MSc and Honours Student Awards 2023
The Otago Medical School Research Society’s 268th Scientific Meeting was held on 8th November. This year we had 17 abstracts from MSc and Honours students across the Division of Health Sciences and Sciences. The Editorial panel has shortlisted 10 students who presented their research. Dr Glen Reid from the Department of Pathology, Associate Professor Jaydee Cabral from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Dr Mathias Fellner from the Department of Biochemistry were judges for presentations. The meeting was convened by OMSRS President Associate Professor Shyamal Das.
Masters and Honours student speakers.
Professor Paul Cooper, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry handed over the prizes to the winner and runner-up. The winner received $500 and the runner up received $250 along with certificates. The scientific meeting and prizes are kindly sponsored by Mediray.
Congratulations to the winner, Zei Kagaoan, for their presentation titled ‘Prolonged cleaning in ethanol decreases bond strength of 3D-printed crowns’.
Winner Zei Kagaoan pictured with Associate Professor Shyamal Das and Professor Paul Cooper.
and to the runner-up Maddie Hardie Boys for her presentation titled ‘Cross-resistance to cephalosporin antibiotics occurs in Pseudomonas aeruginosa lacking the aminoarabinosylation system.’
Runner up Maddie Hardie Boys, pictured with Associate Professor Shyamal Das and Professor Paul Cooper.
Congratulations to our winners, and to all the student speakers!
PhD Student Awards 2023
The Otago Medical School Research Society’s 267th Scientific Meeting was held on 16th August. This year we had 20 submissions from PhD students across the Division of Health Sciences and Sciences. The Editorial panel shortlisted 10 PhD students’ abstracts who presented their research. Professor Colin Brown from the Department of Physiology, Professor Merilyn Hibma from the Department of Pathology and Dr Jithendra Ratnayake from the Faculty of Dentistry were judges for presentations. The meeting was convened by OMSRS President Associate Professor Shyamal Das.
PhD student speakers.
The winner and runner-up were declared by Professor Patricia Priest, Acting PVC, Division of Health Sciences. The winner received $500 and the runner up received $250 along with certificates, generously funded by the OMRF.
Congratulations to the winner, Rebecca Lord for presentation on Neuronal deletion of STAT3, but not ERK2, causes obesity and delayed puberty onset in mice.
PhD student speaker winner Rebecca Lord, pictured here with Professor Patricia Priest.
and to the runner-up Hayley Stent, for her presentation on Biocompatible cross-linking of marine collagen nanofibers for tissue engineering.
PhD student speaker runner-up Hayley Stent pictured with Professor Patricia Priest.
Congratulations to our winners, and to all the student speakers!
Research Staff Awards 2023
The Otago Medical School Research Society’s 266th Scientific Meeting was held on 21st June 2023 and included the 2023 Research Staff Award with a prize of $1000 for the winner.
Five research staff members (below) presented their work in front of ~50 people:
Benjamin Halliday from Women’s and Children’s Health
Title: Addressing Potential Inequities in the Design and Analysis of Clinical Chromosomal Microarrays in Aotearoa
Catherine Ronayne from Pathology
Title: Looking through the lipid glass: Is everything as it seems?
Zoe Ashley from Surgical Sciences
Title: Can the surveillance schedule post endovascular repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms be safely reduced?: A single centre retrospective study.
Zeina Al Naasan from Sir John Walsh Research Institute
Title: Cultural safety in dental practice for former refugee patients
Kari Clifford from Surgical Sciences
Title: Improving Surgical Outcomes with Prehabilitation: Results from a comprehensive research program.
Congratulations to the winner, Kari Clifford !
And Congratulations to Zeina Al Naasan whose presentation was a special mention.
The prize was awarded by Professor Neil Gemmell, Acting Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences.
Professor Neil Gemmell (left) pictured with Research Staff speakers. Winner, Dr Kari Clifford, is centre.
Summer Student Awards 2023
The 265th Scientific Meeting Summer Student Awards was held on the 26th April. This year 10 students presented who were shortlisted from 21 submissions.
Summer Student speakers.
The winner was Georgia Keelty (Abstract: GB Keelty, WM de Jonge, HMM Waddell, ML Munro. Characterizing transverse tubules in the right atrium of arrhythmic patients.) from the Department of Physiology, and the runner up was Violina Gunawan (Abstract: V Gunawan, JJE Choi.The stability of single-shade composite resins in the oral cavity.) from the Faculty of Dentistry. While both winner and runner-up will receive certificates, the winner also receives $500 and the runner up receives $250 prize money. These awards are kindly sponsored by the Otago Medical Research Foundation and named after Professor Patricia Cragg.
Prize winner Georgia Keelty pictured with Professor Pat Cragg and Associate Professor Shyamal Das.
Dr Joanne Choi (centre), supervisor of Violina, pictured with Professor Pat Cragg and Associate Professor Shyamal Das.
Runner-up prize winner Violina Gunawan.
Professor Pat Cragg was present to hand over the ‘Pat Cragg Summer Students Awards’.
Congratulations Georgia Keelty and Violina Gunawan!
2022 Honours/Masters student meeting
The 264th Scientific Meeting was held on the 9th November and 8 students presented their research (pictured below).
From left to right:
Yi Zhen Tan, Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology; Barnaby Kelly, Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology; Alisha Dabb, Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology; Chloe Schwass, Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology; Haylea Rodgers, Department of Anatomy and Brain Health Research Centre; Brad Devery, Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Harriet Spoelstra, Department of Anatomy; Inset: Mia Pugh, Department of Women and Children’s Health
Congratulations to the winner, Barnaby Kelly for Second generation curcumin analogue RL71, induces apoptosis via the regulation of growth signals in canine osteosarcoma cells.
…and, Runner-up Chloe Schwass for Raji and Daudi B cell-lines are not appropriate models of blood-derived B cell responses to interleukin-10.
Science Writing Competition – Results!
Science Writing Competition 2022
The science writing competition was expanded this year by offering a writing workshop by Prof Lloyd Spencer Davies (Department of Science Communication) in June. Any student undertaking health-related research at the University of Otago were invited to attend. Following the workshop, we received close to 20 submissions.
The winners were announced in the Hunter Centre on the 5th October (while it started snowing outside!).
From left to right: A/Prof Shyamal Das (Vice-President; science writing coordinator); Dr Emily Gray (science writing coordinator); Simon John-McHaffie (runner-up); Meriam van Os (winner); Liam Hewson; Josiah Edwin; Caryn Thomas; William Davis; Mischa Ruegg; Dr Lara Vlietstra (science writing coordinator); Hayley Gibson; Prof Lloyd Spencer Davies
Winner: Meriam van Os, Department of Anatomy, for: What can ancient poo tell us about health and disease in the past?
Runner-up 1: Caitlin Berry-Kilgour (Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology), for: The Ocean’s Medicinal Gift
Runner up 2: Simon John-McHaffie (Department of Pathology), for: Taking a look at prostate cancer
We thank the following:
Prof Lloyd Spencer Davis for offering the workshop and for judging the short-listed submissions
Blair Hesp for Kainic Medical for sponsoring the runner-up prize and judging the finalists
A/Prof Shyamal Das (School of Pharmacy) for coordinating the contest.
Dr Emily Gray (School of Physiotherapy) and Dr Lara Vlietstra (School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercises Sciences) for judging the first phase and co-coordinating the contest.
Otago Daily Times for publishing the winning piece.
Links
Spencer Davis: https://www.otago.ac.nz/science-communication/staff/spencerdavis/index.html
Kainic Medical: https://www.kainicmedical.com/
Winning title: https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/what-can-ancient-poo-tell-us-about-past
2022 PhD Student Award – Winner!
The Otago Medical School Research Society’s 263rd Scientific Meeting was held on 17th August. The occasion was marked by 10 excellent presentations from PhD candidates across the Health Science disciplines (pictured below)
From left to right: Chitra Krishnan, John Walsh Research Institute, Faculty of Dentistry
Kushan Gandhi, Department of Anatomy, Brain Health Research Centre, Anastasia Labudina, Department of Pathology, Sung Kyong Lee, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Rackesh Bastola, School of Pharmacy, Panagiotis Papaioannou, Centre for Neuroendocrinology Department of Anatomy, Ian Liddle, Department of Chemistry, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Sarah McQueen, Department of Physiology, Caitlin Berry-Kilgour, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Mifra Faiz, Department of Biochemistry (not pictured)
Congratulations to the winner, Sarah McQueen for Alpha-ENaC overexpression in MDAMB231 breast cancer cells reduces cell migration and proliferation,
and to the runner-up Kushan Gandhi for A Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Drug Delivery System for Parkinson’s Disease
Sarah (left) and Kushan (right) pictured here with the President of OSMRS, Assoc. Professor Gisela Sole
First and runner-up prizes were kindly sponsored by The Otago Postgraduate Medical Society and the Otago Medical Research Foundation respectively.
2022 Research Staff Award
The Otago Medical School Research Society’s 262nd Scientific Meeting was held on 22nd June 2022 and included the 2022 Research Staff Award.
There were five varied and very interesting presentations from:
(left to right)
Paulomi Mehta, Department of Pathology
Reduction of lithium induced interstitial fibrosis on co-administration with amiloride.
Caroline Decourt, Department of Anatomy
Deletion of androgen receptors from kisspeptin neurons can prevent PCOS features in a letrozole mouse model.
Teodora Georgescu, Departments of Anatomy and Physiology
Prolactin-mediated restraint of maternal aggression in lactation.
Paulo Pelicioni, School of Physiotherapy
The “double-edged sword” impact of dyskinesia on the balance of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Linda Hobbs, Department of Psychological Medicine
Seeking of help and support after experiencing sexual violence: Considerations for cisgender women, cisgender men and gender diverse people.
Congratulations to the winner, Caroline Decourt!
Caroline Decourt pictured here with OSMRS President Assoc. Professor Gisela Sole.
We thank the Otago Post-graduate Medicine Society for sponsoring the prize.
Summer Student Awards 2022
The Otago Medical School Research Society is proud to announce the winners of the 261st Scientific Meeting : Pat Cragg Summer Student Awards
There were eight excellent entries to choose from. The participants were:
Pictured (from left to right)
Saane Fakapulia (Department of Anatomy)
Prof Pat Cragg
Muneerah Makarani (School of Physiotherapy)
Jamie Hounsell (School of Pharmacy)
Matt Gillet (Department of Anatomy)
James Davies (School of Physiotherapy)
Madeleine Connor (School of Physical Education, Sports and Exercise Sciences)
Harriet Spoelstra (Department of Anatomy)
Jessica Seow (Faculty of Dentistry, Auckland) – presenting via Zoom
The winner of the Pat Cragg Summer student award of $500 for best presentation was Harriet Spoelstra for:
“The relationship between secreted amyloid precursor protein alpha (sAPPα) and the cell surface expression of NMDA glutamate receptors.”
The runner up, with a prize of $250, was Jamie Hounsell for:
“Exploring the awareness of people affected by Huntington’s disease towards regenerative therapies.”
Pictured (from left to right)
Harriet and Jamie receiving their award from Professor Patt Cragg!
This award is sponsored by The Otago Medical Research Foundation
OMSRS Honours/Masters Student Award 2021
The Honours/Masters student meeting was held on 3rd November 2021. The OMSRS AGM was also held during this meeting.
This year we had joint winners! Congratulations to Brooke Craik (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine) – Title: An exploration of mental health promotion in Aotearoa New Zealand: A qualitative study, and Katerina Thompson (Department of Anatomy) Title: Agmatine attenuates actin dynamic alteration and synaptic dysfunction in aged rats
Brooke (left) and Katerina (right) pictured receiving their award from the President of the OMSRS, A/Prof Gisela Sole
A line-up of all the entrants!
From Left to Right
Lisa Hammersley (School of Pharmacy)
Brooke Craik (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine)
Alistar Machado (Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology)
Dansoa Tabi-Amponsah (Deparment of Pharmacology and Toxicology)
Milly Morice (Department of Biochemistry)
Shivankar Nair (Department of Surgical Sciences)
Hanna Corre (Department of Anatomy)
Katerina Thompson (Department of Anatomy)
