Young Microbiologist of the Year 2018 Competition: meet the finalists

24 July 2018

The Microbiology Society is pleased to announce the finalists of the 2018 Sir Howard Dalton Young Microbiologist of the Year competition. The final will take place during our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in September.

The competition, which is closely fought every year, gives early career microbiologists the chance to go head-to-head to be recognised as the best communicator of the year. The finalists, shortlisted by the Society’s Divisions from entrants presenting at the 2018 Annual Conference and Irish meetings, will each give a 15-minute presentation about their research. The winners are chosen by a judging panel, headed by the Chair of the Society’s Professional Development Committee.

The 2018 Sir Howard Dalton Young Microbiologist of the Year Competition finalists and their talk titles are as follows:

Eukaryotic Division

• Paula Seoane, University of Birmingham – Exploring the effects of interferon α on Cryptococcus neoformans infection.
• Freddy Bunbury, University of Cambridge – Vitamin B12 deprivation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Irish Division

• Cathy Abberton, National University of Ireland, Galway – Development of a novel antimicrobial for the treatment of bovine mastitis.
• Katherine Dadswell, University College Cork – Ethanolamine metabolism during urinary tract infections.

Prokaryotic Division

• Stephen Dolan, University of Cambridge – Knowing the enemy: how does Pseudomonas aeruginosa regulate carbon flux through its glyoxylate shunt?
• Courtney Kousser, University of Birmingham – Pseudomonas aeruginosa inhibits Rhizopus microsporus germination through sequestration of free environmental iron.

Virology Division

• Laura Caller, University of Cambridge – Identifying protein activities essential for efficient BK polyomavirus replication through quantitative temporal viromics (QTV) and cell cycle inhibition.
• Rute Maria Pinto, Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh – Identification of novel polypeptides expressed from segment 2 of influenza A viruses that modulate the type I interferon response.

All Microbiology Society members are invited to attend this year’s final at the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 6 September. Find out more, including the day’s full schedule, here.