Dean's Research Prize Winners

The Dean's Research awards celebrate the huge range of research carried out by undergraduates, postgraduates and PhD students across the faculty, with a range of presentations, posters, and prizes.

The event includes the Three Minute Thesis challenge (3MT®). The winner and runner-up progress to the UCL semi-final with the opportunity to progress to the UK National Vitae competition.

2023-24 Winners

Postgraduate Research Presentation

Judges’ Choice: Emily Walsh (Division of Medicine) High Resolution Microscopy of Self-protection in the Immune Synapse
People’s Choice: Emma Lucie Alice Touizer (Division of Infection & Immunity) The Impact of B Cell Phenotypes in HIV Infection on Antibody Responses

3MT® Presentation

Judges’ Choice: Brittany Cucchiaro (Division of Medicine) Exploring Nutrition’s Vital Role in Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell Therapy - Nourishing Success.
People’s Choice: Rhyla Mae Santiago (Cancer Institute) Dormant Cell: Radiotherapy's Worst Nightmare

Postgraduate Taught Poster

Judges’ Choice: Urmi Shah (MSc Physical Therapy in Musculoskeletal Healthcare & Rehabilitation) Electromyography Biofeedback for People with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review.
People’s Choice: Sara Bin Shalhoub (MSc Musculoskeletal Science) Knowledge, Perceptions and Views of Occupational Therapists towards the use of Virtual Reality for the Management of Musculoskeletal Conditions: A Cross Sectional Survey

Undergraduate Poster

Judges’ Choice: Sanchit Aapan (BSc (Intercal) Medical Sciences with Mathematics, Computers and Medicine) Preoperatively Predicting the Likelihood of Complications following Meningioma Resection - A Machine Learning Analysis
People’s Choice: Diya Paras Shah (BSc [Intercal] Medical Sciences with Surgical Sciences) Optimising Gelatin Methacrylate for Corneal Regeneration

2022-23

Prize Winners:

Postgraduate Research Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Auxtine Micalet (Division of Surgery & Interventional Science). Stiffness and Cancer Invasion Using 3D In Vitro Tumour Models.
People's Choice: Fiona Verisqa (Eastman Dental Institute). The Best of Both Worlds: Can We Combine 3D Printable Materials for Joint Regeneration?

3MT® Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Puja Mehta (Division of Medicine). Post-COVID Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD): Finding the Smooth(ie) Criminals… & Custodians.
People's Choice: Sandra Kuswandani (Eastman Dental Institute). Combination of Cell-based Engineering and Soft Tissue Substitutes (STS): a Future for Wound Healing in Tissue Engineering?

Postgraduate Taught Poster:

Judges' Choice: Selin Cankat (Division of Infection & Immunity). T cells that Abort SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Seronegative Healthcare Workers Persist up to 18-months After Exposure
People's Choice: Hong Jin Tan (Eastman Dental Institute). Development and In Vitro Characterisation of Amoxicillin-Encapsulated PMPC-PDPA Polymersomes.

Undergraduate Poster:

Judges' Choice: Nadia Vloemans (Division of Surgery & Interventional Science). Investigation of Cobalt Bioactive Glass on a Diabetic Wound Model.
People's Choice: Alexandre Woernle (Division of Medicine). The Impact of Second Reads in the One-Stop Prostate MRI Clinic

2021-22

The 10th Dean's Research Prize took place online on Thursday 19 March 2022. For all categories, two prizes were awarded: a Judges' Award and a People's Choice award (by audience vote).

See the full 2022 event report

Prize Winners:

Postgraduate Research Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Thomas Fox (Division of Infection & Immunity). Towards Gene Therapy for CTLA4 Insufficiency
People's Choice: Kalliopi Bokea (Division of Surgery & Interventional Science). Tumouroids versus xenografts, as platforms for the prediction of treatment response of patients with kidney cancer.

3MT® Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Kavina Shah (Division of Medicine). Coercing Cellular Co-operation into Conflict: a paradigm shift in treating autoimmune disease
People's Choice: Fiona Verisqa (Eastman Dental Institute). The best of both worlds: Can we combine 3D printable materials for joint regeneration?

Postgraduate Taught Poster:

Judges' Choice: Roaa Al-Bedaery (UCL Medical School). A realist evaluation of undergraduate medical teaching with remote (telephone and video) consultations in primary care
People's Choice: Iris Ee Jiunliew (Eastman Dental Institute). Orthodontic YouTubeTM videos made by patients for patients: What are they about and are they accurate?

Undergraduate Poster:

Judges' Choice: Joseph Kettle (Cancer Institute). Single Centre Relevance of Predictive and Prognostic Biomarkers for Metastatic Urothelial Cancer
People's Choice: Elsie Lucia Rodriguez Hernandez (Cancer Institute). Clinical and Molecular Characterisation of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Patients

2020-21

The 9th Dean's Research Prize took place online on Thursday 27 May 2021. For all categories, two prizes were awarded: a Judges' Award and a People's Choice award (by audience vote).

See the full 2021 event report

Prize Winners:

Postgraduate Research Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Rishi Kumar Gupta (Division of Infection and Immunity). Precision Targeting of Preventative Therapy for Tuberculosis
People's Choice: Christopher Wincup (Division of Medicine). Investigating Abnormal Iron Metabolism and Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Novel Mechanism for Fatigue in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

3MT® Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Eoin Dinneen (Division of Surgery and Interventional Science). Potent Stuff! Preserving Erections in Men Who Are Having Prostate Cancer Surgery
People's Choice: Olivia Bracken (Division of Medicine). Lipid Mediators – A Drug Target for Autoimmunity?

Postgraduate Taught Poster:

Judges' Choice: Lucie Rayner (MSc Performing Arts Medicine). Lumbar Flexicurve Apex Height Measurement: A New Spine Extension Screening Tool for Dancers
People's Choice: Pinelopi Alexandropoulou (MSc Clinical and Public Health Nutrition). Inter-Individual Variability in Weight Loss Response to Dietary Interventions with Varying Macronutrient Distribution: A Systematic Review

Undergraduate Poster:

Judges' Choice: Niraj Doshi (iBSc Medical Sciences with Clinical Sciences). A Genome-Wide Association Study of Non-Alcohol Related Fatty Liver Disease in India: Is there a Divergence in the Genetic Risk Profile?
People's Choice: Abhinav Kumar (iBSc Medical Sciences with Oncology). Evaluating Potential Theranostic Agents that have an Application for Both Imaging and Radiosensitisation

2019-20

The 8th Dean's Research Prize took place at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead on 6 February 2020.

See the full 2020 event report

Prize Winners:

Postgraduate Research Presentation:
Natalie Edner (Division of Infection & Immunity). Follicular helper T cells predict response to immunotherapy in type 1 diabetes

3MT® Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Nekisa Zakeri (Division of Infection & Immunity). The New Cells on the Block: removing the brakes for liver cancer therapy. (Nekisa was also the winner of the UCL 3MT® Institutional Final held on 17 June 2020)
People's Choice: Yingqi Hou (Division of Medicine). Pneumonia: Sticky Bacteria in Action

Postgraduate Taught Poster:
Helena Pérez Peña (MSc Drug Design). Wild type and Analogue Sensitive (AS) homology models of Leishmania mexicana kinetochore kinases CLK1, KKT3 and KKT2

Undergraduate Poster:
James Cai (iBSc Immunology, Infection & Cell Pathology). Lentiviral Accessory Protein Vpx is an NF-kB antagonist

2018-19

The 7th annual Dean’s Research Prize Event took place on Thursday 14 February 2019.

Prize Winners:

Postgraduate Research Presentation:
Lina Carmona Echeverria (Division of Surgical & Interventional Science). Objective assessment of the aggressive prostate cancer burden in PROMIS using digital pathology.

3MT® Presentation:

Judges' Choice: Gianpaolo Manalastas (UCL Medical School). “Before I go into that, let me ask you a few questions first”: How doctors use language to control the consultation structure
Runner Up: Rikah Louie (Division of Medicine). Macrophage-IRF8 deficiency protects against Atherosclerosis

Postgraduate Taught Poster:
Yuyan Duan (MRes Human Tissue Repair). Role of liver-resident natural killer cells in repair and

Undergraduate Poster:
Vittoria Stefanello (BSc Applied Medical Sciences). The Effects of Radiotherapy and Nanoparticles on 3D Cancer Models

A selection of images from the 2020 Dean's Research Prize event held at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. It celebrated the success of students' research across the faculty, with a range of presentations, posters, and prizes.