In 2018, the RDM judging panel considered more nominations for the Graduate Prize 2018 than in previous years, and the calibre of nominees was very high, making the panel’s decision very difficult. It was extremely rewarding to see such achievements from students in RDM and all nominees are commended for their excellent work.
Chris Booth completed his DPhil under the supervision of Adam Mead and Sten Eirik Jacobsen (NDCLS, MRC WIMM). Chris led a study that provided experimental evidence that the phenotypic and gene expression profiles of a cancer can be traced back to those of the cell of origin. For the first time since the identification of human early thymic progenitor (ETP) leukemia, Chris confirmed that ETPs do indeed possess the potential to become LSCs upon introduction of recurrent ETP leukemia associated mutations. Chris published his findings in a first author article in Cancer Cell and has given oral presentations of his work at two international meetings. Find out more his work.
Evangelos Oikonomou is in the third year of his DPhil, supervised by Charlambos Antoniades and Jemma Hopewell (CVM). Evangelos has pioneered novel ways of detecting coronary inflammation using a novel computed tomography (CT) technology that tracks three-dimensional changes in the composition of perivascular adipose tissue. As well as being first author on a paper in the Lancet, which has attracted considerable media attention, Evangelos is a co-inventor on two patents relating to the technology he has developed. Find out more about his work.
Marieke Oudelaar completed her DPhil under the supervision of Doug Higgs and Jim Hughes (NDCLS, MRC WIMM). Her research describing chromosomal interactions within single cells has made a major contribution to recent developments in the application of Chromosome Conformation Capture techniques. Although this won’t have an immediate clinical application, it will, in time have a very large impact on the field. Marieke’s research is published in Nature Genetics. Find out more about her work.