PhD represents Faculty of Medicine at elite Bioscience conference

The University of Sydney representative at this year's BioVision.Nxt conference is literally one in one hundred. Mark Elkins, the University of Sydney representative at this event, is a PhD student at the Central Clinical School and the Woolcock Institute.

Only 100 PhD students were selected to participate in this event, 85 coming from North America, Europe, Japan, China and India. Mark is one of only 15 PhD students from the rest of the world invited to this prestigious meeting. The University of Sydney was chosen to nominate suitable candidates and Mark was selected as the University of Sydney representative.

The BioVision.Nxt conference is held in conjunction with the World Life Sciences Forum to be held in Lyon. The gathering has multidisciplinary approach covering the themes of Science, Society and Industry. The audience is also multidisciplinary, with top flight PhD and MBA students from the world’s leading universities and research institutes having been invited. The aim is to provide a stimulating environment in which to discuss the opportunities for commercialization of scientific findings in the life sciences

"This opportunity is coming at just the right time for our research," says Mark. Mark is part of a team investigating ways to treat cystic fibrosis. His work is supervised by Dr Peter Bye at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Dr Jenny Alison from the School of Physiotherapy. The team has recently completed a successful trial investigating the effectiveness of hypertonic saline as an expectorant for patients with cystic fibrosis.

"The regimen of inhaling hypertonic saline is difficult for patients to comply with because the current delivery systems are so slow. The next phase of our research is to investigate more efficient delivery systems. As the conference provides a unique opportunity for biotechnicians, business leaders and IP specialists to get together, I am sure I will walk away from BioVision inspired about how to take our work forward," says Mark.

Mark is committed to reporting back from the conference. A feedback session will be held following his return.