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UWA Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory (OBEL) postgraduate student Kelsey Kennedy's mentoring has helped Iona Presentation College Year 11 student Tess Douglass to qualify as one of only two finalists in the BioGENEius Challenge of WA.

The BioGENEius Challenge of WA is an inspirational opportunity for some of the state's top science students to work alongside experienced scientists and participate in real-life laboratory projects. WA is the first region to participate in the BioGENEius Challenge outside of North America since the initiative began in 2002.

Kelsey and Tess were paired together as mentor and student by the organisers of the BioGENEius Challenge in mid-May last year. They worked collaboratively on the project, entitled 'Simulation of human breast tissues for development of a novel guidance technique for breast conserving therapy' between June 2011 and January 2012.

The aim of the project, as described by Kelsey, was "to create a physical model of breast cancer to be used as an imaging target in the development of a novel optical imaging probe at the Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory." In order to achieve this, Tess set out to learn about the mechanical and optical properties of healthy breast tissue and tumours, and then created an imaging target in the lab which simulated those properties. The results of Tess’s project are contributing to research which will eventually provide guidance during breast cancer surgery.

As a postgraduate student, Kelsey states that through the experience of mentoring Tess she has "gained a much deeper appreciation for the complexity involved in developing and executing a research project with a student" and as a result she feels better equipped to scrutinise and improve her own future research directions.

Kelsey and Tess will now travel to Boston, USA in June to participate in the International BioGENEius Challenge, held in conjunction with the BIO International Conference. They will represent WA and compete against finalists from the USA and Canada.

Media references

Winthrop Professor David Sampson (OBEL) (+61 8) 6488 7112
Kelsey Kennedy (OBEL) (+61 8) 6488 1518
Shannon Hooper (Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics) (+61 8) 6488 3992