In the new Pitopito Kōrero series our BHRC Director, Associate Professor Steph Hughes will share short updates from the BHRC across the year.
Kia ora koutou,
Hard to believe we are already at mid-semester. The BHRC has been working hard on several new initiatives, including piloting a new programme, “Riding the Brain Wave”, in primary schools around Dunedin (more details soon). Thanks to Ellie Adams for leading this new outreach initiative.
We had a very successful, if different, Brain Week which ran online with the Neurological Foundation and Otago Museum and included several public talks, short videos from ECRs, and a virtual escape room.
A few announcements before we head into Easter/mid-semester:
New Deputy Director for BHRC
We are pleased to announce that Dr Ailsa McGregor (School of Pharmacy) has taken on this role. Ailsa has served on the management committee for several years and will lead the conference organisation this year and chair the awards sub-committee.
We are sad to lose Rosie Brown and Narun Pat from the committee and thank them for all their hard work over the last year. We are looking for new committee members – please get in touch if you are keen to contribute.
BHRC Annual conference (6–7 July)
Please add this to your diaries (public lecture 6 July, with main conference on 7 July).
We are now calling for expressions of interest in oral presentations for this meeting.
BHRC Conference 2022 – Expression of Interest form
BHRC Special Seminar next Wednesday, 12 noon
Tim Sargeant (South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute) – Autophagy recycles damaged cellular material to promote healthy ageing: from cell models to measurement in humans
Venue: Biochemistry seminar room BIG13 and online via Zoom
Zoom link for Tim Sargeant's BHRC seminar
Zoom password: BHRCOtago
BHRC colouring competition winners (Brain Week)
Congratulations to:
- Charlotte Williamson
- Leo Bisset
- Méabh Russell
Entries are shown on our Facebook and Twitter sites.
Accelerator grant awards for ECRs
In collaboration with CNE, the awardees this year are:
- Shane Ohline (Physiology), “Calcium activity in adult-born neurons: differences between normal ageing and Alzheimer's disease”
- Joon Kim, “Streamlining stereotaxic accuracy for dual-recombinase circuit research”
- Lucia Schweitzer, “Ageing human neurons in cell culture”
That's all for now. Enjoy your break and remember, chocolate is good for the brain!
Ngā mihi,
Steph