Thomas Angell wins Physiological Society prize for undergraduate research
The Physiological Society has awarded the 2024 Undergraduate Prize for Physiology to Christ Church medical student Thomas Angell for research completed in the final year of his BA in Medical Sciences. Thomas was nominated for the prize by University of Oxford examiners who identified his third-year research project as the best in his cohort.
As part of the third-year Final Honours School (FHS) examinations in Medical Sciences, all candidates are required to undertake a research project. For his research, Christ Church’s Thomas Angell chose to examine the distribution of iron in the spinal cords of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients to better appreciate whether it may be causing the death of nerve cells (neurodegeneration) that drives disability.
As Thomas explains, ‘Most prior research in this area has focused on the MS plaque (focal lesions characteristic of the disease). In my research I diverted attention to areas outside these plaques – something that had been largely neglected until this point.
‘We discovered that areas of higher iron deposition outside the plaque correlates with a specific marker of axonal injury – cases in which nerve fibres (axons) are subject to oxidative damage.’
Through a College Travel Grant provided by Christ Church, Thomas had the opportunity to present these findings at the world’s largest neurology conference – the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting – held this year in Denver, Colorado.
I thoroughly enjoyed performing the research and am very grateful to have my work recognised.
I thoroughly enjoyed performing the research and am very grateful to have my work recognised.
The University of Oxford examiners were deeply impressed by Thomas’ research, judging his FHS project to be the best submitted this year. The examiners elected to bring the research to the attention of the Physiological Society – Europe’s largest and oldest network of physiologists – and to nominate the work for the Society’s 2024 Undergraduate Prize for Physiology.
Upon learning of his award, Thomas thanked his mentors at Christ Church and the University of Oxford: ‘I was delighted to find out that I had received this award. I thoroughly enjoyed performing the research and am very grateful to have my work recognised. I would like to thank my supervisors in the De Luca lab and my tutors at Christ Church for their support.’
Having graduated with a BA in Medical Sciences, Thomas now transitions to the clinical phase of his medical training, which he will also complete at Christ Church. ‘I am excited to see what this new stage of the course holds and look forward to continuing research in the lab to better appreciate the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in MS.’
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