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A 17-year-old science/law student from The University of Western Australia was today named one of four winners of the prestigious sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge announced at the BIO International Convention 2008, the world's biggest biotechnology event, in San Diego.

The BioGENEius Challenge is an annual competition for high school students that recognises outstanding research in biotechnology. Bindhu Holavanahalli was one of 16 finalists, representing six US regions, Western Australia and Canada. WA was the first location outside North America to participate in the challenge.

The finalists presented their research this week to a panel of distinguished scientists, educators, and biotechnology leaders who chose the top four winners.  All competitors displayed their research for the estimated 20,000 BIO Convention attendees.

Ms Holavanahalli joined the challenge last year during her final year at Shenton College as part of the Learning Links program between UWA and Shenton College, coordinated by teacher Warwick Mathews. She has been under the Young Scientist mentorship program of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at UWA.

Under the mentorship of the Centre's Dr Aneta Ivanova, Ms Holavanahalli completed a project which used cutting-edge biotechnology to investigate the effects of post-harvest treatments such as sulphur dioxide on table grapes.

"This study was able to give new information to the scientific community and table grape industry on the effects that these treatments have on a molecular level of the grape," Ms Holavanahalli said.

Her project was part-funded by an ARC Linkage grant to Professor Jim Whelan, from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology and Dr Michael Considine and Dr SC Tan, from the WA Department of Agriculture.

Another West Australian, 16-year-old Oliver Tester took third place in the BioGENEius Challenge, winning US$2,500. A student at Murdoch College, he was mentored by Murdoch University staff. Ms Holavanahalli was awarded US$1,000 for fourth place.

NB: Pictures of Bindhu Holavanahalli are available on request.

Media references

Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716