Two Life Sciences students awarded Highly Commended at the 2024 Global Undergraduate Awards

The awards for Celest and Oliwia were in recognition of their honours project research which both undertook in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU). 

Celest Tay 

Celest completed a 12-week undergraduate research project in Philip Cohen's lab in late 2023, under the guidance of postdoctoral researcher Tom Snelling. Celest's research project focused on understanding how a particular immune pathway is negatively regulated to prevent the overproduction of inflammatory mediators that cause inflammatory diseases to develop. In her thesis, entitled "A New Feedback Control Mechanism for the Regulation of ADP-Heptose-Induced Pro-Inflammatory Signalling", Celest discovered a new way in which a negative regulator operates to control the strength of the immune response. 

On hearing of her accomplishments, Tom Snelling commented, “Celest was a dedicated student who made substantial contributions to the research project. Her commitment and curiosity were key to its success, and it has been a pleasure to watch her grow as a scientist and see the enthusiasm that led to her to return to the lab the following summer to carry out further research”. 

Upon receiving the award, Celest commented that “I am incredibly grateful to Tom and Philip for their guidance and support during my time in the lab. Not only were they encouraging with regards to my lab performance, both Tom and Philip were also very generous in giving me advice on my career plans. My time in the lab has helped me build confidence as a researcher and fuelled my determination to pursue a career in academia”. 

We wish Celest Tay every success in her future research career. 

This honour follows her earlier success in winning the Best Biomedical Project Poster Prize for the same project from the University of Dundee. 

Oliwia Mruk 

Oliwia conducted her honours studies in the Madsen Lab with a project entitled “Single-cell analyses of dynamic signal encoding within the PI3K signalling network”. During her project, she developed sophisticated computational pipelines to extract previously inaccessible information about cell signalling from experiments that she also helped to execute. The PI3K signalling network is amongst the most frequently dysregulated in major human disorders, most notably cancer. Oliwia’s research, which is also part of a publicly available preprint publication, has contributed to a better understanding of how information transfer is corrupted in cells with cancer-associated mutations in the PI3K signalling network. This now allows the Team to focus on novel approaches to correct this defect, aided by computational approaches that also capture the complexity of the wider cellular context.   

As a Bioinformatics undergraduate student at the University of Dundee, Oliwia had not initially envisaged herself as an experimental scientist. However, the combination of computational and experimental science conducted in the Madsen Lab inspired her to become an interdisciplinary researcher, with a newly discovered love for microscopy.  

Oliwia said, “I am really thankful and happy to see my work being recognised. My time in the Madsen Lab made me discover my true passion for interdisciplinary approaches and a systems understanding of cell signalling. I'm looking forward to continuing on this path with my future work!” 

Just last week, Oliwia officially started her PhD in the Madsen Lab, funded by the Medical Research Council. When asked about Oliwia and her successes so far, Dr Madsen says: “This is nothing compared to what I know she will be able to achieve in the years to come! This is so well-deserved, and I am excited and honoured to be part of Oliwia’s PhD journey. Well done, Oliwia!”. 

About the Global Undergraduate Awards 

It is the world's leading academic awards programme which recognises top undergraduate work, shares this work with a global audience and connects students across cultures and disciplines. 

https://undergraduateawards.com/