Last month, Dr Raju (24) became the first New Zealander in at least 20 years to win the prestigious Hatton Competition, announced at the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) conference in Toronto, Canada.
The competition is for research carried out by dental students in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.
"I was ecstatic when they told me I had won. I couldn't believe it," Dr Raju, whose earlier success won her travel to the conference, said yesterday.
The former Queens High School pupil graduated from the University of Otago School of Dentistry last year and this year is a house surgeon at the dental school and Dunedin Hospital.
Her research, completed during the 2006-07 summer break, investigated why the fungi which cause mouth infections in people with dentures or those with weakened autoimmune systems become resistant to the most common drug used to treat them.
She discovered two specific sites where proteins pump drugs out of the fungi cells - a finding which might enable other researchers to create a new drug to target those sites.
The Hatton award won Dr Raju a prize of US$1000.
It also brought overseas job offers, she said, although she had not accepted any.
"I don't think I'll be going anywhere. I want to stay in Dunedin for a while yet."
