Dr Shane Hegarty takes first prize at 'New Horizons Conference 2015'

14 Dec 2015

Congratulations to Dr Shane Hegarty Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience who was awarded Best Poster Prize (1st Place) at UCC College of Medicine & Health 'New Horizons Conference 2015'.

The New Horizons Medical Conference 2015 took place in the Western Gateway building on Thursday 10th December 2015. This Scientific Conference organised by the School of Medicine Research Committee UCC highlights the diverse range of translational research in UCC and included plenary sessions and short oral and poster presentations.

Shane was awarded Best Poster Prize (1st Place) ' for his poster presentation based on an abstract submitted with the following title:  'Smad-interacting protein 1 is a novel regulator of nigrostriatal pathway development, and a therapeutic target for Parkinson's disease'. Shane V. Hegarty, Sean L. Wyatt, Aideen M. Sullivan and Gerard W. O’Keeffe.

The poster detailed the significant findings of Dr Hegarty's recent Post-Doctoral research, funded by fellowships from the Irish Research Council and National University of Ireland, which has identified a novel mechanism which regulates the growth of dopaminergic neurons, the cells that progressively die to cause Parkinson's disease. 

‌Mutahira Lone and Dr André Toulouse

Also making waves at the Horizon Conference was Mutahira Lone, a Senior Medical Demonstrator and PhD Student in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience. Mutahira seen here with her supervisor Dr André Toulouse, developed a cranial nerve animation to enhance dental student learning, and incorporated her video into her poster presentation. She hopes to present this work in San Diego in the new year. (Photos B.Riedewald)