Faculty of Health Postgraduate Research Showcase – past events

Showcasing the next generation of health researchers
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Faculty of Health Postgraduate Research Showcase – past events

Showcasing the next generation of health researchers
At the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½¹Ù·½ÍøÕ¾, we address today's most challenging healthcare and psychological issues, through research-informed teaching and active, real-world learning.
Our annual Postgraduate Research Showcase is a great opportunity for postgraduate students from the Faculty of Health to present, meet and exchange ideas with both peers and staff.

Faculty of Health PGR Showcase 2026

The 2026 Postgraduate Research Showcase brought together postgraduate researchers, academics and partners from across the Faculty of Health for a vibrant day of knowledge sharing, collaboration and celebration. With 130+ attendees, the event provided an invaluable opportunity for PGRs to present their work, network across disciplines, and exchange ideas with peers and staff.
This year’s Showcase featured a rich and diverse programme, including:
  • Plenary session highlighting research developed through partnership with the local community
  • Seven oral presentations demonstrating methodological rigour and innovation
  • Six rapid fire presentations offering concise insights into emerging projects
  • Sixty posters representing the breadth of postgraduate research across the faculty
  • Four sponsors supporting and engaging with our research community
  • Six schools represented, reflecting the interdisciplinary strength of the Faculty of Health.
Faculty of Health PGR showcase 2025: a room full of people as professor delivers presentation

Congratulations to our prize winners! Full details can be found below.
Our thanks go to our PGR Showcase working group and those that made the day a success - including session chairs, microphone runners, presenters and, of course, our sponsors: Bio-rad, Greiner, Parse and Send Media.

Best oral presentations:

  • Sarah Ferreira Galasi (SoBS) | 'Candida albicans upregulates chitin to counteract staphylococcus aureas-induced cell wall stress'
  • Alexandra Burgess (SoHP) | 'Preventing sexual harm before it happens- A Focus on Recovery Capital'

Best rapid-fire presentations:

  • Lizzie Gilmore (SoP) | 'The importance of recognising Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Grief'
  • Alex Bush (PMS) | 'Intraoperative ergonomic exposure in general surgery: a bespoke software pipeline for continuous wearable IMU analysis and proposal of a theatre-adapted risk scoring framework'.
Faculty of Health Postgraduate Research Showcase 2026 - winners

Best school poster:

  • Ofure Peace (SNaM) | 'Breastfeeding Challenges and Support in Urban Nigeria'
  • Matt W Jones (SoHP) | 'Walking the Edge: How Highliners Experience Fear and Meaning'
  • Josie Prole (SoBS) | 'Investigating Hot Spring Actinomycetes from the Roman Baths'
  • Thekla Mauch (PMS) | 'To Bee or Not to Bee: Venom Allergy'
  • Tina Hunt (SoP) | 'Controlling Aggressive Behaviour Through Drumming'
  • Aya Al-Harbawee (PDS) | 'Optimising Professional Support for Dentists'
 
 
 
 

Faculty of Health PGR Showcase 2025

6 June 2025
This was our biggest FoH PGR Showcase yet! Around 130 PGR students and staff from all six Schools attended to celebrate our PGR researchers. With the newly introduced ‘rapid fire’ format presentations in addition to standard talks and a lively poster session there was a lot to celebrate, and the quality of research and standard of communication from our PGR students was excellent. 
The day included an introduction to ‘Research and A.I. in the Faculty of Health’ by our Associate Dean for Research, Professor Andy Wills, followed by a panel session with Dr Ben Whalley, Professor Shang-Ming Zhou and Professor Mathew Upton who shared their views on questions relating to the theme of A.I. posed by the audience. The questions were many and there was interesting food for thought.
A big thank you to everyone who attended and made the day a success, including all our presenters, chairs, microphone rovers and judges. Thank you also to the faculty and sponsors Nikon, ThermoFisher Scientific and Merck Life Sciences for supporting this year’s event and the prizes for best presentations. 
Faculty of Health PGR showcase 2025: a room full of people as professor delivers presentation
Congratulations to our prize winners! Full details can be found below.
A group of students stood together holding envelopes with a digital screen behind them

Best oral presentations:

  • Tom Bailey-Schmidt (SoBS) | ‘Plasma-derived albumin as a novel cryoprotectant for use in the long-term frozen storage of human red blood cells’
  • Lauren Hallewell (SoHP) | ‘Exploring the Integration of Dietitians into Paediatric Dental Care’

Best rapid-fire presentations:

  • Alex Bush (PMS) | ‘Characterising Postural Demands and Ergonomic Risk in Major Gastrointestinal Surgery’
  • Harriet Hughes (SoHP) | ‘Crouch Gait in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Cross-Sectional Study

Overall best posters:

  • Rosie Moore (PMS) | ‘Identifying Novel Mechanisms Controlling Cancer Stem Cells To Target Brain Tumour Growth’ 
  • Danielle Edge (SNaM) | ‘Developing a Children’s Research Advisory Group'
  • Akshaya Palani (PMS) | ‘Recreating Brain Tumours using Patient-Derived Glioma Stem Cells Hosted by Normal Brain Cells to Gain Novel Insights into Tumourigenesis’

Best school posters:

  • SoBS | Rutendo Charmaine Mupfumi | ‘When Life Gives you Sea Lemons: Optimising Anti-bacterial Activity Production of a Sea Lemon Microbial Isolate’
  • PDS | Sian Crow | ‘Oral Cancer Cell Lines Modulate Anti-Tumoural Response of M1 like Macrophages’
  • SoHP | Laura Carey | ‘Investigating Adverse Event Reporting in Rehabilitation Trials for People with Multiple Sclerosis'
  • PMS | Thekla Mauch | ‘Bee venom tolerance in beekeepers'
  • SNaM | Xiatian Fan | ‘Use of Machine Learning to Identify Patient Disease Patterns Requiring Dietician Interventions from Electronic Health Records’
  • SoP | Anastasia Searle | ‘Social identity, values and beliefs: A protocol for discovery of best practice behavioural support provided during pharmacological treatment for obesity'

Book of abstracts - FoH PGR Showcase 2025

 

2024

Faculty of Health PGR Showcase, 4 June

130 staff and students from the Faculty of Health came together, with talks and posters showcasing the diversity and quality of research within the faculty. There was a real buzz to the event, with activities such as ice-breaker bingo and delegate-voted poster prizes. PGR students were able to relax at the end of the day with a barbeque on campus.

Oral presentation prize winners

  • Annabel Gorham – ‘Assessment of the power profile of a non-aspheric myopia control soft contact lens’
  • Heather Hopper – ‘Preconception care for people with health conditions: what works, for whom, and how?’
  • Adam Elkin – ‘How Neural Stem Cells Acquire and Maintain their Identity’

Poster prize winners

  • Delegate-voted award: Ting Zhang – ‘Investigating the immune landscape in the tumour microenvironment of genetically defined meningiomas’
  • Peninsula Dental School award: Braith Grey – ‘Graphene Biosensors: Bringing Diagnosis of Antibiotic Resistant Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) into the 21st Century’
  • Peninsula Medical School award: Ting Zhang – ‘Investigating the immune landscape in the tumour microenvironment of genetically defined meningiomas’
  • Peninsula Medical School award: Katie Bounsell – ‘SMaRT-PD: A Clinical Decision Support System for the Management of Parkinson’s Disease’
  • School of Biomedical Sciences award: Thomas Bailey-Schmidt - ‘Cryopreservation in Transfusion Medicine; the mechanisms and strategies for increasing blood-product viability’
  • School of Health Professions award: Lauren Hallewell - ‘Exploring the acceptability of integrating a dietitian into the paediatric dental clinic to assess BMI and provide dietary advice to promote both a healthy mouth and body weight’
  • School of Nursing and Midwifery award: Tristan Coombes - ‘When, where and how should Artificial Intelligence be taught in Nursing Education?'
 

2023

Faculty of Health PGR Showcase, 18 July

Thanks to everyone who attended our 2023 PGR Showcase event. As well as fantastic talks and posters from across the faculty, we heard stories of both personal journeys as well as ground-breaking research, with lively discussions over lunch and refreshments.  

Oral presentation prize winners

  • Libby Williams - Targeting Aldehyde Dehydrogenases in NF2-null Meningioma and Schwannoma Tumours 
  • Alex Mellor - Acute inflammation increases white matter sensitivity to ischaemia

Poster prize winners

  • Adam Elkin - How Neural Stem Cells Acquire and Maintain their Identity
  • Elliot Kearney - Control of the Blood-Nerve-Barrier and Inflammation in Tumours of the Nervous System
  • Clare Hornsby - Utilisation of Stand-up Paddle-boarding to promote health and well-being: A scoping review

Special mention to

  • Sarah Bastyans - Establishment of effects of microplastics on alveolar macrophage-like cell infection with human beta-coronavirus OC43 as a surrogate for SARS-CoV2 infection
 

2022

Faculty of Health PGR Showcase, 14 July

There were great talks, poster presentations and interactions on a wide variety of ongoing postgraduate studies across the faculty. 

Best presentation winners

  • Kevin Herrera Keane (PhD student, Peninsula Medical School), Best Oral presentation – title: Targeting TAM family receptors in spontaneous and NF2–related schwannomas and meningiomas
  • Evelina Valionyte (PhD student, Peninsula Medical School), Best Poster presentation – title: Caspase-6 is a novel dominant-negative regulator of SQSTM1/p62 droplet-based autophagy.
 

2021

Faculty of Health PGR Showcase, 30 June

Our postgraduate speakers presented their research throughout the day, covering a wide range of topics and methodologies from psychology to physiotherapy, nursing to neuroscience, dentistry to dietetics. 
We heard how our students are advancing research with real-world benefits, centred on the themes of 'Brain and Mind', 'Health Across the Life Course', 'Digital Health' and 'Frontiers in Discovery Science'.

Best presentation winners 

  • Prashanti Eachempati (Peninsula Dental School) - Best online only poster or video presentation
  • James Conway (Peninsula Medical School) - Best podcast presentation
  • James Butler (School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, co-supervised at School of Biomedical Sciences) - Best oral presentation.