Congratulations

Prof Stephen Jane congratulating

Eleanor Woolveridge on her award

Eleanor Woolveridge has received a scholarship from The Royal College of Pathologists of Australia for her project about the clinical relevance of concentrations of BAFF/APRIL heterotrimers in the serum and urine of patients diagnosed with Primary Sjogrens Syndrome (pSS). pSS is an autoimmune disease, in which lymphocytes get into salivary glands and tear ducts. The scholarship is offered annually for projects associated with pathology, jointly developed by a student and supervisor. Eleanor's supervisors were Prof Fabienne Mackay (Head, Department of Immunonology), Dr Andrew Wei and Dr Fabien Vincent. Well done Eleanor!

The Australian delegation with
Minister Andrew Robb
(Photo: David Fisher)

Central Clinical School's Rebecca Segrave recently attended the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Germany, along with 37 Nobel laureates in science and 600 early career researchers from all over the world. She is featured in ABC's Science Show which can be viewed here. According to Rebecca, the week was an inspirational one.
"The week has exceeded every expectation that I had. It has been inspirational. I'd seen the motto or the slogan—inspire, educate, connect—but I didn't really identify with it, and all of those things have been true for all of us and I think that is what has made the meeting. We are inspired in a way we never imagined we would be..."
Australia was represented as a group at the conference, which Rebecca says was a great way to experience the seminar.

"There is no other country that has had what we have. They haven't come here as a unit. And I think that has worked really well for us to meet people...we really feel like a unit now at the end of the week," she said.

Apart from fostering strong friendships, Rebecca said that the meeting was a wonderful opportunity to see what other researchers have done in their fields.

"Being here this week with other researchers and hearing the Nobel laureates has just pushed that all the way...we are so inspired to go back to Australia and do science again and make it about science and not about funding and worry and pressure". 

Find out more about the conference.