HealtheX 2019

Oral presentation - Doctoral category winners

Pania Bridge-Comer – AMRF Outstanding Emerging Researcher Award
Title: Effects of artificial sweeteners in the maternal diet on offspring health
Liggins Institute
Supervisor: Dr Clare Marie Reynolds

Alana Whitcombe – AMRF Doctoral Oral Presentation Runner Up Award
Title: The Group A Streptococcus antigen SpnA, combined with bead-based immunoassay technology, improves streptococcal serology
Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
Supervisor: Dr Nikki Moreland

Yukti Vyas – Second Runner Up Doctoral Oral Presentation Award
Title: Could zinc supplementation from the beginning of brain development prevent Autism-associated behavioural-deficits in Shank3-knockout mice?
Department of Physiology
Supervisor: Associate Professor Johanna Montgomery

Oral presentation - Non-doctoral category winners

Katherine Robbins – Best Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Award
Title: Development of mutation assays for diagnosis and recurrence monitoring in Granulosa Cell Tumour patients
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Supervisor: Dr Cherie Blenkiron 

Sameer Bhat– First Runner Up Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Award
Title: A Novel Passive Stoma Output Recycling Device for Managing Ileostomies: Design and Feasibility Study
Department of Surgery
Supervisor: Associate Professor Greg O'Grady 

Sophie Lee – Second Runner Up Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Award
Title: Using 3D reconstruction to analyse maxillary sinus growth in children
School of Medicine
Supervisor: Dr Ali Mirjalili

Poster presentation category winners

Molly Abraham – AMRF Best Poster Presentation Award
Title: The Role of Hyaluronan in Developing Hippocampal Neurons
Department of Physiology
Supervisor: Associate Professor Justin Mark Dean 

Seung A Han – First Runner Up Poster Presentation Award
Title: 3-dimensional structural analysis of the sheep round window membrane
Department of Physiology
Supervisor: Professor Peter Rowland Thorne

Bhavya Chawdhary – Second Runner Up Poster Presentation Award
Title: Miniaturized wireless optoelectronic subdermal implants: a novel device for the optogenetic stimulation of hippocampal neurons
Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging/Centre for Brain Research
Supervisor: Dr Andrea Kwakowsky

Elevator pitch category winners

Lewis Clarke – Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust Best Elevator Pitch Presentation Award
Title: Characterising the Antibody Response to a Novel Staphylococcus aureus Vaccine
Department of Molecular Medicine & Pathology
Supervisor: Dr Ries James Langley

Bashar Matti – FMHS Postdoc Society First Runner Up Elevator Pitch Presentation Award
Title: Ethnic disparities in Prostate cancer screening in the New Zealand community
Department of Surgery
Supervisor: Dr Kamran Zargar Shoshtari

Tiger Aspell – FMHS PGSA Second Runner Up Elevator Pitch Presentation Award
Title: Characterisation of four novel putative virulence factors in Group A Streptococcus
Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
Supervisor: Associate Professor Thomas Kurt Proft