One of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre's PhD candidates, Kelsey Hanson, has received a Postgraduate Student Award at the ASMR Awards night last Thursday in Hobart.
Hanson won the award for her presentation, “The role of microtubules in excitotoxin-induced axon degeneration”. The award aims to recognize outstanding contributions to medical research by Postgraduate students whilst also giving the student the opportunity to share their work in the medical research community.
The presentation looked at developing a model of connection loss between the nerve cells within the brain and examined the changes to the cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton is essential for maintaining cell structure and the breakdown of these cellular components is thought to be a way in which come nerve cell connections are lost. Through the study it was found that the drug, trichostatin-A protects nerve cell connectivity and therefore could be a potential therapeutic treatment for people living with dementia to reduce disease progression.
Not only was it a great honor for Hanson to be presented with the award but it was also exciting to share it with the other finalists and members of the medical research community.
“It was a great honour to be selected as a finalist for the ASMR Postgraduate Student awards, and it was also a wonderful opportunity for all the finalists to be able share their work” Hanson said.
The award was presented as part of the annual ASMR Medical Research Week conducted by the Australian Society of Medical Research. The week aims to foster health and medical research excellence whilst promoting community support for medical research. The Tasmanian event was held at Hadley’s Orient Hotel on Thursday the 31st of May 2018.
Kelsey Hanson is a PhD candidate at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre.
