VPD-HLRI Monthly Seminar Series -CANCELLED

BECAUSE OF THE HIGH TEMPERATURE EXPECTED ON WEDNESDAY 24TH JUNE 2025, WE HAVE DECIDED TO CANCEL THIS TALK. 

We apologise  for any inconvenience caused. 

Dr. Fergus (Gus) Hamilton, University of Bristol 

Does the Shingles Vaccine Prevent Dementia ? 

Following an influential study in Wales, we examined whether eligibility for the live herpes zoster vaccine reduces dementia risk in England using a regression discontinuity design based on the 2013 UK rollout, with a sample size around 18 times larger. An analysis of over 6.3 million individuals using Hospital Episode Statistics data confirmed that vaccine eligibility significantly reduced hospital-coded herpes zoster, validating the study design. Here I will present the results for dementia, and also discuss the evidence base so far and how we can improve it.

Fergus Hamilton is an MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Microbiologist at the University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol, based at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit. His work focuses on using causal inference techniques to better understand causality in infection and to improve outcomes for patients with severe infection. This spans randomised controlled trials, including DEXACELL (adjunctive dexamethasone in cellulitis) and ASPECT (aspirin in pneumonia), alongside a range of observational and natural experiment designs, including instrumental variable (Mendelian randomisation) analyses and more novel approaches such as regression discontinuity. His funded fellowship (2026-2031) is on the potential role of lipoproteins in causing severe infection and in mediating some of the poor outcomes once infection takes hold, using data from Kenya and the UK.

Dr Guillaume Bidault, University of Cambridge

Hepatic Lipid Flux Drives Cardiac Steatosis and Diastolic Dysfunction in MASLD 

Dr Guillaume Bidault is a Research Associate at the Institute of Metabolic Science within the laboratory of Professor Antonio Vidal-Puig.  His research focuses on adipose tissue biology, immunometabolism, and systemic metabolic flexibility, with a particular interest in how lipid handling is coordinated across organs to maintain metabolic homeostasis. He studies the mechanisms linking adipose tissue function to whole-body metabolic health and cardiometabolic disease.  Some of his current work investigates the liver–heart axis in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), examining how dysregulated hepatic lipid flux drives cardiac steatosis and diastolic dysfunction.