The first joint Microbiology & Immunology and Biochemistry Research Celebration, held last Friday at the Dunedin Town Hall, was a great success.
The Celebration is an opportunity to highlight research successes over the past year, and to raise awareness of the different types of research projects and skills in each department in order to encourage new collaborations.
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology has been annually celebrating their research for a while; but this is the first time that the Department of Biochemistry has participated.
A remarkably diverse range of research interests were shared.
Attendees were treated to a cornucopia of research, from lipoprotein metabolism and breast cancer, through to developing new treatments for infectious diseases in agriculture and Kauri dieback disease, and the molecular mechanisms of epigenetics and bacterial immune systems.
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Eight of the speakers at the Research Celebration. From left top, clockwise: Peter Fineran (Microbiology & Immunology), Sally McCormick (Biochemistry), Scott Ferguson (Microbiology & Immunology), Augustine Chen (Biochemistry), James Ussher (Microbiology & Immunology), Anita Dunbier (Biochemistry), Michelle McConnell (Microbiology & Immunology), and Richard Macknight (Biochemistry). |
Principal investigators, research fellows, and postdoctoral fellows all talked about their research, mainly as short five minute presentations. Graduate students gave snappier three minute presentations, and of course a research poster competition was also held.
The day was organised by a group of research-only staff from both Departments.
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Some of the organisers of Friday's Research Celebration. From left: Jodi Brewster, Adam Middleton, Andrew Cridge, and Augustine Chen. |
Congratulations to the winners of the oral presentations and each of the seven categories in the poster competition:
pH Scientific 3 minute Oral Presentations (people's choice)
Padmini Parthasarathy - Department of Biochemistry
Gabriel Rawliffe - Department of Biochemistry (runner up)
Attika Rehman - Department of Biochemistry (third place)
Lab Supply Bioengineering and Translational Research
Shaun Ferguson - Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Nichaela Harbison-Price - Department of Microbiology and Immunology (runner up)
Genesearch Bioinformatics and Microbiome
Chun Shen - Department of Biochemistry
Leah Smith - Department of Microbiology and Immunology (runner up)
Medi'Ray Immunology and Cancer Biology
Tom Brew - Department of Biochemistry
Thomas Williams - Department of Microbiology and Immunology (runner up)
Total Lab Systems Infectious Diseases and Prokaryote Biology
Jess Thompson - Department of Biochemistry
Zoe Williams - Department of Microbiology and Immunology (runner up)
ThermoFisher Molecular Biology
Aroa Rey Campa - Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Josiah Doorman - Department of Biochemistry (runner up)
pH Scientific Protein Structure and Function
Nadishka Jayawardena - Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Jack Curry - Department of Biochemistry (runner up)
Bio-Strategy Virus-Host Interactions
Mazhar Hussain - Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Lucia Malone - Department of Microbiology and Immunology (runner up)