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Postgraduate student's award-winning drug research

6 June 2007

Michelle Halls has won a prize for an outstanding presentation at an international pharmacologists' meeting.

Monash postgraduate student Michelle Halls won the prestigious DiscoveRx prize for best oral presentation at the recent Focused Meeting on Cell Signalling held in Leicester, UK.

Her work, being carried out in the Department of Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, identifies novel signalling mechanisms used by the recently discovered receptors for relaxin family peptides.

These show promise as novel drug targets for the treatment of fibrosis associated with diseases such as heart and kidney failure.

Her supervisor, Professor Roger Summers, said Ms Halls gave an impressive presentation to the meeting, which is a significant gathering of some of the world's leading pharmacologists.

"This is an outstanding achievement for Michelle, who was the clear winner from presentations given -- not only by other postgraduates but also postdocs and research fellows," he said.

Ms Halls received a trophy and cash prize from the President of the British Pharmacological Society, Professor Graeme Henderson.