The Young Life Scientists Awards are part of Promega's commitment to research in the UK and this year, for the first time, focused on specific areas of research
In 2003, Promega made three awards to young UK life scientists. The Young Life Scientists Awards are part of Promega's commitment to research in the UK and this year, for the first time, focused on specific areas of research: biochemistry, genetics and immunology.
The award winners were: young biochemist 2003 - Katherine Green, MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit, for her work on 'The role of uncoupling protein-2 from pancreatic beta-cells'.
Young geneticist 2003 - Mario Gomes-Pereira, University of Glasgow, for his work on 'Chemically induced modification of DNA dynamics: towards chemogenetherapy in the repeat expansion disorders'.
Young immunologist 2003 - Babak Javid, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, for his work 'Sub-nanomolar concentrations of HSP70-peptide complexes generate efficient antigen specific human CTL responses'. Promega runs the awards along with the Biochemical Society, the Genetics Society and the British Society for Immunology.
The journal Science is also involved as media sponsor.
Each of the recipients had to present their research at the relevant society's annual meeting and defend it in front of a panel of judges.
As a prize, the winners received £600, a crystal trophy and a year's subscription to Science.
Prizes of £400 and £200 were also awarded for second and third places. Commenting on the awards, Nicola Bramwell, marketing and business development manager at Promega, said: "We would like to congratulate all of this year's winners, and hope they continue their research careers in the UK.
"The standard of entries was very high and in each case, the judges had a hard decision in choosing the winner.
"Because of the success of these awards to date, we are delighted to announce that for 2004, we will be introducing a fourth category to the awards - Young experimental biologist of the year in conjunction, with the Society for Experimental Biology".
To be eligible to enter, society members must be PhD students or within the first year of a post doc position and apply by submission of an abstract for consideration at the relevant Society's annual meeting. Information on the 2004 awards can be found on the Promega website.
