A lecturer at the University Centre South Devon has attended a prestigious international conference in Canada as part of his PhD research, enabling him to share cutting edge research with his students.
Ken Armstrong, who has been lecturing in Chemistry and Biosciences at UCSD for 11 years, is studying for a PhD in Medical Studies funded by UCSD, and was invited to attend the 16th World Congress on Inflammation held in Quebec City, after submitting an abstract (a summary of his research), which was placed in the best 90 selected to be posters at the conference.
Posters from around the world are displayed for the duration of the conference and, during two poster sessions, the poster authors talk guests through their research and answer questions.
Ken Armstrong with his PhD research poster
As part of his PhD research into nitrated proteins in inflammation, Ken presented a poster titled “Fibrinogen is one of the major proteins which undergoes reactive nitrogen species-mediated damage in human plasma”, and during the poster sessions he answered questions from scientists from all over Europe, USA, and Canada, as well as from Egypt and Jamaica.
Ken said: “Nitration is a type of damage that occurs to proteins during inflammation, which is the body’s response to tissue damage. It is hoped that nitrated proteins will be a better biomarker of the levels of inflammation than those currently used.
“My students get the benefit of my up-to-date knowledge of the field as well as more modern techniques to those traditionally used.
“The students enjoy hearing about the progress of my research and often have questions and like to see the results of my experiments. I will display the poster from this conference in my laboratory at South Devon College and welcome the students reading it and asking me questions.”
Ken’s attendance at the conference was partly funded by UCSD, and it was an unforgettable experience.
He continued: “I was able to use some additional funding that I received for completing a laboratory-based project to attend the conference.
“Quebec is a beautiful city, where 96% of the population speak French as a first language, something I hadn’t quite appreciated. I was extremely proud to be able to display my research alongside the best in the world, on inflammation. This would not have been possible without the support I receive from UCSD.”
As well as hoping to continue lecturing at HE level, Ken will now be sharing his vast knowledge and experience with FE students as a teacher at South Devon College.