Biological Responses to Interferences with Biotic and Environmental Factors
Pest Management Group meeting, Bracknell, 26 April 2006
On 26 April 2006 the Pest Management Group held a research seminar for postgraduate students to present their research to delegates from both academia and industry. The meeting, ‘Biological Responses to Interferences with Biotic and Environmental Factors,’ was held at the Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre, Bracknell, and Syngenta kindly hosted the event to include lunch and refreshments as well as use of the lecture facilities.
This level of generous support from such organisations goes a long way to ensuring the success of student events, as delegate registration fees can be kept low thereby encouraging the attendance of more students.
The event itself was an intimate affair with 32 attendees, giving plenty of opportunity for students and delegates to network during the day. A broad selection of topics was covered, with seven oral presentations. Nine posters were presented during an extended lunch. SCI’s prizes of £100 each for the best oral and poster presentations were much appreciated. The chairman of the event, Len Copping, along with Mark Cronin and two Syngenta representatives, Rob Lind and Andrew Crossthwaite, judged the presentations. The prize winners were:
Clare Couldridge, University of Birmingham, for her oral presentation, and Anna Schierbaum,
University of Portsmouth, for her poster (both pictured below).
The oral presentations were:
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Best oral presentation:
Clare Couldridge,
University of Birmingham |
Chlorophyll-a fluorescence as a biomarker for rapid toxicity assessment
Patricia Fai, University of East Anglia
- Exploring plant responses to aphid feeding using a full Arabidopsis microarray reveals a small number of genes with significantly altered expression
Clare Couldridge, University of Birmingham (best presentation)
- Understanding ethylene mediated defences in Arabidopsis thaliana against Botrytis cinerea using metabolomic approaches
Amanda Lloyd, University of Aberystwyth
- Factors influencing sorption of ionisable pesticides in soils
Melanie Kah, University of York
- Investigating the translocation of xenobiotics: from spray droplet to insect target
Miriam Daniels, University of Birmingham
- Increased control of resistant pests by the use of temporal synergism
Georgina Bingham, Rothamsted Research
- The role of the applicability domain in predictive toxicology
Mark Hewitt, Liverpool John Moores University
The poster presentations were:
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Best poster presentation:
Anna Schierbaum, Syngenta |
Endophytic fungi from marine and shoreline plants: bioactive metabolite production
Anna Schierbaum, Syngenta (best poster)
- A metabonomic study using high field NMR to study aspect of ecotoxicology of non-target aquatic organisms
Will Tuffnail, University of Portsmouth
- A preliminary field study monitoring the spawning grounds of Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar
Lucy Evans, University of Portsmouth
- Cyclodextrins as tool for assessing biological availability of pesticides to soil biota
Andreou Kostas, University of Lancaster
- The influence of earthworms on the fate and behaviour of isoproturon in soil.
Helen Clegg, University of Lancaster
- Na+ Channels and Insecticides
Paul Verdin, University of Nottingham
- Pre-treatment of PBO Restores Pirimicarb Susceptibility in Aphis
gossypii and Myzus persicae
Georgina Bingham, Rothamsted Research
- Revealing host metabolome reprogramming by the economical important fungal plant pathogens Botrytis cinerea and Magnaporthe grisea.
Amanda Llyod, University of Aberystwyth
- Interpretation of EPR spectra of copper (II) clofibrinates with clofibric acid in solid state
Miroslava Kleinova, Liverpool John Moore University
Since the event, we have received many compliments from both delegates and students. They found the day very useful since it provided opportunities for networking and presenting their research to a friendly, yet critical, audience.
Here is a selection of the students' comments:
‘I found it very interesting to meet all these other PhD students based in other universities and to have the opportunity to exchange our experiences’
Melanie Kah
‘Thank you for organising a wonderful day, the discussions and questions after were really useful and not at all scary which was very nice! I found the judges very approachable and asked them about my poster and slides afterwards which was very valuable.’
Amanda Lloyd
‘I enjoyed the day very much and have learnt a lot from it, certainly Syngenta provided a great venue and a great lunch.’
Mark Hewitt
‘I would like to thank you for organising such a brilliant conference, I really enjoyed it, I look forward to being an SCI member.’
Georgina Bingham
- PhD students can get free SCI membership in their first and final years! Click here for details
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