Michael McManus Award 2018: Liya Mathew

We are pleased to announce the recipient of the Michael McManus award for Best Student Paper for 2018…

as Liya Mathew, currently of The NZ Institute for Plant and Food Research, for her paper, “Cold, antioxidant and osmotic pre-treatments maintain the structural integrity of meristematic cells and improve plant regeneration in cryopreserved kiwifruit shoot tips.” Protoplasma,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-018-1215-3. The paper describes the development of a droplet vitrification protocol for cryopreserving the vegetative tissue of kiwifruit, and shows the importance of a combined cold, sucrose and ascorbic acid pre-treatment of tissue for post-cryopreservation survival, and that only the cells that have been dehydrated and plasmolysed can withstand cryopreservation by vitrification. Liya completed this work during her Masters research, which was conducted at the University of Otago and The NZ Institute for Plant and Food Research. Liya will be presented with her award at ComBio2018, where she will give a symposium presentation about her research.

For more information on the Michael McManus Award, see here.