Cardiff medical student wins prestigious national research award
6 August 2026
A Cardiff University medical student has received a prestigious national award in recognition of her research into improving treatment for people living with ulcerative colitis.
Sara Lyden won the Medical Student Prize at the 2026 Falk Foundation/Guts UK Awards for her project, Integrating histo-molecular patient profiles with patient reported symptoms and quality of life measures in ulcerative colitis.
The annual awards celebrate emerging researchers and healthcare professionals who are advancing patient care and research in gastroenterology and hepatology.
She received the award, together with a £1,500 prize, at the annual meeting of the British Society of Gastroenterology in Liverpool.
Sara is currently undertaking an intercalated MSc(Res) in Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences. She will return to Cardiff University School of Medicine in September to complete the fifth and final year of her medical degree.
Sara's research explores how the molecular and cellular characteristics of bowel tissue are linked to the symptoms experienced by people with ulcerative colitis. By combining tissue analysis with patients' reported symptoms and quality of life measures, the project aims to improve understanding of why individuals respond differently to treatment and support the development of more personalised approaches to care.
"The three most common symptoms experienced by patients living with ulcerative colitis are diarrhoea, bowel urgency and increased stool frequency, all of which can have a significant impact on quality of life. There remains much uncertainty regarding a patient's response to treatment and, for many people, current therapies are ineffective and often an educated guess. We will investigate associations between these Ulcerative Colitis symptoms reported by patients and the histo-molecular profiles of their bowel biopsies. By linking these profiles to date-stamped symptoms and quality of life experienced by that patient, we aim to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis. This knowledge can potentially be leveraged in future to tailor medications to individuals and optimise care. I hope that, ultimately, it helps to improve the lives of patients, even if in a small way. Prior to commencing medical school, I worked as a research assistant on the TrueColours-IBD study, where I first developed my passion for gastroenterology and research… Receiving this award has reinforced my interest in pursuing a career in gastroenterology and research."
The Falk Foundation/Guts UK Awards have recognised outstanding early-career healthcare professionals for more than two decades, supporting research that advances the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with gastrointestinal and liver diseases.
"Understanding the cellular basis of disease is central to delivering precision medicine, particularly when predicting whether patients will respond to advanced therapies. Understanding the cellular basis of disease is pivotal to precision medicine, and matters to patients, especially in the context of response or non-response to current advanced therapies. Sara’s MRes is the first time that a comprehensive scientific approach has been applied at scale to everyday symptoms in ulcerative colitis, such as bowel urgency. This is an exciting project.”
To find out more about studying Medicine at Cardiff University and the opportunities to get involved in world-leading research, visit the School of Medicine MBBCh page.