Prestigious Physiological Society Oral Presentation Prize for Child Health PhD Student

Rachel Woods, a PhD student in the Division of Child Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the School of Medicine, has won the prestigious prize for her oral paper presentation at the Physiological Society annual conference.

Rachel is entering the final stages of her PhD under the supervision of Professors Michael Symonds and Helen Budge.  Her paper was entitled “Supplementation of the maternal diet with canola oil during lactation leads to increased UCP1 levels in adipose tissue of the offspring”. This summarised the main findings of her research focusing on brown adipose tissue as a potential target for combatting obesity (due to its ability to expend energy). Rachel’s work has identified subtle changes to maternal fatty acid intake during lactation has the potential to increase offspring’s brown adipose tissue activity which may have long lasting health implications. These finding could eventually help further refine the composition of infant formula milk to improve health.

As part of the Early Life Research group in Rachel works with a number of senior academics, postdocs and fellow PhD students exploring new pathways to improve the short and long-term health of babies and children.