News and events
News
Gem's work published in the International Journal of Wellbeing
In September 2024, Dr Gemma Aellah, (Research Fellow in Anthropology, CEGHR) was invited by the Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics (FACE) at the Task Force for Global Health in Atlanta to speak on love in global health policymaking, drawing on her 5S Foundation ethnographic research with neglected tropical disease advocates. The workshop explored how epidemiology typically used to control disease might also help understand and promote compassion in an increasingly polarized world. These discussions led to the March 2026 Special Issue of the International Journal of Wellbeing, Towards an Epidemiology of Compassion, featuring 20 articles from scholars in 12 countries. The collection advances methods and theory for studying compassion. Gem’s co-authored paper with Gail Davey examines how compassion behaves epidemiologically, using anthropological approaches and advocating for integrating qualitative, story-based methods into epidemiology. Gem reflected on the value of creating space to explore the more hopeful and humane dimensions of global health.
A painting from Gem’s paper by artist Johnson Ondiek. Caption: When Zara cried, everyone one cried, and the boring meeting became important.
Guy led breathwork panel at Soul x Science - Health & Wellbeing Day
Guy Fincham led the panel “From Altered Traits to Altered States: The Healing Power of Breathwork,” at Soul x Science - Health & Wellbeing Day in February 2026. The panel highlighted that breathwork is not a one-off experience but a life skill best integrated into daily practice. He emphasised the importance of combining scientific evidence with lived experience to maximise impact, and stressed that high-ventilation breathwork directly affects the nervous system and must be delivered by highly trained practitioners, with safety as the foundation.
Fisal presents poster at the British Society for Immunology Congress
Fisal Tantoush presented a poster at the British Society for Immunology (BSI) 2025 Congress in Liverpool, showcasing his latest data on immune responses in podoconiosis. The poster generated valuable discussions and constructive feedback from researchers across the field. He particularly benefited from infection-focused sessions, including the plenary “Challenging humans: infections, vaccines and allergens” and “Barrier, bugs and breakdowns”, which explored host–pathogen interactions and barrier immunity—areas closely related to his research on environmental triggers in podoconiosis. The congress provided an excellent opportunity to engage with leading immunologists and gain new insights into infectious disease immunology. Fisal is grateful to NIHR (grant #NIHR131996), BSMS, and the BSI for supporting his attendance”.
Aimilia presents at European Hematology Association conference
Aimilia Vareli attended and presented a poster at European Hematology Association (EHA) conference 2025 and received the EHA Research Mobility Grant, to support an upcoming research visit to Harvard Medical School. Aimilia is ECR.
Caroline presents at the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK conference
In April 2025, Caroline Ackley co-convened a panel, Ethical frameworks, health-seeking and care pathways in superdiverse environments, at the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK conference in Birmingham, where she also presented a co-authored paper, Structured moral navigation and care-pathways in superdiverse environments. Following the conference, our panel team has been developing a special issue for Anthropology & Medicine, which Caroline is co-editing and to which she is contributing as co-author on two papers; the issue is due for publication in April 2026.
Nadezhda attended the Neurofly conference
Nadezhda Velichkova, an Early Career Researcher at BSMS, recently attended the Neurofly conference. She said: “The conference offered a chance to explore diverse research on the neurobiology of Drosophila, covering topics from development and brain metabolism to neural circuits, behaviour, and neuroplasticity. I learnt about RNA localisation in memory formation, nutrient effects on gene regulation and neural mechanisms underlying sensorimotor decisions. The poster sessions allowed me to discuss methodologies with other researchers and present our lab’s work, receiving valuable feedback and fostering potential collaborations.” This was funded by the ECR conference fund at BSMS.
Saeideh awarded Medical Research Foundation grant
Dr Saeideh Babashahi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Health Economics, has been awarded an Impact of Climate Change on Health Research grant by the Medical Research Foundation. She will be co-leading the £300K study to evaluate the social and economic impact of extreme weather events in people living with HIV in South Africa in collaboration with the Africa Health Research Institute and the University of the Witwatersrand. The study extends their previous work on the impact of droughts on HIV treatment to estimate the economic impact of floods on people with HIV (PLHIV) and evaluate high-priority policy interventions using participatory methods and multi-criteria decision analysis. Extreme weather events like floods can result in acute interruption of HIV treatment and care and competing livelihood priorities, resulting in chronic disengagement from care and associated increase in morbidity, economic losses, and mortality. The study aims to i) understand the impact of the recent floods on healthcare utilisation, lives and livelihoods amongst PLHIV; ii) quantify economic productivity losses and healthcare costs associated with the floods; iii) identify and create a priority list of sustainable and adaptive actions to reduce the health, economic and social impacts of floods on PLHIV.