Earlier this week, the Unit came together to share some of the latest research updates from all of our lab groups and facilities, as well as celebrating some of our research adjacent successes from 2023.

This year we launched the MRC Toxicology Unit Research Lecture Award. This is to recognise the contribution of a postdoctoral researcher or PhD student to an outstanding piece of published research. Our inaugural winner was Dr Tom Mulroney who started our day with our Research Award Lecture covering his work from the publication "(N)1-methylpseudouridylation of mRNA causes +1 ribosomal frameshifting" published in Nature on 6th December 2023. Learn more about this work in our news article.

PhD students Yizhou Yu and Naomi van den Berg shared Non-Research Flash Talks highlighting some of the achievements and events they had been a part of outside of the lab this year. Yizhou shared a snapshot of his experience as part of the Falling Walls competition, and Naomi highlighted the importance of the fight against misinformation and what she has been doing this year as co-president of Students Against Pseudoscience.

We had talks and posters on display from researchers from across our research groups, as well as our 2nd year PhD students taking part in our first internal 3 Minute Thesis competition. Students had three minutes and one slide to pitch their PhD topic to a lay audience, with many of our event attendees describing it as the "highlight of their day".

After talks from three of our incredible facilities, Prof Marion MacFarlane rounded off the day with her keynote talk all about the highlights from our Fibre Toxicity programme.

To wrap up our festivities, prizes are awarded for mentoring, EDI, research support staff, student of the year, public engagement, seminar speakers, science-art and prizes for our Science Day also. Below is a list of this year's winners:

• Mentor of the Year: Dr Georgina Anderson, Chapman group
• Culture, Diversity and EDI: Dr Sina Beier, Bioinformatics Facility
• Student of the Year: jointly awarded to David O'Loughlin, MacFarlane group and Odara Medagedara, Mennella group
• Research Support Staff of the Year: The Media Kitchen Team (Francesca Smith, Charlotte Miller and Daniela Mazzeo)
• Public Engagement: Indra Roux, Patil group
• Science-Art Prizes: Indra Roux and Emily Horner, Thaventhiran group
• Best PhD seminar: Yizhou Yu, Martins group
• Best postdoc seminar: Claudia Arnedo Pac, Aitken group
• Science Day 3MT winner: Rebecca Raven, Willis group
• Science Day Presentation Prize: David O'Loughlin
• Science Day Poster Prize: Tiago Marques Pedro, MacFarlane group

The winner's were nominated and voted for by their colleagues for their impact and work this year.