Published: 19 December 2023
St George’s, University of London celebrated its annual Research Day on Wednesday 6th December, an event dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the scientific achievements from staff and students across the research institutes.
To view the video of Research Day 2023 below, please ensure you have accepted cookies on our website, or watch on YouTube.
Arrivals and new directions
In a jam-packed lecture theatre, the day started with hearing about the work of new arrivals and scientists who are leading the way in their respective fields. Dr Sean Wasserman joined St George’s this summer from University of Cape Town and enlightened us with updates in drug-resistance tuberculosis and the power of cohort studies. Dr Rebecca Lacey, who made the move from UCL earlier this year, spoke about her social epidemiological work on young adult carers in the UK.
They were followed by a presentation from Professor Francesca Morgante who, as the new Eleanor Peel Chair in Health Ageing, shared her work aiming to develop a research hub to study healthy ageing, with a particular focus on neurodegeneration. Finally, we heard from Dr Emma Matthews, the new Director of the Genomics Clinical Academic Group, who spoke about her work on genetic neuromuscular disorders whilst emphasising the importance of collaboration across different sectors and between the University and adjacent University Hospital.
Award-winning researchers
The afternoon saw the St George’s community come together to celebrate this year’s prize winners for Outstanding Research Awards, Image of the Year, poster prizes and the most sustainable laboratory.
Outstanding research publication in 2022/23 – Professor Alicja Rudnicka and Dr Angela Loyse
Given the vast numbers of high-impact papers published by St George’s across the academic year, this prize was awarded to two researchers. Professor Alicja Rudnicka was awarded the prize for her paper ‘Artificial intelligence-enabled retinal vasculometry for prediction of circulatory mortality, myocardial infarction and stroke’, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. The research, which gained a lot of media attention, revealed that scans of the eye produced by AI can predict an individual’s risk of cardiac disease.
Dr Angela Loyse also claimed the prize for her milestone paper ‘Reduction in mortality from HIV-related CNS infections in routine care in Africa (DREAMM): a before-and-after, implementation study’ published in The Lancet HIV. The study halved deaths from HIV-linked meningitis in five African public hospitals by working with local health leaders and healthcare workers to empower them to design and implement changes to routine care for patients.
Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Scientist – Dr Andy Tran
Dr Andy Tran from the Infection and Immunity Research Institute won the prize for Outstanding Postdoctoral Research Scientist for his work on the development of new treatments and vaccines for tuberculosis. He is working on a numerous projects including development of new self-adjuvanting vaccine candidates, human alveolar models and discovery of TB biologics.
Outstanding research achievement by a University Lecturer – Dr Isabelle Salles-Crawley
Dr Isabelle Salles-Crawley from the Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute was awarded the prize for her work into understanding the molecular mechanisms of blood clotting and cardiovascular diseases. She has published over 35 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and recently joined the editorial board of Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Excellence in public/civic engagement research – Emily Woodcock
This year’s prize for Excellence in public/civic engagement was claimed by PhD student, Emily Woodcock. Emily’s research explored how the stiffness of an individual cancer cell changes to help them spread throughout the body. Throughout her PhD, Emily has taken a keen interest in public engagement. She co-led Pint of Science in Tooting and was involved in other events including Science Museum Lates.
Poster and research prizes
The judges had a tough job to select the winners of the poster prizes, with over 130 scientists presenting their work on the day. Poster prizes were awarded to Amy Arnold for the best undergraduate poster and Isabelle Rose for best postgraduate poster. Ella Whittle and Julia Kutschenreuter were joint winners of the Chrissie Fenske Research Poster Prize for best overall poster, which totals £1,000 to allow the winners to attend an academic meeting.
The day also took a moment to celebrate the winner of St George’s Image of the Year competition, Dr Florencia Cavodeassi, with her image ‘Into a black hole’ that shows a section of a zebrafish eye with different types of cells and structures stained in different colours.
To wrap up the prizegiving, and in a St George’s first, the community celebrated the award for the most sustainable lab which went to Dr Deborah Chong, one of the participants of the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) initiative.
Thomas Young Lecture
To finish off the day with great impact, St George’s had the pleasure of listening to world-renowned scientist and Director of The Francis Crick Institute, Sir Paul Nurse, who gave this year’s Thomas Young Lecture titled ‘What is Life?’.
The Nobel Laureate has made significant contributions to the understanding of cell biology and cancer research. He took the audience on a journey as he explored the five most important ideas in biology - the cell, the gene, evolution by natural selection, life as chemistry, and life as information.
“Research Day is a major highlight of the St George’s calendar where we celebrate the achievements and excellence from the most junior student to the most eminent professor. It was a joy to see colleagues come together in person to meet others, share ideas and form new collaborations. Ending on a high note, it was a true honour to welcome Sir Paul Nurse who engaged our staff and students with a thought-provoking talk for the annual Thomas Young Lecture.”
- Professor Jon Friedland, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at St George's, University of London -
Research Day 2023 was supported by Bristol Myers Squibb, Nikon, New England BioLabs, SciQuip, Haier Biomedical, Starlab, Elkay, Calibre Scientific, Integra, Medice, PCR Biosystems and Avantor.
Learn more about research at St George’s, University of London