By Laura Eggertson

Three Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine students took the top prizes at this year’s Falling Walls Lab competition, which showcases innovative solutions to the world’s pressing problems.

Constadina Rogers, Alexa Wilson, and Melina Marketjohn won first, second, and third in the competition on September 17th, in which 14 participants had three minutes to pitch their idea to topple an obstacle that is holding back global progress.

Ms. Rogers also won the “People’s Choice Award,” which audience members selected.

The competition attempts to answer the question “What are the next walls to fall in science and society?”

Ms. Rogers, a Master’s student in biochemistry and molecular biology, gave a winning presentation describing her research to create a biological recycling process.

She fused a hydrophobin, a type of protein found in fungi, to a plastic-degrading protein. The result is a bioengineered solution to degrade plastics naturally, she says.

“Imagine a world where you can take your plastic bottle, and make it degrade, just like that,” she told the judges, providing a symbolic demonstration by dropping cotton candy into a glass of water to turn the solution purple.

“Economic, efficient, and environmentally friendly.”

New drug target

Ms. Wilson, a PhD candidate in microbiology and immunology, described the relationship she discovered between two proteins involved in cancer-causing herpesviruses, and the relationship’s potential as a new antiviral drug target.

“I discovered a new viral target that no one thought was possible. It represents a new hope for antiviral therapeutics,” she said.

Ms. Marketjohn, who is in her second year of medical school, is investigating how to pair the post-auricular muscle with hearing aids. Connecting the hearing aids to the muscle would allow it to “steer” the aids in the direction where sound is originating and improve the way people who are hearing-impaired function in social settings.

“The post-auricular muscle, just behind your ear, is vestigial,” she explained. “But is it really vestigial? By implementing post-auricular muscle control into hearing aids, you are opening a new realm of possibilities for hearing aid users.”

The Falling Walls Foundation honours the spirit behind the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, marking the symbolic end to the Cold War, and also commemorates November 9, 1938, when Nazis took to the streets of Berlin to burn synagogues.

Dr. Andreas Kosmider, the managing director of the Falling Walls Foundation, was in the audience at the Dalhousie event and praised the competitors for their innovative ideas and pitches.

On November 9 every year, on the same street where the Berlin Wall once stood, the Foundation assembles leaders in academic, science, technology, and government to identify the next walls to fall, he said.

“But this will only work if brilliant young minds bring in new ideas,” Dr. Kosmider said. “We are all in this together. We will make walls fall, based on these fantastic ideas.”

A panel of five judges, including Dalhousie President Kim Brooks, ranked the participants on their idea’s breakthrough factor, impact, and performance.

Ms. Rogers, who won both first place and the audience favourite prize, now goes on to compete in the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin from November 7 to 9.

“For me, it’s a huge honour to be able to make science accessible,” Ms. Rogers said in an interview. “Science plays a really heavy role in our understanding of the world today.”

Ms. Rogers grew up in Halifax and is excited about being able to represent Nova Scotia in Berlin and to speak in front of global leaders in science, business, and innovation.

“To have the privilege of standing up in front of them – it’s a pretty big deal,” she says.

Dr. Alice Aiken, Dalhousie’s Vice-President of research and innovation, described the hope and excitement the Falling Walls competition instills in those who compete and those who hear the competitors’ ideas.

“Promise for the future is what we need right now,” she said. “With climate change making its presence known with greater urgency, increasing evidence of social strife in our communities, and armed conflicts dominating the headlines, we need to remember there are brilliant young people working on solutions.”