The NHLI Postgraduate Research Day is an annual event, held in June, compulsory for all NHLI Research Postgraduates and part of the NHLI postgraduate curriculum.

It is an excellent opportunity for students to socialise with peers and present their work as well as experience the format and requirements of a scientific meeting. It also gives a milestone for each year of the student’s degree.

• 1^st year PhD students must attend
• 1^st year MD(Res) students and 2^nd year PhD students must present a poster; and attend
• 2^nd year MD(Res) students and 3^rd year PhD students must give an oral presentation; and attend.

Monetary prizes for the best poster and oral presentation are awarded by a panel of judges composed of academics, postdocs and students.

All supervisors are strongly encouraged to attend and studentship funders (charities, industry) are invited to attend thus creating good networking opportunities and the ambiance of a scientific meeting.

The day is followed by an evening of drinks.

Prize Winners

2011

Angela Atalla - Joint prize for best oral presentation presented by a clinical Scientist for her talk entitled: 'Sleepiness in Heart failure patients with Sleep disordered breathing; the effect of age and SDB type'.

Jake Dunning - Highly commended for his poster presentation entitled ‘Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC): Investigating the Pathogenesis of Severe Influenza’.

Alexandra Godlee - Highly commended for her presentation entitled ‘The Innate Immune Rheostat and Susceptibility to secondary bacterial infection in the lung’.

Ljudmila Kolker - Prize for best Poster Presentation presented by a basic scientist for her poster entitled:  ‘Differentiation and maturation of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes’.

Martina Lundberg - Prize for best oral presentation presented by a basic scientist for her talk entitled ‘Role of cyclo-oxygenase and related pathways in endothelium of the aortic arch’.

Helen Paur - Highly commended for her oral presentation entitled ‘A role for stimulus trafficking at the Beta-2 Adrenoceptor (β2AR) in Stress (Takotsubo) Cardiomyopathy’.

Claire Potter - Highly commended for her talk ‘Relationship between shear stress profile and endothelial cell morphology, physiology and structural responses’.

Jobanpreet Sehmi - Joint prize for best oral Presentation presented by a clinical Scientist for his talk entitled: ‘A genome-wide association study in Indian Asians identifies six genetic variants in association with type-2 diabetes’.

Dinesh Shrikrishnapalasuriyar - Prize for the best poster presentation for his poster entitled: ‘Ultrasound measurement of rectus femoris cross-sectional area identifies quadriceps wasting in early Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease’.

Muhunthan Thillai - Joint prize for best oral presentation presented by a clinical Scientist for his talk entitled: ‘Identification of antigen-specific T-cells and protein biomarkers for diagnosis of sarcoidosis’.

Catherine Thomas - Highly commended for her presentation entitled ‘Defective Phagocytosis in COPD’.

Michael Wortley - Highly commended for his presentation entitled ‘Development of a model to examine the sensory nerve changes involved in COPD-associated chronic cough’.

2010

Nicola Dryden – Joint prize for best poster communication presented by a basic scientist for her poster entitled: 'The transcription factor Erg binds to the ICAM-1 promoter and inhibits its expression in endothelial cells'.

Megan Grace - Highly commended for her poster ‘The role of Transient Receptor Potentials Ankyrin 1 and Vanilloid 1 in tussive responses to Prostaglandin E2, Bradykinin and Low pH’

Mark Hahnel - Prize for best oral communication presented by a basic scientist for his talk entitled:'Mobilisation of endogenous mesenchymal stem cells from the bone marrow: A pharmacological approach'.

Martina Lundberg - Joint prize for best poster communication presented by a basic scientist for her poster entitled: 'COX-1 or COX-2 deletion is associated with increased nuclear NF-κB in the endothelium of the aortic arch'.

Helen Paur - Highly commended for her poster ‘Stress Cardiomyopathy: A role for Stimulus Trafficking at the Beta-2 Adrenoceptor in Cardiac Depression?’

Katrina Pollock - Joint prize for best poster communication presented by a clinician scientist for his poster entitled: 'Exploring polyfunctional T cells in HIV-1 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis co-infection; multicolour flow for a multi-faceted problem'.

Eleanor Raynsford - Highly commended for her talk ‘Identification of a candidate HLA-DR1-restricted T cell epitope of the major grass pollen allergen Phl p 5b’.

Ruth O'Reilly - Prize for best oral communication presented by a clinical scientist for her talk entitled:'Does airway pathology in preschool wheezers predict the development of asthma at school-age?.

Andrea Sperone - Highly commended for his talk ‘The transcription factor ERG represses ICAM-1 expression and vascular inflammation’.

Muhunthan Thillai - Joint prize for best poster communication presented by a clinician scientist for his poster entitled: 'Identification of antigen specific T-cells and protein signatures as diagnostic biomarkers for Sarcoidosis'.

2009

Arun John Baksi - Highly commended for his talk entitled: 'Does behaviour of the reflected wave in humans support the prevailing explanation of the arterial pressure waveform?'.

John-Paul Carpenter - Prize for the best poster presentation for his poster entitled: 'Non-invasive measurement of absolute tissue iron concentration using magnetic resonance. A validation and calibration study'.

Andrew Ives - Highly commended for his talk entitled: 'Inflammatory Phenotype of Epithelial Cells from Children with Chronic Respiratory Disease'.

Rajesh Singh - Highly commended for his poster entitled: 'Rab27a is a negative regulator of mast cell secretion'.

Hui-leng Tan - Prize for the best oral presentation for her talk entitled: 'Exploring the phenotype of the lymphocytic infiltrate in the Cystic Fibrosis airway: Does the Th17 pathway play a role in disease pathogenesis?'.

2008

Anand Deveraj - Highly commended for his talk entitled: 'Pulmonary artery diameter and pulmonary artery/ascending aorta diameter ratio: reliability in predicting pulmonary hypertension in patients with lung fibrosis'.

Piyush Jain - Prize for the best poster presentation for his poster entitled: 'Coronary artery calcification as a predictor of increased coronary heart disease risk in UK Indian Asians'.

Sarah Maher - Highly commended for her talk entitled: 'The EP3 receptor is responsible for PGE2-induced sensory nerve activity: implications for asthma therapy'.

Abigail Taylor - Prize for the best oral presentation for her talk entitled: 'Macrophage phagocytosis in COPD'.

2007

James Harker - Co-winner of the best oral presentation prize for his talk entitled: 'The Role of Natural Killer Cells in Neonatally Enhanced Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunopathology'.

Christoph Scheiermann - Co-winner of the best oral presentation prize for his talk entitled: 'The role of JAM-C in leukocyte migration after ischemia/reperfusion injury'.

Marouan Zarrouk - Prize for the best poster presentation for his poster entitled: 'Investigating Structural and Signalling Aspects of L-selectin/ERM Interaction'.