"I want to take this opportunity to extend my warmest congratulations to the research students who are graduating today. Our students are at the core of what we do, and who we are. We would not be here without them." said Professor Graham Mann, Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research. 

This cohort of students have overcome extreme challenges. From the fires and storms that shut down the university over summer, and the global pandemic that has wreaked havoc on our lives for many months now. Our midyear graduands have faced these challenges at a crucial time of submission and completion of their work.

First, please join us in congratulating our students who have been approved for conferral of a Doctor of Philosophy at the July 2020 graduation, and those who have received their PhD conferrals out of session. These are wonderful and hard-won achievements.

ACRF Department of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics

• Christine Shu Mei Lee | Of HIT, Scissors and Rocks - Mechanistic basis of GPVI shedding in heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
• Laura Llewellyn Ferguson | Targeting ribosome biogenesis and metabolism in acute myeloid leukaemia
• Shouvik Aditya | The interactive role of STAC3 in the skeletal excitation-contraction coupling machinery

Department of Genome Science

• Alyssa Rhiannon Morse | Mind-reading receptors: The role of the vasopressin receptor 1a gene (AVPR1A) in human empathy, social interaction and health

Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases

• Alicia Stephanie Wilson | Neutrophils and Th17 cells in neuroinflammation
• Koula Esta Maria Diamand | Molecular analysis of the ZIC3 and TCF7L1 interaction and its implication in human heterotaxy
• Sreeja Roy | Impact of viral vectors on vaccine design: IL-13Ra2 in DC regulation
• Thilaga Velusamy | Role of herpes simplex virus 1 protein ICP47 in antigen presentation and pathogenesis

Eccles Institute of Neuroscience

• Deborah Anne Wohlfahrt | TRP channels and a dextran sulfate activated rise in intracellular Ca2+ and Na+ in a subpopulation of double positive thymocytes
• Michael Lawrence Castanares | Optical imaging of dendritic spikes in apical oblique dendrites of layer 5 pyramidal neurons

Please also join us in congratulating our Honours and Masters students who are also graduating at this time.

• Lachlan Deimel | Honours - Immunology and Infectious Diseases
• Hyunjin Kim | Honours – Department of Genome Sciences
• Becan Dalton | Honours - Immunology and Infectious Diseases
• Joshua Waterhouse | Honours - Immunology and Infectious Diseases
• Matthew Kenna | Masters - Eccles Institute of Neuroscience
• Shujia (Sam) Zhang | Masters - Immunology and Infectious Diseases
• Vijay Bhoopalan | Masters - ACRF Department of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics
• Guo Yiru | Masters - Eccles Institute of Neuroscience

"To our students, you may know exactly where you are heading for further study or work at this point. I also know that for many of you the only thing that might be certain just now is uncertainty in the world, or in your own lives. The future is always there for us to shape, but especially in uncertain times. So I encourage all of you to be brave and take chances and wish you every success." continues Professor Mann.

"Finally, I would also like to extend my sincere thanks, and that of the School, to your supervisors, mentors, peers and support networks both inside and outside JCSMR. And to our hard-working academic coordinators and administrators, past and present - these are your achievements too, many thanks."