Visualise this – you have 60 seconds to communicate your PhD thesis through a digital display and your topic is links between chronic stress and Alzheimer’s disease. Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) PhD student Ayeisha Milligan Armstrong recently took up the challenge and earned herself third place and a $100 prize in the national 2020 Visualise Your Thesis Competition at Curtin.
A first-year student from the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Ayeisha used her 60-second presentation to highlight the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and the need for a medical research breakthrough to reduce the burden of the disease.
The focus of Ayeisha’s presentation then turned to one particular risk factor that is the subject of her PhD research – the possible link between chronic stress experienced in early or mid-life and Alzheimer’s disease.
Ayeisha is investigating how variants in stress-related genes may be linked to the disease, including their effect on brain immune cells called microglia. Research indicates that, when over-stimulated, microglia cells can promote neuroinflammation, a key early process that occurs in the brain with Alzheimer’s disease.
Ayeisha says understanding, and effectively communicating, potential risk factors of Alzheimer’s disease is a vital part of reducing the burden of the disease.
“Being able to communicate complex research ideas to the general population is a really important part of science and so I feel very grateful to have had my presentation recognised for that,” said Ayeisha.
This is not the first time Ayeisha has received some well-deserved recognition for her work. Ayeisha’s PhD project itself is supported by a highly-coveted postgraduate scholarship awarded to her by the Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration (DCRC) in 2018. Providing $30,000 in funding over three years, the scholarship was one of three awarded nationally by the DCRC for the year.
At the time the scholarship was awarded Ayeisha, who was a previous Honours student at CHIRI, was undertaking volunteer work experience with our Associate Professor David Groth and A/Professor Giuseppe Verdile. They are now co-supervising her PhD, along with Dr Kylie Munyard (CHIRI) and A/Professor Simon Laws and Dr Tenielle Porter from ECU and the Ralph and Patricia Sarich Neuroscience Research Institute.
The Visualise Your Thesis competition, an initiative of Melbourne University, challenges graduate researchers to present their research in a 60-second, eye-catching digital display. Submissions are judged on their visual impact and how well the content presents the research.
You can view Ayeisha’s prize-winning entry here.
Photo of Ayeisha courtesy of the Research Office at Curtin.
