International Poster Prizes for APCRC-Q Researchers
Dr Jyostna Batra was awarded the Best Poster Prize at the 10th Indo-Australian Conference on Biotechnology, Manipal, India, in April 2014 for her poster entitled: “Exploring the role of miRSNPs in diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer”.
“I am very pleased to have won this award, said Dr Batra. “These results will provide an impetus for future diagnostic genetic tests for cancer risk assessment and prevention management and would be the first step towards miRNA-based pharmacogenomics. The findings will also be applicable to other hormone-related cancers including ovarian, breast and colon cancers, through our collaborative research.”
Dr Carolina Soekmadji also received a Best Poster Prize for her poster entitled: “Exosomes influence proliferation of androgen sensitive prostate cancer cells” at the 3rd International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) meeting.
This major international meeting held in Rotterdam in May 2014 attracted nearly 700 delegates. “It was an honour to win this award,” said Dr Soekmadji. “My poster presentation described our research into the effects of androgen deprivation, dihydrotestosterone, and an androgen antagonist, MDV3100, on secretion of exosomes from prostate cancer cells.
“Exosomes are vesicles secreted by cells,” Dr Soekmadji explains. “They mediate cell-to-cell communication. This field is fairly new in prostate cancer, and we are investigating the role of exosomes via high throughput analysis.
“Understanding the role of exosomes in prostate cancer will allow us to develop exosome-targeted treatment in the future. We also collaborate with other groups around the world, supported by Movember’s Global Action Plan, to help make this vision a reality,” she adds.
Congratulations to the winners & finalists of the 2014 TRI Poster Symposium
The 2nd Annual Translational Research Institute (TRI) Poster Symposium for Early and Mid-career researchers was held on the 16 October 2014 at the TRI on the Princess Alexandra Hospital Campus, Brisbane.
APCRC-Q researcher, Dr Jyotsna Batra was awarded second place in the Oral Presentation category for her presentation on the role of miRSNPs in diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. This work combines the well-established mechanism of miRNA regulation in the prostate cancer aetiology with the unexplored area of regulatory genetic variants in untranslated gene regions to yield clinically-relevant information. Dr Batra presented some findings from her research, which innovatively combines expertise in genetic, molecular, and computational biology to increase our understanding of cancer biology.
Ms Nataly Stylianou came second in the Poster Presentation category with her poster entitled: “Investigating the Role of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Plasticity in Prostate Cancer.” Nataly’s research involves understanding the process by which cancer cells acquire the ability to spread in the body and form secondary tumours. With this knowledge, Nataly aims to identify therapeutic targets that could inhibit cancer cells from spreading.
