The fourth annual MAHSE STP Research Day was held on Friday 16th June 2017 with over 120 delegates attending. The programme included eight student presentations; seven students spoke about their research project and one student shared her experiences of completing an additional research placement. Nine students presented posters on their research projects from a range of disciplines including Blood Science, Clinical Bioinformatics and Clinical Pharmaceutical Science.
MAHSE was also delighted to welcome Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green, Principal Clinical Scientist for Infection Prevention and Control at Great Ormond Street Hospital as the keynote speaker. Elaine spoke about the importance of networking opportunities and how she overcame the challenges of coming from a zoological background, which is uncommon for a Clinical Scientist.
First prize for the student presentations went to Lucy Morton who was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established shortly after Sir Winston’s death, as his national memorial and living legacy. Since then it has awarded over 5,400 Travelling Fellowships, with Fellows making outstanding contributions in areas as diverse as dementia support, mental health, the crafts, conservation, housing, and education. The Fellowship enabled Lucy to spend four weeks in the USA to compare FDA aseptic processing practices to the UK. For further information, please visit: www.wcmt.org.uk
Feedback shows that both the keynote and student talks were motivational and delegates were inspired by the range of research being undertaken by STP third year trainees. First and second year trainees found the talks to be helpful in finding out about future opportunities for funding and research projects.
The judging panel were highly impressed at the confidence in which all the students presented their research making the prize allocation a tough task.
Talks
1st Prize
Lucy Morton (Clinical Pharmaceutical Science): Microbiological Contamination Control in Aseptic Processing: A U.S Perspective (Student Journey)
2nd Prize
Alice Roberts (Audiology): Design and optimisation of a self-reported outcome measure tool in Audiology for people with Learning Disabilities
3rd Prize
Sai Duraisingham (Clinical Immunology): Plasma microRNA profiling of patients with Coronary Artery Disease
Posters
1st Prize
Lucy Mallin (Genomics): Design of a Proactive Model for Case Management within an NHS Genetics Laboratory
2nd Prize
Edmund Gondo (Haematology & Transfusion Sciences): Dithiolthreitol (DTT) plasma pre-treatment can be excluded in Gel Card IAT ABOi titrations without affecting accurate determination of ABO IgG titres.