PhDs in clean sweep

Medical Research

The University of Adelaide made a clean sweep of the finals of this year's Ross Wishart Memorial Award for young South Australian research scientists.

All four finalists of the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) award were University of Adelaide PhD students - out of more than 110 entries.

The overall winner is selected based on a presentation to the South Australian Division of the Society's Annual Scientific Meeting - held during last month's Medical Research Week.

This year the award went to Lachlan Moldenhauer, a third-year PhD student with the University's Research Centre for Reproductive Health, with a presentation 'The fetus: why isn't it rejected by the mother?'

Lachlan's research focuses on cellular and molecular events taking place during pregnancy that allow the pregnancy to continue without immune rejection of the fetus. This has significant implication for the field of organ transplantation.

The other finalists were: Lisa Bailey, a PhD student within the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science; Kirsty Pringle, a PhD student within the Research Centre for Reproductive Health; and Danny Eckert who is completing his PhD at the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health.

The annual awards are named after Ross Wishart in recognition of his significant contributions to medical research and the ASMR. Ross was only 36 when he died in 1995 after a long battle with cancer.

Story by Robyn Mills