Southampton researcher strikes gold at the Houses of Parliament

University of Southampton PhD student, Miguel Xavier, was awarded the gold medal for excellence in Engineering research at the STEM for Britain 2017 competition.

Miguel's work resulted from a collaboration between Professor Richard Oreffo, Director of the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration, in the Faculty of Medicine, and Professor Hywel Morgan in Electronics and Computer Science; and the University of Dresden, as part of a European Consortium. It focuses on the use of new techniques based on microfluidics to isolate skeletal stem cells from human bone marrow, and promote bone and cartilage regeneration, with the potential to directly impact people’s lives.

Miguel’s work was distinguished amongst 60 other high quality selected applications after scrutiny from a panel of expert judges. Miguel came out as the overall Engineering winner in the only national competition of its kind.

This prestigious competition took place on the 13 March during British Science Week. It aims to give young researchers the opportunity to present and discuss their work with the members of both Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

Every year STEM for Britain rewards some of the strongest research being undertaken across the UK. The competition is split into five categories, Engineering, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

It also presents a unique opportunity for politicians to understand more about the UK’s thriving science research projects.