Newly-enrolled PhD student Riti Sharan has been awarded with a 'best poster' prize for her Masters research (* details below), during a recent Indo-Australian conference.

Riti, who is supervised by Professor Rob Reed from CQU's Department of Living Systems, won the award during the 5th Indo-Australian Conference on Medical Biotechnology held at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi.

She was delighted to receive her prize from Dr Barry Marshall from the University of Western Australia, who won the The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005.

"I had the honour of meeting Dr Marshall in person at the dinner party hosted by the Australian High Commissioner Mr John McCarthy himself at his residence," Riti said.

"I held the Nobel medal and spoke with Dr Marshall for a few minutes. I also had the honour to interact with other eminent guests from Australian National University, University of Western Australia and Queensland Medical School.

"It has been a very enriching experience and I must say it has inspired me a lot and I have come back with a new vigour to do better and excel in my field."

Riti's PhD research seeks to extend observations that traditional brass and copper vessels used in India have antimicrobial properties when used to store drinking water for 48 hours.

The study will expand the range of organisms tested to include the causative agents of water-borne bacterial disease, especially cholera, dysentery, typhoid and diarrhoea/gastro-enteritis, as well as viral pathogens.

It will establish the effects of water quality on antimicrobial effectiveness and will investigate practical approaches to copper usage in India,  including the use of copper discs in traditional earthernware pitchers, and/or custom-made copper bottles to supply a day's drinking water for an individual child.

Professor Reed and Professor S. Chhibber (Panjab University Chandigarh) have secured funds from the International Copper Association to cover the running costs of the PhD program in India.

* Riti's poster topic was: " A study on putative virulence characteristics of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and establishment of mouse pneumonia model to understand its pathogenesis". Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a bacterium that has been cultured with increasing prevalence from the sputum of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and which has significant resistance to broad-spectrum antibiotics, leading to only limited treatment options.