Jeff Smith MP this week met with 3 Manchester Withington constituents in Parliament to celebrate their research and contribution to science.

The ‘STEM for Britain’ competition and exhibition is an annual event which encourages engagement between early-stage scientific researchers and policy makers. It provides Parliamentarians with the opportunity to see and hear first-hand the excellent work being undertaken in research institutes throughout the country, and to offer their support to researchers in the early stages of their careers.

Participants compete nationally for a prestigious prize for the best poster presentation. 3 of Jeff’s constituents, students of Manchester University, were selected to participate in the event.

Jeff first met Abigail Bryce-Atkinson and Angela Davey, 2 PhD students based at the Christie Hospital who are both part of the Adaptive Radiotherapy Group at Manchester Uni.

Jeff heard from Angela about her work using learnings from lung cancer patients who had undergone initial treatment to personalise and improve their future radiotherapy treatment. He also spoke to Abigail about her work looking at the optimisation of image-guided radiotherapy for children with cancer.

Jeff then spoke to Harry Potter, a PhD student looking at how activation of a mother’s immune system during pregnancy, such as by infection, is a known risk factor for schizophrenia in the child later in life. He explained his findings about how the maternal environment, during inflammation, affects offspring neurodevelopment and causes this risk.

Jeff said:

“Abigail, Angela and Harry are all conducting such vital research which has the potential to transform lives – whether it’s children and adults with cancer in need of radiotherapy treatment or people suffering from chronic mental health problems.

“It was fantastic to meet such impressive young people working in STEM, and to be able to show my support for their work as their local MP. I wish them all the very best with finishing their PhDs and advancing in science!”