Promega UK has announced Dr Kim van der Heiden from Imperial College London as the winner of 2009's UK Young Life Scientist Award.
Van der Heiden was presented with the award - GBP2,000 in cash and the equivalent in Promega products - at the Young Life Scientists' Symposium: Neurological Disorders - From Molecules to Medicine, held at Bristol University.
She beat more than 160 applicants to win the award, with second place going to Kerstin Voelz of Birmingham University, and Leila Luheshi from the University of Cambridge taking third place.
Van der Heiden's research, sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, focused on the role of the shear stress-induced transcription factor Nrf2, in protecting arteries from susceptibility to atherosclerosis.
She also demonstrated that Nrf2 could be activated by a dietary antioxidant (sulforaphane) that is present in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, suggesting a possible novel therapeutic strategy to prevent or reduce atherosclerosis.
The symposium was also supported by the Biochemical Society, the Physiological Society, the Genetics Society and the British Pharmacological Society along with Science Magazine and Promega UK.
