Over 100 students, presenters and postdoc judges from VCCC member organisations attended the 2019 Comprehensive Cancer Student Symposium held at Leopard Lodge in Melbourne Zoo last week. The annual symposium aims to highlight the exciting research of young scientists from the Comprehensive Cancer PhD Program, across many different scientific disciplines, who are aiming to progress their understanding and treatment of cancer together.
The symposium ‘Beyond FISH and ChIPs: the next generation of cancer research’ highlighted just how far technologies have progressed in the field of cancer research, with keynote presentations on emerging technologies and clinical approaches.
PhD student Ryan O’Keefe said the symposium gave him a new perspective on his PhD project,
"Being able to hear from experts in the fields of upcoming technologies such as organoids, light sheet microscopy, single cell sequencing, and how these technologies are shaping the next wave of scientific breakthroughs gave me a new perspective on how I can incorporate these techniques to get more out of my research."
Student representatives from Peter Doherty Institute, WEHI, Peter Mac, ONJCRI and UMCCR helped to organise the symposium, and over 30 postdocs from VCCC partner organisations helped assess student abstracts and judge oral and poster presentations on the day.
Over 30 PhD students gave oral and poster presentations, with prizes awarded to Anne Huber (ONJCRI), Ryan O’Keefe (ONJCRI), Amanda Oliver (Peter Mac) and Lap Hing Chi (ONJCRI) for the best presentations. People’s choice prizes were awarded to Katie Fennell (Peter Mac) and Annalisa Carli (ONJCRI).
Students enjoyed being at the zoo, especially hanging out with the animals in the lunchbreak! Judges and students alike agreed that the diversity of talks was great and were of such high calibre that it was difficult to nominate a favourite.
Students undertaking cancer-related PhDs in VCCC partner organisations are encouraged to join the Comprehensive Cancer PhD Program. To learn more about the Program contact Program Manager Dr Erika Cretney at [email protected].
