Professor Neill Liptrott celebrates inaugural lecture

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Professor Sonia Rocha and Professor Neill Liptrott at the inaugural lecture
Professor Sonia Rocha and Professor Neill Liptrott at the inaugural lecture

This week staff and students gathered for Professor Neill Liptrott’s inaugural lecture to celebrate his promotion to Chair in Pharmacology and Immunocompatibility.

Held at the Liverpool Medical Institution, Professor Liptrott’s lecture was entitled ‘Tiny science, big impacts – challenges in the development of complex medicines’. Neill provided an entertaining account of his career to date, which featured not only the science but the odd sci-fi reference.  

This year marks Professor Liptrott 20th year as a member of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, having completed his BSc in Molecular Biology and MSc in Human Immunity at the University of Liverpool.  Professor Liptrott’s interest in immunology was sparked in his final year as an undergraduate, a path he followed with his PhD in Pharmacological and Immunological Factors that influence patient response to antiretroviral therapy.   

Professor Sonia Rocha, Executive Dean of the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology introduced Neill’s lecture and commented: "Neill’s promotion is well-deserved. Aside from his dedication to his research, evidenced in the sheer number of consortia he works with, Neill is truly collegiate. The masters programme he leads is also one of the Institute’s most successful, with Neill always willing to share his research knowledge with the next generation."

Professor Liptrott commented: "I enjoyed giving this lecture - it was a great opportunity to show how my career has developed from working on cell membrane transporters and how they are affected by immune responses to researching the immunological interactions of complex medicines. At first it seems a disconnected trajectory, but I hope I was able to convey how the work is interlinked, and how my PhD work is now influencing several of our new projects.

"A real highlight for me was the number of people who attended to support me, particularly those with whom I have worked over the past 20 years, especially my PhD supervisors, Professor Andrew Owen and Professor David Back. My thanks also to Angela Bruder and the team who organised the event in such wonderful surroundings, and to Professor Sonia Rocha for her very kind introduction."