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The Faculty of Medical HealtheX conference was held on 10 September 2021 via zoom to celebrate student’s research. It was an opportunity to share research in a friendly and supportive environment.

Congratulations to all the winners. I want to thank all the presenters, judges, organisers, and attendees for making it a successful event.

Doctoral Oral Presentation Awards
1. Auckland Medical Research Foundation Outstanding Emerging Researcher & Best Doctoral Oral Presentation Award
Robyn May – A computational model to identify cardiovascular remodelling related to prematurity and predict later cardiovascular risk
Liggins Institute and Auckland Bioengineering Institute
Supervisor: Dr. Soroush Safaei
2. AMRF Doctoral Oral Presentation Runner Up Award
Wenxuan Chen – IGF signalling mediates lymphatic vessel growth in zebrafish
Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
Supervisor: Dr. Jonathan Astin
3. Second Runner Up Doctoral Oral Presentation Award
Risa Takahashi – Understanding the Innate Immune Response to Group A Streptococcus Pili
Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
Supervisor: Dr. Catherine Tsai

Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Awards
1. New Zealand Clinical Research Best Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Award
Caitlin Jardim – Osteoarthritis: Uncovering gene expression differences between the sexes
Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology
Supervisor: Dr. Raewyn Poulsen
2. Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation First Runner Up Award
Doris Zhang – The Impact of COVID19 Lockdown on Chinese Care Homes in New Zealand
Department of Psychological Medicine
Supervisor: Dr. Gary Cheung
3. Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Second Runner Up Award
Agrani Ratnayake Kumar – Ethnicity, deprivation, and access to endoscopic sinus surgery
Department of Surgery
Supervisor: Dr. Andrew Wood

3-Minute Elevator Pitch
1. Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust Best Elevator Pitch Presentation Award
Jenna Keepa – Atrial Fibrillation after cardiac surgery; An analysis of New Zealand Cardiac Surgery Registry data
School of Nursing
Supervisor: Dr. Cynthia Wensley
2. FMHS-Post Doctoral Society First Runner Up Elevator Pitch Presentation Award
Michael Pudjihartono – Functional interpretation of enhancer mutations driving the onset and progression of melanoma
Liggins Institute
Supervisor: Professor Justin O’Sullivan
3. FMHS-Postgraduate Student Association Second Runner Up Elevator Pitch Presentation Award
Marvin Liu – Visualisation of PEGylated Nanocarrier for Thymopentin in Immunodepression Modulation
School of Pharmacy
Supervisor: Associate Professor Jingyuan Wen

Poster Presentation Awards
1. Auckland Medical Research Foundation Best Poster Presentation Award
Phoebe Burns – Investigating the influence of hypoxia on cGAS-STING signalling in macrophages
Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Dean Singleton
2. Poster Presentation First Runner Up Award
Gabrielle Sebaratnam – Can psychological factors and colonic motility predict postoperative complications? An observational pilot study
Department of Psychological Medicine
Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Broadbent
3. Poster Presentation Second Runner Up Award
Delshad Kalantry – In vivo fibre photometry in freely behaving mice: A technique to measure hippocampal neuronal activity
Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging
Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Kwakowsky