School of Pharmacy celebrates Research Day

On the 1^st May Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences held its annual Research Day, where PhD students present their findings to the School through talks and poster presentations. The standard this year was exceptionally high; an exciting demonstration of the breadth of work being undertaken in the Redwood Building, from addressing the overuse of antibiotics in Thailand, to the improvement of bone cements, to a technique aimed at attacking cancer stem cells, to ways of inhibiting certain proteins prevalent in brain tumours, and much more.

Throughout the day the talks and presentations were judged by a panel of experts from within the School, who awarded two prizes for best posters, and two for what were deemed the strongest talks. Added to this was the Lay Faculty prize, won this year by Andrew Mason for his work on ion channels.

The talk prizes were awarded to Ahmad Moukachar and Olivia Ogle. Ahmad works on a project looking into 3D printing skin tissue to better understand the development of skin cancer, whilst Olivia is investigating the role of zinc transportation in cells, and how this knowledge might one day offer a new cancer treatment.

In the poster sessions, Genevieve McClusky won a prize for her investigation into the cross-talk between blood based proteolytic cascades. The other poster prize winner was Alesha Wale, who works on improving the experience of patients using unlicensed 'special' medicines.

Head of School, Professor Mark Gumbleton said, “It is an honour for the School of Pharmacy to play a small role in what are sure to be very exciting careers for these young people.”