Double KI win in world-leading student awards programme
Karolinska Institutet celebrates a remarkable achievement as two students have been honoured in the prestigious thesis competition Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA) programme. Muriel, a first-semester biomedicine master’s student, and Sophia, a final-semester medical programme student, have both emerged victorious in their respective categories thanks to their theses.
Global winner in medical sciences: paper on gene therapy
Master’s programme in biomedicine student Muriel Gisa Heitsch has been named the global winner in the GUA Medical Sciences category, a title awarded to the category’s best submission worldwide. Her thesis focused on developing a gene therapy for Usher Syndrome 1F, a hereditary disorder causing both deafness and blindness.
Muriel conducted her research at the David Corey lab during a freemover exchange at Harvard Medical School. Alongside being grateful for the wonderful experience in the Corey lab, she is also thankful for the skills her previous and current supervisors at KI have taught her: Hongya Geng (formerly Molly Stevens Group) and Andrea Coschiera (formerly Peter Swoboda Group) as well as current supervisor João Pedro Alves Lopes and the whole Jan-Bernd Stukenborg group.
– It still feels rather unbelievable, but I am very honoured and excited to present my research in Dublin at the Global Undergraduate Summit in November, says Muriel about her win. I am enthusiastic about the project and happy to be able to share it with others!
Regional winner in life sciences: project on surprise mutation in blood-forming gene
Swedish medical programme student Nan Sophia Han was declared regional winner for Europe in the Life Sciences category. The prize is awarded to the highest-performing entrant in each GUA region.
Sophia’s research took an unexpected turn due to a surprise mutation and in the end focused on platelet deficiency, a clinical issue in conditions like liver failure and various blood diseases. Sophia’s work was supervised by Ninib Baryawno at KI and David Sykes, and was also carried out at Harvard Medical School.
– It’s such an honour to have won, especially to be acknowledged in the Life Sciences category as a medical student interested in basic research. I am incredibly grateful to my supervisors for their mentorship and support, Sophia says.
Future aspirations
Winning these awards has further fuelled Muriel’s and Sophia’s aspirations for future research careers.
– I feel very excited about pursuing a PhD and a career in research, Sophia says. I hope I can be a physician-scientist in the future.
Muriel aims to pursue doctoral studies and contribute to advancing healthcare.
– However, this idea existed long before winning the prize. I especially enjoy translational research and exploring new potential treatment possibilities, she says.
Highly commended entrants
The GUA programme also recognises entrants whose papers or projects rank in the top 10% of their category as Highly Commended. Karolinska Institutet is proud to announce that five KI students can be found among these entrants:
- Clarissa Forsström
- Jaskaran Singh
- Jiraphut Kittiwatanachod
- Shu-Hao Thomas Yu
- Lee Jia Qi
Congratulations to all the winners and highly commended entrants from KI! Karolinska Institutet looks forward to your continued contributions to the scientific community.
Submit your thesis to GUA!
Do you want to submit an entry for the upcoming Global Undergraduate Awards programme? It’s quick, easy and free of cost.
The Global Undergraduate Awards page on how to submit an entry