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Sussex student wins leading charity's science accolade
By: Tom Walters
Last updated: Friday, 19 February 2016
Virginia Mahieu accepting award from Dr Sohaila Rastan
Virginia Mahieu, 22, a third year Neuroscience student, has beaten competition from across the UK to win charity Action on Hearing Loss’s annual Summer Studentship Project Award.
Virginia completed an eight week research project under the guidance of Professor Guy Richardson, where she screened 5,200 compounds to see if any could protect the special cells in the ear that detect sound - called hair cells - from the destructive effects of a certain class of antibiotic.
Virginia was awarded the prize by the charity’s Executive Director of Biomedical Research, Dr Sohaila Rastan, in a ceremony in Brighton.
She said: ‘I’m delighted to receive such a great award from Action on Hearing Loss for my winning research project, which I’ll use as a springboard to continue my studies into hearing research. It was great to identify nearly 200 compounds that have protective properties. Much more research is needed, but it is possible that some of these could be administered with neomycin and other aminoglycoside antibiotics during treatment to minimise or prevent hearing loss.’
Dr Sohaila Rastan, Action on Hearing Loss Executive Director of Biomedical Research, said:
‘Virginia’s project is a great example of how our Summer Studentships can provide valuable research experience to promising students. One of our key aims is to increase the number of scientists working in the field of hearing loss research, and providing opportunities to inspire talented students like Virginia is a good way of doing this.’
The charity invited universities from across the UK to apply to the scheme, awarding grants to 11 of them so they could give undergraduate scientists the chance to get involved in research into deafness, tinnitus and hearing loss through placements in world-leading laboratories.
Action on Hearing Loss runs the largest donor-funded deafness, tinnitus and hearing loss research programme in the world, funding cutting-edge research to find treatments and cures for hearing loss and tinnitus.