Research Day - time for students to shine

Postgraduate students came into the spotlight at the Liggins Institute’s annual event last week.

Research Day is an opportunity for all Liggins graduate and postgraduate students to present a snapshot of their year’s research to the Institute. They must also field searching questions from peers, Institute staff and a panel of judges.

In his introduction, Academic Director Associate Professor Mark Vickers described the day as a highlight in the Institute’s academic calendar. He outlined some of the many student successes and achievements of the year. These included awards for presentations at national and international scientific meetings, a Vice-Chancellor’s Best Doctoral Thesis Award (the third time a Liggins student has won this sought-after prize) and a first author publication in the high-profile medical journal The Lancet.

While a number of PhD students had completed theses and graduated (bringing the average time to complete the degree to 3.8 years), student numbers had grown - thanks to two prestigious Agnes Paykel scholarships and 11 new scholarships provided by Centre of Research Excellence, Gravida: National Centre for Growth and Development - and now include around 60% international students.

The 36 Research Day presentations covered the full gamut of the Liggins Institute’s multi-disciplinary research, from complex modelling of intracellular interactions, through experimental investigations of the physiology of growth and development to clinical follow-up studies of neonatal care and the effects of nutrition on ageing.

The John Funder Prize for the Best PhD Student Publication (September 2012 – September 2013) was awarded for this first time this year. The winning paper was selected from the 18 eligible publications by Professor Funder, a distinguished Australian medical researcher who has had a close association with the Liggins Institute since its inception. An Officer of the Order of Australia, Professor Funder is Executive Chairman of the Board of Obesity Australia while holding a number of other academic appointments. He was Chair of the Liggins Institute Scientific Advisory Board for many years and has been actively involved in nurturing research and scientific writing by the Institute’s students.

The inaugural winner of the Funder Prize was Dr Ahila Ayyavoo whose paper “Pre-Pubertal Children Born Post-Term Have Reduced Insulin Sensitivity and Other Markers of the Metabolic Syndrome” was published in the journal PLOS ONE. This research was also profiled in the NZ national magazine North and South (July 2013).

Announcing the awards for the 2013 Research Day presentations, Associate Professor Vickers congratulated all presenters for making the day a great success. “All of the presentations were of a very high standard and reflected the quality, breadth and importance of research undertaken at the Liggins Institute,” he said.

Prize winners

Graduate students

• 1st, Simerdeep Dhillon
  “Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 and 7 gene expression in the preterm ovine brain; effects of hypoxia-ischemia (HI) following LPS stimulation”
  Supervisor: Dr Mhoyra Fraser
   
• 2nd, Jasmine Plows
  “The Effects of Resveratrol on Mouse Models of Pre-eclampsia and Fetal Growth Restriction”
  Supervisor: Professor Phil Baker

PhD students

• 1st, Amber Milan
  “Acute chylomicronaemic and endotoxaemic responses to a high fat breakfast meal: Impact of age”
  Supervisor: Professor David Cameron-Smith
• 2nd, Minglan Li
  “Pre-weaning Growth Hormone Treatment Partially Reverses Adverse Developmental Programming Effects In Offspring Following Maternal Undernutrition”
  Supervisor: A/Professor Mark Vickers

John Funder Prize for best PhD student research publication
 

• Dr Ahila Ayyavoo
  Ayyavoo A, Derraik JG, Hofman PL, Mathai S, Biggs J, Stone P, Sadler L, Cutfield WS.
  Pre-pubertal children born post-term have reduced insulin sensitivity and other markers of the metabolic syndrome. PLoS One. 2013 Jul 1;8(7):e67966

Highly commended

• Dr Deborah Harris (Lancet 2013; S0140-6736(13), 61645-1)
• Dr Ben Albert (J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 97 (9), 3155-3160)
   

Liggins Institute Student Leadership Award

• Amber Milan

Liggins Institute Research Support Award

• Jean Leonard