Awards are given to Affiliate Members of The Physiological Society every year sponsored by Pfizer in recognition of excellence in research presented at the Society’s annual Main Meeting, Physiology in six categories: Cardiac & Respiratory Physiology, Cellular & Integrative Neuroscience, Epithelia & Membrane Transport, Human & Exercise Physiology, Metabolism & Endocrinology and Vascular & Smooth Muscle Physiology. Candidates are registered for a higher degree by research in a department of a higher education institute in the UK or the Republic of Ireland. Submitted abstracts are judged first by a Scientific Advisory Board and selected papers are presented in a 10 min oral communication.
This year’s Pfizer Prize in Cellular & Integrative Neuroscience was awarded to Unit DPhil student Linda Katona for her paper “Somatostatin-expressing interneurons: segregation of network operations in the hippocampus of freely moving rats”, which she presented at the 2014 meeting 30th June - 2nd July at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London. Linda has revealed the cell-type selective synaptic connections of several distinct GABAergic, somatostatin-expressing interneurons, and defined their firing during rhythmic neuronal network activity in the rat hippocampus under the joint supervision of Professors Peter Somogyi and Thomas Klausberger and she concluded this work in a recently submitted DPhil thesis.