Success for undergraduate and postgraduate DDUH researchers at Irish Division of IADR Annual Scientific meeting

The Irish Division of the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) held its annual scientific meeting on the 5th February 2021. Due to the current COIVID-19 pandemic this meeting was held virtually.

At the meeting there were a total of 37 oral abstracts presented in four prize competitions as well as non-prize oral research presentations. The day was divided into 2 streams in order to manage the volume of research presentations submitted. DDUH was well represented with submissions in all categories. The most prestigious competition is the Hatton prize, which is an annual international research competition to showcase the best dental and craniofacial research. There are separate undergraduate and postgraduate categories with the winner of the Irish Division award going to the General Session of the IADR to be held in hybrid format in Boston, Massachusetts on the 21st-24th July 2021.

The DDUH is delighted to announce that students from the DUUH won both the undergraduate and postgraduate Hatton awards this year. Komal Virk (Year 5 Dental Science) won Irish Division Undergraduate Hatton Prize Award with a project title ‘Infection prevention and control and sustainable dentistry: A comparative life cycle analysis of reusable and single-use dental personal protective clothing (gowns)’. The project was supervisee by Drs Brett Duane and Darshini Ramasubbu, while Jessica Fletcher a microbiology PhD student form Division IV won the Irish Division Postgraduate Hatton Award (sponsored by Dentsply Sirona) with a project entitled ‘The TLO gene family influences fitness and virulence of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans’. This work was supervised by Professor Derek Sullivan and Dr Gary Moran.

DDUH would like to congratulate both Komal and Jessica on their success and wish them well in the international competition.