Inara Liepina, Leicester 2014 MIBTP student, is part of a group who have won their regional heat to reach the final of the Biotechnology Yes competition in London next month.

Inara and her team mates (Leicester students Akang E. Ekpenyong-Akiba, Razif Abas and Meetal S. Solanki) who named themselves the Hotbronze Product Group, formulated a novel self-tanning lotion (CareTan) that can stimulate melanocytes to produce more melanin, giving rise to an even and long lasting skin tan.

Hotbronze Product Group were one of two winning teams from their heat who will now compete at the final on 5th December 2016 in London.

Mussa Quareshy, who is a 2012 cohort Warwick student, has just been awarded two travel grants in order to allow him to attend The International Plant Growth Substances Association 2016 meeting in Toronto.

The grants, awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Vegetable Research Trust (VRT), will enable Mussa to present his work on novel auxin herbicide discovery at the meeting.

Matt Teft, a second year MIBTP (Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership) student, is part of a team that has won an award for Public Engagement at the University of Warwick Staff Awards.

The MIBTP is a BBSRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership between the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham and Leicester. As part of their training, the BBSRC requires students to complete a Professional Internship for Phd Students (PIPS). Matt participated in the University's activities at the Cheltenham Science Festival in June 2015 as part of his PIPS and has written a blog of his experience: blogs.warwick.ac.uk/mibtp/entry/cheltenham_science_festival

Matt is a PhD student with Dr Miriam Gifford in the School of Life Sciences working on a project entitled 'Investigating conservation of function of SCARECROW-LIKE/GRAS transcription factors and their interactions in controlling root architecture responses'.

Matt Teft, a second year MIBTP student, is part of a team that has been nominated for the Warwick University Staff Awards - in the Public Engagement Category. Matt participated in the University's activities at Cheltenham Science Festival as part of his PIPS. The awards evening is on March 11th so fingers crossed!

Maura di Martino, a second year MIBTP student, worked with the Global Plant Council for her PIPS. Part of this involved translating plant science lectures for the Gatsby Summer School program as part of their educational outreach. These lectures are on cutting-edge plant science research and available here.

MIBTP student Andrew Tock made a short video about his PIPS placement in Uganda - highlighted by BBSRC and the Global Food Security programme.