GAITHERSBURG, Md., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- MedImmune today announced winners of a research abstract competition highlighting the work of tomorrow’s potential scientific leaders in respiratory disease, inflammation and autoimmunity. Last Friday, MedImmune convened the competition’s 10 finalists to present their research to an expert panel of MedImmune judges in the Third Annual Research Abstract Competition at the company’s headquarters facility in Gaithersburg, MD.
“One of our primary objectives at MedImmune is to promote and advance health and science education, and this competition allows us to do that for researchers pursuing advanced degrees in the therapeutic areas of respiratory disease, inflammation and autoimmunity,” said Anthony J. Coyle, Ph.D., vice president, research and development and head, inflammation and autoimmunity research. “It is encouraging to see the high caliber of scientific research that went into the submissions we received. The students represented here embody the future of science leadership, and we at MedImmune are honored to play a part in their careers by providing some recognition for their hard work.”
The competition was open to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the United States and around the world. The team of MedImmune judges evaluated the abstracts according to the following criteria: Ethics, suitability of methods to aims, conclusions confirmed by objective results, scientific value, potential clinical value, originality of work and overall presentation.
The following three winners were selected based on scientific merit, presentation content and delivery:
First Place: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Postdoctoral Student Irving Allen. The title of his abstract is, “The NLRP3 Inflammasome is Essential for the Regulation of Innate Responses to Influenza A Virus Infection.”
Second Place: Harvard University Postdoctoral Student Anneli Jaeger. The title of her abstract is, “Tracking of TH17 Cells & New Populations of IL-17-Expressing Cells with IL-23 Receptor (IL-23R) GFP Reporter Mice.”
Third Place: National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Student Karen Muindi. The title of her abstract is, “Cellular Lipids & Immunity: Characterization of Glycolipids Binding the Antigen Presenting Molecule CD1.”
“I would like to thank everyone at MedImmune for sponsoring this competition,” said Irving Allen, first place winner and a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It has been a great experience for me and I am hopeful that this research will ultimately yield therapies to treat a variety of human diseases.”
About MedImmune
MedImmune is a leading innovation-focused biotechnology company whose mission is to provide better medicines to patients, new medical options for physicians and rewarding careers to employees. Dedicated to advancing science and medicine to help people live better lives, the company is focused on infection, oncology, respiratory disease and inflammation, cardiovascular/ gastrointestinal disease and neuroscience. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, MedImmune has approximately 3,000 employees worldwide and is the wholly owned biologics business for AstraZeneca plc . For more information, visit MedImmune’s website at www.medimmune.com.
CONTACT: Sidoney Atse of MedImmune, +1-301-398-5990
Web site: http://www.medimmune.com/
