HealtheX 2025 Conference Booklet

HealtheX 2025 Award Winners

On behalf of the HealtheX 2025 committee, we would like to thank the presenters, judges, and attendees both staff and student alike, for contributing to the 19th anniversary of HealtheX.

Additionally, we would like to thank the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (FMHS), Auckland Medical Research Foundation, the Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust, the Liggins Institute, and the FMHS Postgraduate Student Association, as well as our newfound supporting partners, In Vitro technologies, Abacus dx, and the Hope Foundation for their partnership and support.

During our Prizegiving Ceremony, we awarded over $20,000 worth of prizes – congratulations to the following winners!

Doctoral Oral Presentation Awards

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

$1,000 and a $4,000 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 & Associate Professor Vanessa Jordan

AMRF Doctoral Oral Presentation Runner Up Award

$700 and a $2,500 AMRF Travel Grant

Samuel Lasham – Psilocybin mushroom variability and consumer safety – preliminary results

School of Pharmacy

Supervisor: Dr Rhys Ponton & Dr Chris Pook

FMHS Second Runner Up Doctoral Oral Presentation 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 & Professor Ian Bissett

FMHS PGSA Third Runner Up Doctoral Oral Presentation Award

$300

Courtney Brighouse – Validation of Methods Assessing Glymphatic Function

Department of Physiology

Supervisor: Dr Tonja Emans & Dr Fiona McBryde

Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Awards

FMHS Best Non-Doctoral Oral Presentation Award

$1,000

Julia Parry – A region still at risk: persistent hippocampal injury after perinatal hypoxia ischemia despite therapeutic hypothermia

Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences

Supervisor: Associate Professor Joanne Davidson & Dr Alice McDouall

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 & Dr Hossein Jahedi

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 & Dr. Jacelyn Loh

FMHS PGSA Third Runner Up Doctoral Oral Presentation 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 & Associate Professor Emma Scotter

Poster Presentation Awards

Auckland Medical Research Foundation Best Poster Presentation Award

$1,000 and a $2,500 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 & Prof. Bronwen Connor

FMHS Poster Presentation First Runner Up Award

$700

Lara Molloy – Structure activity relationship studies for allosteric inhibitors targeting the oncogenic H1047R mutation in PI3Kα

Department of Pharmacology

Supervisor: Associate Professor Jack Flanagan & Associate. Professor Julie Spicer

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 & Dr Natasha Grimsey

FMHS PGSA Poster Presentation Peoples 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 & Dr David Broderick

3-Minute Elevator Pitch Presentation Awards

Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust Best Elevator Pitch Presentation Award

$1,000

Jess Woodhams – Expanding the Diagnostic Toolbox for Endometrial Cancer

Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology

Supervisor: Dr Sandra Fitzgerald & Associate Professor Cherie Blenkiron

FMHS-Post Doctoral Society First Runner Up Elevator Pitch Presentation Award

$700

Jonathan Zong – Low-dose naltrexone as adjunctive treatment in major depressive disorder: Exploring EEG biomarkers and clinical outcomes

Department of Pharmacy

Supervisor: Dr Anna Forsyth & Dr Rachael Sumner

FMHS-Postgraduate Student Association Second Runner Up Elevator Pitch Presentation Award

$500

Sirithi Medagoda – Developing novel molecular and polygenic risk predictors for ophthalmological diseases across trans-ethnic populations

Department of Ophthalmology

Supervisor: Dr. William Schierding & Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer

FMHS PGSA Elevator Pitch Presentation Peoples Choice Award

$300

Andrew Fox-Lewis – A traffic light specimen sterility framework for comprehensive and consistent iGAS surveillance across New Zealand

Division of Infection and Immunity, Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology

Supervisor: Associate Professor Rachel Webb

Additional Prizes

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 & Dr Fiona McBryde