Matthew Lamaudiere wins Coventry University’s ‘Three Minute Thesis’ Competition 2020

On the 16^th January, the Centre for Sports, Life and Exercise Sciences’ PhD researcher gave a quick fire presentation on his research into colon cancer as part of the annual competition.

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition is a worldwide academic initiative which challenges doctoral students to present a clear and coherent presentation of their research topics in just three minutes.

The competition formed part of the Postgraduate Hootenanny, a programme of events put together for Coventry University’s postgraduate community by the Doctoral College and Centre for Research Capability & Development. The 3MT event comprised of two separate heats, with eleven candidates being put through to the final.

First year PhD student Matthew Lamaudiere delivered his presentation ‘Black Hawk Brown’ to a panel of four judges from across the University. His presentation gave engaging and creative insight into his work on active gut bacteria, and the ways this influences colon cancer.

Matthew was praised for the communication of his scientific work. He will now attend the national finals, where winners from across UK universities face off in a nationwide competition.

Read Matthew’s presentation abstract:

Microbiota of the gut is integral to the so-called “germ-organ”, a dense but fragile community of strictly anaerobic microbes, maintaining homeostasis of the gastrointestinal tract. Regulation of the immune system, production of essential and potentially harmful metabolites, alongside harvesting energy from ingested food, have all been attributed to these microbiota. Research surrounding profiles of gut bacteria is inconsistent, especially as the community undergoes uncharacterised dynamic shifts during disease, termed dysbiosis, the expansion or reduction of specific bacteria within the germ-organ. Recently, my research identified dysbiosis with expansion of clinically relevant multi-drug resistance genes on mobile elements within the gut of cattle. This, coupled with discrepancies in data relating to disease-state-associated microbiota led to the aims of my PhD project, investigating the profiles and activity of bacteria in the gut with respect to colorectal cancer, and how exactly the germ-organ influences the disease with a view to developing novel bacteria-supplemented therapy.

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Find out more about the 3MT competition.