A student from the University of Wolverhampton is celebrating after scooping an award at a prestigious sciences conference.

Award winning Rhiannon Baggott, a third year PhD student at the University of Wolverhampton.

Rhiannon Baggott, a third year PhD student at the University, claimed one of the poster abstract prizes on offer by the European Society for Microcirculation (ESM) at this year’s International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) Conference.

The event took place on Wednesday last week at The ICC in Birmingham.

Rhiannon’s poster detailed her research currently being carried out under the supervision of Dr Angel Armesilla, Reader in Molecular Pharmacology at the University.

Rhiannon is investigating if a membrane protein can control the formation of new blood vessels, known as “angiogenesis”. If successful, this protein could impact on the progression of tumours and inhibit other harmful conditions such as diabetic retinopathy.

Speaking about her research, Rhiannon said: “When the angiogenesis process becomes unregulated it is associated with several diseases, therefore it would be beneficial to find a regulator of this process which we hypothesise could be this molecule.

“Knowing our work is being recognised outside of the university is more than I could have asked for and I hope this is the start of a long and exciting scientific career for myself.

“I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Angel Armesilla, without whose support I would not have learnt and accomplished as much as I have.”