Biomedical Graduate Symposium |SoPhie AVeRy (2009)
The fourth annual Balliol Biomedical Graduate Symposium took place in Holywell Manor on 17 May 2014. The event saw six of Balliol’s final-year DPhil students give presentations on their thesis work, which covered diverse areas of the biological sciences, ranging from electrophysiological responses to noxious stimulation in anaesthetised children, to computational models of the heart. The best presentation prize was awarded to Eleanor Grant for her talk entitled ‘The Effect of Early Visual Deprivation on Corticothalamic and Corticotectal Development’. The runner-up prize was awarded to Hilary Martin for her presentation ‘An Early Look at Platypus Population History Using Whole-genome Sequencing’. The event included poster presentations by first- and second-year DPhil students, which again covered a broad range of the biomedical sciences, from modelling of bacterial biofilms to the neuropsychological effects of benzodiazepines. The best poster prize was awarded to Sophie Avery for her work ‘Modulation of Firing in Distinct Types of Globus Pallidus Neuron In Vivo by
Dopamine D2 Receptor Activity’. The runner-up prize was awarded to Natasha Ng for her poster ‘Multiple Coding Variants in G6PC2 Cause Loss of Function and Influence Fasting Glucose Levels’. The symposium was fortunate to host the guest speaker Greg McInery, a Senior Research Fellow from the 2020 Science project. Dr McInery gave an insightful lecture on techniques for data presentation, entitled ‘Small Multiples: A Simple Data Visualisation Method with Big Effects’. The symposium was well attended by students and SCR members, including many outside the department. One attendee, Rami Amin – President of the Balliol MCR at the time – noted: ‘Holywell Manor is the heart of the Balliol graduate community, so we were excited to be having the conference here. The event was smoothly organised from start to finish and I have no doubt the successful outcome of the organisers’ efforts will inspire Balliol members from other departments to organize similar academic conferences at Holywell Manor.’ The organisers wish to thank Manuela Zaccolo (Professor of Cell Biology and Tutor in Biomedical Sciences)
for overseeing the symposium, Jonathan Bard (Lecturer in Systems Biology), for his help on the day and his financial contribution, Tom Melham (Praefectus) for the use of Holywell Manor, and the College for its help funding the event.
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James gilbert
Varsity triumphs
Rowing: graduate student Caryn Davies, a double Olympic champion, was stroke in the Oxford women’s boat which beat Cambridge in the first women’s Boat Race to be held on the Championship course on the same day as the men’s race. golf: playing in Oxford’s sixth win in a row against Cambridge, graduate student Brian Wilson (2011) won his match by 10&9, the largest Oxford winning margin achieved during the previous six victorious matches.
Musical double bill
Rugby: undergraduates Will Beynon and Oliver Johnson-Munday were in the Rugby Union Blues Squad which formed the team that defeated Cambridge.
In Hilary Term 2015 DPhil student Lucy Rayfield directed Sparagmos, a musical double bill of Euripides’ Bacchae and Poliziano’s Orpheus. Ben van Leeuwen (Senior Organ Scholar) wrote an original score for the production. Many of the actors and production team were from Balliol, including Ivo Gruev (left) and Fiona Skerman (right).
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