Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium
Oxford-MRC DTP symposia provide opportunities for Medical Research Council funded students to network and present their research to peers.
2025
2025 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium
Richard Doll Building, Old Road Campus
Thursday, 12th June 2025
| Time | Activity |
| 9:45 | Registration & Tea/Coffee |
| 10:00 |
Opening remarks Professor Timothy Hinks, Director of Oxford-MRC DTP |
| 10.30 |
10-Min Student Talks - Session 1 Jasmine Blane – 4th year, Psychiatry Aurelija Ippolito – 4th year, Pharmacology Konstantinos Lekkos – 2nd year, Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics Holly Roach – 2nd year, Centre for Human Genetics |
| 11:30 |
Tea/Coffee and Poster Presentations Group 1 Konstantinos Lekkos – 2nd year, Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics |
| 12:00 |
Keynote Speaker Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu DBE, FMedSci, HonFRSC (President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience, UCL Founding Chief Scientific Officer of Nanomerics Ltd. Academy of Medical Sciences Fellow Royal Society of Chemistry Honorary Fellow Wellcome Board Governor) |
| 13:00 |
Lunch |
| 13:45 |
10-Min Student Talks - Session 2 Jennifer Astley – 3rd year, Kennedy Institute Natasha Fisher-Pearson – 4th year, Kennedy Institute Maya Pidoux – 4th year, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine Katie Croft – 2nd year, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine |
| 15:00 |
Skills Talk Dr David Jones - "What I’ve learnt on my long random walk to extinction" |
| 15:30 |
Tea/Coffee and Poster Presentations Group 2 Jasmine Blane – 4th year, Psychiatry |
| 16:00 |
3-Minute Research Competition (3-MRC) Lottie Shipp – Experimental Psychology |
| 16:30 |
Careers Panel Talks & Discussion Dr Jade Bailey – Associate Principal Scientist, Sitryx Therapeutics Dr Faseeha Ayaz – Senior Editor, Nature Communications Dr Sumana Sharma – Wellcome Career Development Fellow and Group Leader, University of Oxford |
| 17:00 |
Awards Ceremony & Closing Remarks |
| 17:15 | Drinks Reception |
SPONSORS
Student Organising Committee:
To read about previous symposia please click on the tabs below.
2024 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium took place in Richard Doll Building, Old Road Campus on
Thursday, 13th June 2024
| Time | Activity |
| 10:00 | Registration & Tea/Coffee |
| 10:15 | Welcome – Professor Ester Hammond, Director of Oxford-MRC DTP |
| 10:30 | Poster Presentations (odd numbers) |
| 11:00 |
Student Talks – Session 1 Daniele Cotton (NDORMS) "Single-Cell Functional Biology in the Tumour-Bone Microenvironment:identification of individual prostate cancer cells with high metastatic potential" Cameron Lang (Oncology) Grace Meaker (RDM - MRC WIMM) Wojciech Lason (NDM) |
| 12:00 |
Keynote Speaker Associate Prof Lisa Hinton “The Importance of Science Communication & Outreach” |
| 13:00 |
Lunch |
| 14:00 |
3-Minute Research Competition (3-MRC) Anne De Bray (RDM, OCDEM) Alexander Hasson (Oncology & Mathematical Institute) Benjamin Keedwell (NDCN) Isaac Walton (RDM - MRC WIMM) Mary-Anne Durin (RDM - MHU, MRC WIMM) “The multifaceted nucleosome reader functions of the BRCA1-BARD1 complex in DNA repair and meiosis” Rahul Ravindran (NDORMS - KIR) |
| 14:30 |
Student Talks - Session 2 Konstantinos Lekkos (DPAG) Shamsideen Yusuf (RDM) Amy McCall (Psychiatry, Experimental Psychology) Khuluud Hussein (NDM) |
| 15:30 |
Poster presentations (even numbers) & Coffee/Tea Break |
| 16:00 |
Panel Discussion with MRC Alumni on Career Insights & the Importance of Science Communication |
| 16:45 |
Closing Remarks and Awards Ceremony |
| 17:00 |
Drinks Reception |
| 17:30 | Symposium Ends |
SPONSORS
Thank you to the Student Organising Committee:
Danny Gold
Ian Henderson
Kei Landin
Wojciech Lason
Jasmine Reese
2023 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium took place in Richard Doll Building, Old Road Campus on 15th June 2023.
| Time | Title |
| 9:00 | Registration & Tea/Coffee |
| 9:30 | Welcome – Professor Ester Hammond, Director of Oxford-MRC DTP |
| 9:40 |
Student Talks – Session 1 Klara Piletic (NDORMS) Dominic Simpson (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology) Lukas Braun (Experimental Psychology) Naroa Ibarra Aizpurua (Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics) |
| 10:40 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 |
Poster Presentations (Even numbers 11:00-11:30am; Odd numbers 11:30am-12:00noon) |
| 12:00 |
Student Talks – Session Natasha Fisher-Pearson (NDORMS) Luisa Gullino (Pharmacology) Annabell Roberti (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology) Sophie Twigger (Oncology) |
| 13:00 |
Lunch |
| 14:00 |
3-Minute Research Competition (3-MRC) James Ashford (RDM) Katja Worth (Oncology) Catherine Lovegrove (Surgical Sciences) Daniele Cotton (NDORMS) Lisa Spiering (Experimental Psychology) Hanna Willis (Clinical Neurosciences) Kylie Yeung (Oncology) Susannah Holliman (RDM) Danny Gold (Biochemistry) Anezka Macey-Dare (Pharmacology) |
| 14:30 | Networking Event |
| 15:00 |
Coffee/Tea Break |
| 15:30 | Keynote Speaker
Prof. Duncan Astle |
| 16:15 |
Closing Remarks and Awards Ceremony |
| 16:30 |
Drinks Reception |
| 17:30 | Symposium Ends |
SPONSORS
Thank you to the Student Organising Committee:
Daniele Cotton
Danny Gold
Kei Landin
Jasmine Reese
2022 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium took place online on 16th June 2022.
| Time | Title |
| 9:00 | Registration & Tea/Coffee |
| 9:30 | Welcome – Professor Ester Hammond, Director of Oxford-MRC DTP |
| 9:40 |
Student Talks – Session 1 Daan Paget - Comparative and Integrated Analysis of Plasma Extracellular Vesicles Isolations Methods in Healthy Volunteers and Patients Following Myocardial Infarction Emily Carroll - Impairment of mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis in an mESC-MN model of ALS Verena Sarrazin – Targeting negative affective biases in depression with non-invasive brain stimulation |
| 10:40 | Coffee Break |
| 10:50 |
Student Talks – Session 2 Romain Guyon – Development of a single dose vaccine technology by delayed release using microfluidics Tomas Goncalves - Induction of the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres pathway by trapping of proteins on DNA Isaac Grennan – The coactivation of neurons in the prefrontal corticobasal ganglia network distinguishes effort, reward and decision in a novel decision-making task |
| 11:50 |
'3MRC' (3-Minute Research Competition) Wojciech Lason – Multiomic characterisation of changes to airway epithelium in SARS-CoV-2 infection and asthma Sophie Twigger – Design, synthesis, and validation of a reversible, fluorescent probe for measuring real time hypoxia Tehmina Bharucha - Deep proteomics analysis of human cerebrospinal fluid in Japanese encephalitis virus infection Alice Evans – Ex-vivo tumour slice culture for the optimisation of CAR-T cell therapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma Ruofan Connie Han – Developing CRISPR-Cas9 gRNA delivery strategies for the treatment of inherited retinal disease Anežka Macey-Dare – Exploring the impact of patient-derived NMDAR NR1- specific IgG antibodies on the developing mouse striatum |
| 12:15 |
Keynote Lecture: Sir Charles Godfray (Director of Oxford Martin School and Professor of Population Biology) Science and policy: building the evidence base for better decision making |
| 13:00 | Lunch & Poster Presentations |
| 14:00 | Careers Service Talk: Claire Chesworth (Careers Adviser, Oxford University Careers Service) |
| 14:30 |
Panel Discussion: Insight into careers in biotech entrepreneurship and industry Dr Claire Shingler (the Oxford BioEscalator) Dr Loic Roux (Ochre Bio) Dr Helena Meyer-Berg (SIRION Biotech GmbH) |
| 15:00 | Coffee Break |
| 15:15 |
Dr Tom Beattie (Programme Manager for Doctoral Training, Medical Research Council) From postdoc to programme manager: working for a research funder |
| 15:45 |
Dr Fiona Suttle (Oxford Sparks Lead) Bringing science to you – an introduction to science communication and Oxford Sparks |
| 16:15 | Closing Remarks and Awards Ceremony |
| 16:30 | Drinks Reception |
SPONSORS
| MRC Units | Industrial Partners |
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MRC Molecular Haematology Unit
MRC Population Health Research Unit
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Thank you to the Student Organising Committee:
Jan Boehning
Alissa Hummer
Magda Mareckova
Bethan O'Connor
Jasmine Reese
Gina Wren
2021 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium took place online on 24th June 2021.
| Time | Title |
| 10:00 |
Welcome by the DTP Director Short presentation by Peer Supporters |
| 10:15 |
Student talks - Session 1 Claire Blacklock - The social ties of hospital staff: a realist synthesis Karen Wendt - Developing an enhanced transcranial magnetic stimulator Imran H. Yusuf - Gene therapy rescues cone and rod photoreceptor function in a pre-clinical model of CDHR1-associated retinal degeneration through restoration of outer segments |
| 11:15 | Tea/Coffee break |
| 11:30 |
Student talks - Session 2 Barnabas Williams - Investigation of the Plasmodium falciparum RH5-Interacting Protein (PfRIPR) as a blood-stage malaria vaccine target Cornelia Heuberger - Antigen presentation and T cell regulation by intestinal epithelial cells Caitlin O'Brien-Ball - The Role of T-cell Receptor Expression and Signalling in Early Contact Formation by T Cells |
| 12:30 | Lunch break |
| 13:15 |
Keynote panel - Developing a vaccine during an ongoing pandemic Prof Sarah Gilbert, Dr Tess Lambe and Dr Cath Green |
| 14:15 |
'3MRC' (3-Minute Research Competition) Maisha Jabeen - Application of Modern Molecular Microbiological Techniques to Identify Treatable Chronic Bacterial Airway Infection in Severe Asthma Adam Bush - Oxygen Microbubbles to Relieve Tissue Hypoxia in Cancer Therapy Sara Bandiera - Characterization of the earliest thalamocortical interactions in the human fetal brain Alice Brankin - Predicting fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rishi Anand - Glycine reduces evoked striatal dopamine release in a region-dependent manner Bethany Charlton - Immunological and genetic correlates of delayed HIV-1 disease |
| 15:00 |
Daniele Corridoni (Kymab Ltd, Oxford) - Translating precision immunology into novel therapeutics: drug discovery without borders |
| 15:25 | Alison Murphy (Oxford Pharmagenesis) - My journey from academia to medical communications |
| c. 15:50 |
Conclusion & prizes |
For further details please browse the Symposium Brochure.
SPONSORS
| MRC Units | Industrial Partners |
|
MRC Molecular Haematology Unit
MRC Population Health Research Unit
|
|
Thank you to the Student Organising Committee:
Jan Boehning
Athena Cavounidis
Katarzyna Chwalenia
Delaney Dominey-Foy
Cornelia Heuberger
Wojciech Lason
Magda Mareckova
Louisa Zolkiewski
2020 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium took place online on 18th June 2020.
SCHEDULE
| Time | Title |
| 10:00 | Welcome by the Director & Sponsor presentations |
| 10:15 | Student talks - Session 1 (Gurpreet Bharj, Sonali Munshaw, Athena Cavounidis) |
| 11:15 | Tea/Coffee break |
| 11:30 | Student talks - Session 2 (Lilli Hahn, Rose Hodgson, Henry Bailey) |
| 12:30 | Lunch break |
| 13:30 |
Keynote presentation - Prof Chas Bountra The world needs many more great leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs |
| 14:15 |
'3MRC' (3-Minute Research Competition) Katie Mellor, Amy Southern, Sophie Hughes, Daan Paget, Shahd Fouad |
| 15:00 |
Dr Mike Moss FRSC FRSA (@54Patents) How to think like an inventor to make better decisions about career and work |
| c. 15:45 |
Conclusion & prizes |
For further details please browse the Symposium Brochure.
SPONSORS
| MRC Units | Industrial Partners |
|
MRC Molecular Haematology Unit
MRC Population Health Research Unit
|
|
Thank you to the Student Organising Committee:
Rishi Anand
Jan Boehning
Alice Brankin
Emily Carroll
Magda Mareckova
Helena Meyer-Berg
Keanu Paphiti
2019 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium took place on 27th June 2019 in the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (John Radcliffe Hospital site). 70 attendees and the following sponsors took part in the event:
In the morning six students gave engaging presentations showcasing their research:
| Session 1 | Session 2 |
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Barnabas Williams (NDM)
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Mary Kempnich (EP)
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Rosie Little (DPAG)
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Nidi Tapoulal (DPAG)
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Giulia Pilla (Pathology)
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Imran Yusuf (NDCN)
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Imran Yusuf was announced the Winner of the Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium Student Talk Competition with Giulia Pilla as the Runner-up.
Student talks were followed by the thank you address to Professor Marella de Bruijn who recently stepped down from her role of the Oxford-MRC DTP Director. Her last Director's duty was to introduce Professor Gil McVean who delivered the Symposium's Keynote Speech entitled "Using Genomics to Understand the Human Wiring Diagram".
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During lunch break attendees participated in two 30-minute poster sessions during which fourteen students took part in the Poster Competition.
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The poster presented by Letitia Harris (Oncology) won the top prize awarded by the judges, while Romain Guyon (NDM) was the author of the poster that received the highest number of votes from students.
Afternoon sessions featured:
- presentations by Alumni who were MRC-funded during their study at Oxford: Amy Varney, Bo Jing and Cecilia Chui
- "Introduction to Intellectual Property" - a talk by Sarah Jones from Oxford University Innovation; and
- Discussion Panel entitled "Bioentrepreneurship for DPhil Students" during which attendees discussed the topic with representatives from Oxford University Innovation, SBS Entreprenership Centre and Enterprising Oxford.
The Symposium closed with the networking session during the drinks & nibbles reception.
For details of topics presented at the event please consult the Symposium Brochure.
Attendees comments about the event:
"It was nice to see what other MRC funded students work on and to mingle. I also really enjoyed alumni talks and the bioentrepreneurship panel discussion."
"I really liked afternoon sessions on developing spin out companies, panel and IP. Very useful and inspiring."
"The variety of topics presented throughout the talks and poster sessions. A very engaging and informative atmosphere and encouragement of questions and feedback."
"I thought it was great that there was a mixture of students, postdocs and PIs!"
Thank you to the Student Organising Committee:
Laura Colling (Oncology)
Ryan Hole (NDM)
Magda Mareckova (NDWRH)
Helena Meyer-Berg (RDM)
Joost van Haasteren (RDM)
2018 Oxford-MRC DTP Symposium took place on Thursday 21st June 2018 in Richard Doll Building (Old Road Campus).
For further details please browse the Symposium Brochure.
Symposium sponsors were:
Their representatives were on hand during the breaks to answer student questions.
The inaugural MRC-DTP Symposium took place on 22 June 2017 in the Richard Doll Building at the Old Road Campus. With sponsorship from Fisher Scientific and the Nuffield Department of Population Health, 52 people attended the symposium.
The MRC DTP Steering Group Chair, Prof. Marella de Bruijn opened the day and the first session featured talks from Ulrike Kuenzel, Soren Thomsen and Josephine Hellberg. The second session, chaired by Paolo Spingardi, brought together Jan Cosgrave, Abigail Enoch and Daniel Alanine. During the lunch break, poster sessions took place allowing researchers to showcase their work in an informal setting whilst providing a basis for discussion and networking. The afternoon had two parallel training sessions- a Managing Your Supervisor workshop led by Afsie Sabokbar, and a CV workshop from Michael Moss of the University of Oxford, Careers Service. The symposium closed with a ‘Speed Science’ session (think speed dating with science) followed by a wine reception.
Symposium participants commented:
“Good opportunity to present work to local and informal audience, good prep for conferences etc. Also interesting breadth of research.”
“The CV workshop was supreme and it was so wonderful networking with fellow MRC students and hearing about their work.
"Interesting to hear about different research being done; interesting to hear more about the MRC-DTP program”
With thanks to the Organising Committee:
Joost van Haasteren
Jessica Valli
Marella de Bruijn
Laura Colling
Marc Rose
Thanks also to Paolo Spingardi who provided assistance on the day.
