The Symposium of WA Neuroscience 2019 (SWAN 2019) was held at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in mid-September, and a number of Ear Science researchers attended. Several team members also gave poster and oral presentations.
“This conference was an interesting exhibition of the neuroscience research that is going on around the different research institutes in WA,” explained research fellow Dr Abbie Francis.
Dr Francis presented a poster on her research into the genetic properties of patients with Usher Syndrome.
“There were also a few presentations from other researchers working on gene editing methods similar to our work in Usher Syndrome, so it was very valuable to learn more about designing and testing these experiments.”
PhD student Hadeel Tarawneh had the opportunity to give an oral presentation on her work investigating the relationship between the brain’s electrical responses to sound and cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Events like this are valuable because they allow presenters to gain experience and practice presenting their research in a concise and engaging way to a multi-disciplinary audience,” said Ms Tarawneh.
“I learnt how to summarise my work into three minutes, which makes it easier to explain for better and quicker networking.”
Dr Francis agrees that events such as SWAN 2019 are good practice for younger researchers.
“It’s helpful for our students to learn from the presentation styles of others, for example what works well and what is less effective. This is particularly beneficial in the ‘3-minute-thesis’ style short presentations,” said Dr Francis.
“This conference was very well attended, and both the Ear Science Basic and Clinical research teams both had a significant presence in terms of speakers, posters and attendees.”
“Overall, it was a great learning and networking opportunity.”
Learn more about our basic and clinical research projects.
