as a soft matter scientist going to conferences saying I'm into intermediate filaments and people would say “Oh you mean Actin?” and you get a bit annoyed, but I come here and I’d say I work on intermediate filament, and people would say “Oh yeah, I’ve worked on that” or they’d say “I know someone who works on that”. Or they’d say, “I don’t know that but I’ve worked on the eye” and you realize the Roy's influence here in the last 20 years has just been so apparent.

Dr Anders Aufderhorst-Roberts (Durham University, Physics)

We’ve heard a huge amount about Roy and what an excellent scientist he is, how he asks the right questions and has a real insight into the role of intermediate filaments and chaperone proteins, heat shock proteins. This insight is over several biological areas. He’s been a wonderful colleague, a teacher a motivator to people all around the world. All of those with their faces up there [slide of collaborators], or you may have seen some the people up there speak here, and you realise that this is just a small collection of the people that Roy has collaborated with, so that's a huge number of people that Roy's had an influence on around the world. You could also do the same thing in terms of intermediate filaments, these are a different set of people, and the lens and the eye.

Professor John Girkin (Durham University, Physics)

Organising Committee

• Dr Anders Aufderhorst-Roberts (Durham University, Physics)
• Dr Timothy Davies (Durham University, Biosciences)
• Professor John Girkin (Durham University, Physics)