Sigrid is a third year PhD Candidate at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research specialising in epigenetic inheritance and neuroscience. Her research focuses on an epigenetic regulator (PRC2) which is required in oocytes for growth and development in offspring. The study uses a genetic mouse model to investigate how altered epigenetic programming in the oocyte affects learning capacity, brain development and behaviour in the next generation. Sigrid is passionate about bridging the gap between scientific research and society through effective scientific communication.

Georgia is a third year PhD Candidate in the Mood Psychosis Spectrum Group at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne. With a background in biomedical science, her research interests are centred in understanding the biopsychosocial mechanisms underpinning mood disorders. Specifically, Georgia’s PhD explores the relationships between white matter microstructure, cognition, stress and inflammation in bipolar disorder. In addition to her research, Georgia is passionate about mentoring, student equity and advocacy.

Pia is a second year PhD Candidate at the Central Clinical School, Monash University. Her research focuses on using genomics to improve prognostication and outcomes for people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Specifically, Pia’s thesis will explore genetic predictors of treatment response, epigenetic predictors of disease severity, and the molecular underpinnings of the long-term effect of pregnancy in women with MS. Many neurological diseases are complex phenotypes with outcomes that are incompletely explained by only genetic or environmental factors, but instead an interaction of both. Pia is passionate about combining neuroscience and genomics to study those interactions & help improve the care of people with MS.

Shania is a third year PhD Candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience at Deakin University. With a background in Biomedical Engineering, her research interests are centered in using various neuroimaging techniques to understand the developmental brain changes in children with ADHD. Specifically, Shania’s thesis explores the development of functional and structural connections of the brain in children with ADHD compared to typically developing children with the help of various network based approaches. Shania is passionate about exploring longitudinal neuroimaging techniques to help identify neurobiological markers to assist clinical diagnosis and treatment of several neurodevelopmental disorders.

Amy is a first year PhD Candidate in the Melbourne School of Psychological Science at The University of Melbourne. Her research explores behavioural markers of Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS), a little-known neurological condition that she has had for her whole life. People with VSS see TV static across their entire visual fields, all of the time - including with their eyes closed. Amy’s research will use visual psychophysics to investigate differences in functional vision between people with VSS and people with normal vision. Prior to returning to study in 2018, Amy worked in media, marketing and communications for a range of non-profit and educational organisations including Teach For Australia and the University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association.

Ginevra is a second year PhD Candidate in the Neurodevelopment in Health and Disease Program at RMIT. Her research is focused on analysing neurobehavioral outcomes following intrauterine growth restriction. She seeks to determine whether thyroid hormone analogues can effectively improve the development of a growth restricted brain throughout adolescence and young adulthood. Ginevra is passionate about this work as it holds great promise for the translation into clinical settings.

Aleks is a third year PhD Candidate at Monash University. Her research is focused on characterising brain connectivity in depression following non-invasive brain stimulation treatments. Aleks is motivated by the notion that if this avenue of treatment develops, it will be fast and easy and highly applicable to clinical settings in deciding what treatments patients would benefit from the most.

Chalystha is a second year PhD Candidate from RMIT University. Her research explores neuroimmune interactions between the gut and brain in a mouse model of Autism. Chalystha is passionate about gut-brain interactions and finds it fascinating that the enteric nervous system, or brain in our gut, is as capable and complex as the central nervous system

Sadia is a third year PhD Candidate in Pharmacology, at Monash University. The aim of Sadia’s research is to explore the mechanism underlying the allosteric modulation of the Delta Opioid Receptor. She is investigating species dependence, probe dependence, and biased modulation of the lead allosteric compound and novel synthesised analogues to help overcome the liabilities of orthosteric ligands and lead to a more optimal treatment of pain.

Abdul is a second year PhD Candidate in Biomedical Science at RMIT. His research revolves around understanding gyrification. This notion of how and why the brain folds is believed to be one main reason why we are the most intelligent creatures. Abdul is motivated by the novel aspects of his project and rises to the challenge of understanding, at the cellular level, how the brain develops and folds.

Ryan is a second year PhD Candidate in the Neurodevelopment in Health and Disease Program at RMIT. Ryan’s research seeks to understand the developmental, genetic and mechanical drivers of brain folding, by utilising 3D stem cell models (aka brain organoids) to further advance novel tools that don’t rely on the use of animals in biological research. Ryan is also an active science communicator and is passionate about promoting critical thinking while making science accessible to all.

Izel is a third year PhD Candidate in Neuroscience at Deakin University. Her research is centred on validating relaxin family peptide receptor-3 (RXFP3) as a promising pharmacological target to treat stress and feeding. Izel has systematically mapped and identified over 200 brain regions and illustrated the distribution of fluorophore density levels of RXFP3 cells expressing neurons in parallel with our previous RXFP3 mRNA distribution.