MRC Human Genetics Unit
Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit

John Inglis prize, best student presentation

We are delighted that Reka Nagy and Jon Wells have won this year's John Inglis prize for the best student presentation: June 2016

Student awards 2016

The panel takes into account both the quality of the science and the presentation itself. This year's standard was very high with all the students giving excellent presentations. 

Reka and Jon have given a brief description of what they work on below:

Reka: ‘You have your mother’s eyes’ or ‘You are growing up to be just as tall as your father’ are both examples of how our traits are heritable – that is, children inherit these (any many more) traits from their parents. Similarly, certain diseases, such as Huntington’s disease and some types of cancer are known to ‘run in the family’, where members of a family with a history of the disease are more likely to develop it during their lifetimes than the general population. While we have uncovered a wealth of information about how our traits are influenced by our genes (the heritable ‘instructions’ that tell our cells what to do), we still can’t fully explain what causes all the diversity we see between people. The aim of my research is to further this knowledge by studying a variety of traits within large family-based cohorts, to see how variations in these traits can be explained by the underlying genetics. This will enable us to better predict the traits of a person, given only their genetic information, which will help with, for example, being able to diagnose a disease at a more early stage (possibly even before any visible symptoms have appeared), which can have direct consequences over our ability to manage, treat, or even prevent disease.

 

Jon: Through my PhD research I am trying to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of protein complex assembly. In particular, I am interested in understanding how the cell regulates assembly under normal physiological conditions, and the implications for human disease when this process goes wrong.