On Thursday 1st August 2024, the Cambridge Biosciences DTP hosted its Annual DTP Student Symposium at St John’s College.

The event showcased the remarkable work being done by students across the DTP cohorts, as well as helping to foster a community for building connections within the Cambridge Biosciences ecosystem.

The symposium provides student with the valuable opportunity to hear from keynote speakers representing academia, industry and government. This year, our keynote speakers were Prof Lucy Chappell (CEO of NIHR), Dr Laura Caller (Enhanc3d Genomics), Prof Sarah Teichmann (Cambridge Stem Cell Institute), Dr Torsten Krude (Department of Zoology) and Prof Catherine Merrick (Department of Pathology). All gave excellent talks about a diverse set of topics that students may want to explore future opportunities in, ranging from science policy to parasitology.

 

As well as current DTP students, the event also welcomed 14 Experience Postgrad Life Sciences interns as part of their immersion into the Cambridge postgraduate experience. Additionally, several students from the incoming 2024 cohort were able to attend, allowing them to gain a better insight into Cambridge life and the amazing research currently being done across the DTP cohorts. The symposium gave all of these students the opportunity to talk with current DTP students about their research and their experiences as postgrads during the drinks reception under the beautiful old cloisters at St John’s.

 

“The symposium was such an interesting and enjoyable day! All the talks were really engaging and it was great to catch up with other students from across the cohorts. I had so many interesting conversations about everyone’s PhD research. Many thanks to the organising committee for a great symposium!” – Jemima Swain, 1st year DTP student

The symposium is a student-led event and is organised every year by a committee of second-year students. This year, the job was undertaken by; Tara Davis (MRC Toxicology Unit), Rowda Dahir (Department of Pharmacology), Megan Armstrong (Department of Pathology), Carla Briggs (Department of Pathology) and Malina Anghel (MRC Toxicology Unit).

Photo (L-R): Malina Anghel, Rowda Dahir, Tara Davis (Chair), Megan Armstrong and Carla Briggs.

 

The day was filled by an excellent selection of student talks and posters, which were judged by a panel of academics. Congratulations once again to our prize winners; Gemma Smith (Best Talk; “Machine learning approaches provide insight into the mechanisms driving drug induced autoimmunity”), Tiago Pedro Marques (Runner-up Best Talk; “Using a Machine Learning Framework to Improve the Efficiency of Mitochondrial Toxicity Screening by Guiding Compound Selection”), Carla Briggs (Best Poster; “F-box 6 function in Plasmodium parasite development and differentiation”) and Rebecca Boston (Runner-up Best Poster; “Stability of gut microbiome after COVID-19 vaccination in healthy and immunocompromised individuals”).

 

A huge thank you to all the sponsors who helped to make this event possible: Starlab, New England Biolabs, Abcam, Selleck Chemicals, Promega, Altos Labs, VectorBuilder, CliniSciences and Homerton College.