CHIRI’s Lelinh Duong, Tenielle George and Kofi Stevens.

The recent 28th Annual Combined Biological Sciences Meeting (CBSM) not only had an impressive program it was also packed full of Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) representation and achievements.

The CBSM aims to promote biological science in WA by encouraging the interaction of scientists, students and industry from all of the life sciences.

Held in The University Club at the University of Western Australia, CHIRI’s involvement in this year’s event included six presentations by CHIRI researchers and students, including one prize-winner; a poster presentation category win; and an award-winning research paper.

Dr Joshua Ramsay presented his work titled “Redefining mechanisms of antibiotic-resistance plasmid transfer in Staphylococcus aureus” during the One Health symposium.

Next up was Dr Carl Mousley, who presented his work titled “Closing the gate on the ER translocase” in the Cell and Developmental Biology session.

Four of CHIRI’s students were selected to give oral presentations and one of them, PhD student Lelinh Duong, was awarded the Best Student Oral Presentation in the Immunology symposium.

Lelinh showcased some of her PhD research which investigates the underlying mechanisms behind macrophage dysfunction in the elderly tumour microenvironment.

PhD students Melissa Eccles and Sebastian Pohl and Honours student Thomas McLeod also gave fantastic oral presentations in the Cell and Developmental Biology symposium.

CHIRI student Tenielle George took the opportunity to present her PhD research – which is looking into the processes that regulate adhesion molecules expressed on the surface of melanoma cells and their link to melanoma progression – to the broader scientific community. Tenielle was rewarded for her efforts and was awarded the prize for Best Student Poster Presentation in Cell and Developmental Biology.

Kofi Stevens was awarded the prize for the best research paper by a student as first author, which identified how changes in redox affect the modification and activity of proteins essential for protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum.

What a long and amazing list of achievements and all in one day! Congratulations to our researchers and students on their success.