HealtheX 2025

Congratulations to the following winners!

Auckland Medical Research Foundation (AMRF) Outstanding Emerging Researcher and Best Doctoral Oral Presentation Award

$1000 and a $4000 AMRF Travel Grant
Caitlin Woods - Evaluation of a midwifery student employment model in Aotearoa: experiences of students and registered midwives
Liggins Institute
Supervisor: Professor Katie Groom

AMRF Doctoral Oral Presentation First Runner Up Award

$700 and a $2500 AMRF Travel Grant
Samuel Lasham - Psilocybin mushroom variability and consumer safety – preliminary results
School of Pharmacy
Supervisor: Dr Rhys Ponton

FMHS Doctoral Oral Presentation Second Runner Up Award

$500
Cameron Wells - 'Failure to Rescue' After Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgery Drives Hospital Variation and Ethnic Inequity in Aotearoa
Department of Surgery
Supervisor: Professor Greg O'Grady

FMHS PGSA Doctoral Oral Presentation Third Runner Up Award

$300
Courtney Brighouse - Validation of Methods Assessing Glymphatic Function
Department of Physiology
Supervisor: Dr Tonja Emans

FMHS Best Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Award

$1000
Julia Parry - A region still at risk: persistent hippocampal injury after perinatal hypoxia ischemia despite therapeutic hypothermia
School of Pharmacy
Supervisor: Associate Professor Joanne Davidson

FMHS Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation First Runner Up Award

$700
Anna Shaw - Macrophage Identity Crisis: Fluorescent Labelling to Visualise Cancer-Immune Interactions
Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC)
Supervisor: Dr Emma Nolan

FMHS Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Second Runner Up Award

$500
Ianah Bitac - Developing a novel mucosal adjuvant based on pilus proteins from Group A Streptococcus
Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
Supervisor: Dr Catherine Tsai

FMHS PGSA Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Third Runner Up Award

$300
Jenna Masterson - Modelling Rare Motor Neuron Disease Mutations in Stem Cells using CRISPR/Cas9 Editing
School of Biological Science
Supervisor: Dr Hilary Sheppard

AMRF Best Poster Presentation Award

$1000 and a $2500 AMRF Travel Grant
Brooke Hawker - Investigating the use of lysolecithin to model demyelination in sagittal rat brain organotypic slice cultures
Department of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology
Supervisor: Dr Amy McCaughey-Chapman

FMHS Poster Presentation First Runner Up Award

$700
Lara Molly - Structure activity relationship studies for allosteric inhibitors targeting the oncogenic H1047R mutation in PI3Kα
Department of Pharmacology
Supervisor: Associate Professor Jack Flanagan

FMHS Poster Presentation Second Runner Up Award

$500
Lucy Robinson - Sex/gender differences in canonical and non-canonical WNT signalling in human osteoarthritic chondrocytes
Department of Pharmacology
Supervisor: Dr Raewyn Poulsen

Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust Best Elevator Pitch Presentation Award

$1000
Jessica Woodhams - Expanding the Diagnostic Toolbox for Endometrial Cancer
Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
Supervisor: Dr Sandra Fitzgerald

FMHS Elevator Pitch Presentation Award First Runner Up

$700
Johnathan Zong - Low-dose naltrexone as adjunctive treatment in major depressive disorder: Exploring EEG biomarkers and clinical outcomes
School of Pharmacy
Supervisor: Dr Anna Forsyth

FMHS Elevator Pitch Presentation Award Second Runner Up

$500
Sirithi Medagoda- Developing novel molecular and polygenic risk predictors for ophthalmological diseases across trans-ethnic populations
Department of Ophthalmology
Supervisor: Dr. William Schierding

FMHS Pacific Health Research Award

$500
Rosanna Roberts-Nonu - The Impact of Hypertension and Diet on Carotid Body Cellular Organization
Department of Physiology
Supervisor: Dr Audrys Pauza

FMHS PGSA Excellent Abstract Award

$200
Jayd Dayaram - Uncovering Novel and Direct Evidence-Based Therapies for Diabetic Heart Disease
Department of Physiology
Supervisor: Associate Professor Kimberley Mellor

FMHS PGSA Excellent Abstract Award

$200
Dinithi Uthumange - Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours Towards Reducing Meat Consumption Among Meat-Eaters: A Systematic Review
School of Population Health
Supervisor: Associate Professor Helen Eyles

FMHS PGSA Excellent Abstract Award

$200
Anna Shaw - Macrophage Identity Crisis: Fluorescent Labelling to Visualise Cancer-Immune Interactions
Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC)
Supervisor: Dr Emma Nolan

FMHS PGSA Excellent Abstract Award

$200
Linh Do - The role of glycaemic control and systemic inflammation in the development of diabetic macular oedema
Department of Ophthalmology
Supervisor: Associate Professor Stuti Misra

FMHS PGSA Excellent Abstract Award

$200
Ben Bristow - Multimodal MRI Reveals Brain Structural Deficits and Executive Dysfunction in Early Methamphetamine Abstinence
Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging
Supervisor: Associate Professor Miriam Scadeng

FMHS PGSA Excellent Abstract Award

$200
Ariba Iqbal - Infant formula for the prevention and treatment of neonatal hypoglycaemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Liggins Insitute
Supervisor: Professor Dame Jane Harding

FMHS PGSA Elevator Pitch People's Choice Award

$300
Andrew Fox-Lewis - Capturing the complete clinical spectrum of severe acute Group A Streptococcus disease in Auckland
Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology
Supervisor: Associate Professor Rachel Webb

FMHS PGSA Poster People's Choice Award

$300
Riya Balia - Development of an ex vivo porcine wound infection model to evaluate antibiofilm therapies
Department of Surgery
Supervisor: Dr Kristi Biswas