The Brain Health Research Centre held it's 13th annual conference last week, with the theme of women's brain health. Over 100 neuroscientists from across the University of Otago attended the conference, held in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
The conference was opened with a public talk by guest speaker Dr Belinda Henry from Monash University. Her talk "Lighting the fire in fat: Why women are protected against metabolic disease" presented evidence for how the brain controls body weight and estrogen's role in this process.
The main day of the conference had 13 emerging researchers at Otago presenting their research, as well as two more senior keynote speakers, Dr Andrea Kwakowsky, from the University of Auckland, and Professor Liana Machado, from the Psychology Department at Otago.
In addition to these oral presentations, there were a record number poster presentations from BHRC students and early career staff. Madeline McIntyre Wilson, Shivani Sethi, and Sandesh Panthi won poster prize awards for their exceptional presentation skills. Bradley Jamieson, a PhD student from the Physiology Department at Otago won the best speaker prize presented by Lab Supply.
