Published: 18 December 2024
St George’s School of Health and Medical Sciences celebrated its annual Research Day on Wednesday 11th December. The day showcased the hard work, latest findings and achievements from the vibrant research community.
New arrivals
The event started by welcoming researchers who have recently joined the University.
Dr Roddy Walsh joined the Cardiovascular and Genomics Research Institute just a couple of months ago. He shared his work aiming to find new genetic clues that underlie sudden cardiac death in diverse populations, which a focus on SE Asia. Dr Sierra Clark, a recent arrival to the Population Health Research Institute shared one stream of her research and policy activity that investigates the health burden of disease from damp and mouldy homes. Next, Dr Nuria Sanchez Clemente from the Institute for Infection and Immunity spoke about her work that seeks to use large routine health datasets and co-design to improve the health of migrant children in the UK. The final researcher to present was Dr Argyro Zoumprouli from the Neurosciences and Cell Biology Research Institute. She delved into her vision to expand clinical research within the neurointensive care unit that focuses on spinal cord injury.
Prize-worthy successes
Over 130 researchers – ranging from eager undergraduate students to esteemed professors – gathered to share their work with the rest of the university in the poster session. The rooms buzzed with enthusiasm, excited conversations and passionate exchanges of ideas, creating a dynamic environment filled with curiosity and collaboration.
To kick the afternoon session off, everyone put their hands together to celebrate this year’s prize winners for the poster presentations and Outstanding Research Awards.
Outstanding Research Publication in 2023/24 – Professor Amina Jindani and Professor Shamez Ladhani
Due to tight competition, the prize for the Outstanding Research Publication was awarded to two academics for the second year running. Professor Amina Jindani was awarded the prize for her Rifashort trial results published in NEJM Evidence, which established that a higher dose and shorter treatment time of a cornerstone tuberculosis drug is safe for patients. Professor Shamez Ladhani was also awarded the prize for his work published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, which investigated optimising infant immunisation schedules for invasive pneumococcal disease.
Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Scientist – Dr Farah Seedat
Dr Farah Seedat from the Migrant Health Group claimed the prize for Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Scientist. Her work is exploring approaches to embedding community engagement and involvement at the core of global health research to address key areas of migrant health.
Outstanding Research Achievement by a University Lecturer – Dr Louise Hill
Dr Louise Hill from the Institute for Infection and Immunity was awarded the Lecturer prize for her work on international clinical trials, including NeoSep1, which aims to evaluate new antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. She was also recently invited to speak at the WHO ‘Paediatric drug optimization for antibiotics’ meeting about the challenges and opportunities in conducting neonatal antibiotic trials.
Outstanding Research Achievement by a University Senior Lecturer – Dr Rae Wake
Dr Rae Wake took the Senior Lecturer prize for her work in leading ambitious projects to tackle two global threats to health: antifungal resistant Candida and advanced HIV disease. Her work into Candida is now taking her to South Africa, where she hopes to generate an abundance of evidence to tackle the infectious disease.
Excellence in Public/Civic Engagement Research – Rachel Bowsher
Final year PhD student Rachel Bowsher won the award for excellence in public engagement. Alongside her research investigating the impact of e-cigarettes and cigarette smoke on an individual's susceptibility to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Rachel has supported student placements in the lab, has been interviewed on a research podcast, engaged the local community and schools with her work and plenty more.
Research Image of the Year and poster prizes
After judging a wide range of posters, it was Benjamin De Leon who won the prize for best undergraduate poster and Brianna Watson who claimed the prize for best postgraduate poster. Rezbieara Rahman was this year’s winner of the Chrissie Fenske Research Poster Prize for best overall poster.
The final award was to acknowledge Research Image of the Year 2024. After an all-staff and student vote, the prize went to the Migrant Health Group for their image representing the work of the Migrant Health Community Research Network.
Thomas Young Lecture
To wrap-up Research Day 2024 and end with a bang, hundreds of people piled into the lecture theatre to listen to Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, who gave this year’s Thomas Young Lecture.
His talk, titled ‘The role of the state in in preventing disease’, touched on two angles for tackling disease – prevention and treatment. He guided the audience through health outbreaks in history and how they were managed, the importance of preventing disease, and where the public and the Government have a vital role when addressing preventative health strategies.
Professor Chris Whitty receiving the Thomas Young trophy from Professor Leanne Aitken, Vice-President (Research) at City St George's.
“We saw our positive research culture shine through on Research Day, as colleagues across the university came together to celebrate the accomplishments of our researchers. We were privileged to have Professor Chris Whitty deliver a thought-provoking talk for our prestigious Thomas Young Lecture, which drew in our largest crowd yet.”
- Professor Jodi Lindsay, Director of Cross Cutting Research Themes -
Research Day 2024 was supported by Calibre Scientific, New England BioLabs, Haier Biomedical, Avantor, Nikon, Eppendorf, MP, Medice, Integra, ProtonDx, Sarstedt, Starlab and Quantum SI.
Learn more about our research impact