Heart Science Team win 1st place

Science in Medicine Heart winners

Concord students have emerged winners of the “Heart” category of Imperial College’s Science in Medicine competition.

The team of six students proposed a non-surgical treatment for arrhythmia which utilised optogenetics. Their ideas and explanation of the science won them first place in a final round of 10 school teams from across the nation.

The Optogenetic Pacemaker team of Amae, An, Eliana, Simon, Sohaib and Thomas addressed the difficulties with surgically implanted pacemakers as well as learning about and communicating state of the art technology in gene therapy, sensors and ai pattern recognition.

“Taking part in the Imperial competition was one of the most intellectually stimulating and rewarding experiences I have ever undertaken!” explained Amae (6.2) who was team-leader.

“Over months of ideation, discussion, and research, our team innovated a non-surgical pacemaker. This Optogenetic Pacemaker is designed to shine light onto heart cells that are genetically modified to contain a photosensitive protein in order to induce a regular heartbeat.

It was an incredible opportunity to conduct independent research in cardiology and genetics, which are areas of personal interest to me.

“Working with a team of great minds led me to appreciate the value of multidisciplinary groups. Different group members focused on different areas based on their strengths and interests in physiology, engineering, economics, and illustration.

“Together, we achieved a greater collective outcome than any of us could have reached alone. Winning first place was the cherry on top! I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.”

Coming only a week after their colleagues in the Lung category also won first place, Head of Science Barry Brown was impressed with both teams , and noted that a third team whose project focussed on Global Health have also reached their final.

“It really is extraordinary that, for the second week running, a team of Concordian scientists have won a prestigious competition against an arrays of very talented students from some of the other trop schools in the country.” he said.

Mr Brown continued: “This challenge was not just about being good at science, they needed to innovate and develop a novel solution to a problem using creativity and a high degree of collaboration from across all the science disciplines.

“In addition to this, their ability to communication their ideas fluently and cope with difficult questions from researchers at Imperial was simply a joy to behold.

“They truly are the scientists of the future and I have every confidence that they will go out and make the world a better place through science.”