Congratulations to Dhanya Ravindran and Dr Lining (Arnold) Ju, who both took home awards from the 2018 Joint Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society (AAS), Australian Vascular Biology Society (AVBS) and High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia (HBPRCA), held in Glenelg, Adelaide, 27–30 November.

Dhanya Ravindran

As a PhD candidate with the Vascular Complications Group at HRI, and representing the AAS, Dhanya was awarded Best Student Mini-Oral Presentation for her work entitled "Broad-spectrum chemokine inhibition blocks inflammation-induced pathological angiogenesis but preserved hypoxia-driven physiological angiogenesis". She was also awarded a travel grant by AAS.

"I am grateful to have received this award while I'm in the final stretch of completing my PhD. It was extra special to have my colleagues, who have supported me throughout my studies, by my side," Dhanya says.

Dr Lining (Arnold) Ju

Dr Ju received the Achievement and Career Development Award at the Joint Meeting. He is a National Heart Foundation of Australia Postdoctoral Fellow (2017–19) with the Paul Korner Innovation Award, and a postdoctoral scientist in the Thrombosis Group at HRI.

Over the last five years, Dr Ju has developed a state-of-the-art biomechanical nanotool (biomembrane force probe – BFP), the first of its kind in Australia, to study platelet mechanobiology. This nanotool represents a significant departure from traditional biological studies of protein-protein and cell-cell interactions after prolonged incubation and is uniquely suitable for studying these interactions in rapidly circulating blood where these interactions occur repeatedly, but very briefly.

“This work allows me to carve out an exciting niche to study thrombotic diseases, such as heart attack and stroke, in a more physiologically relevant environment, and has the potential to lead to new diagnostic and therapeutic applications,” says Dr Ju.