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Professor Caceres receives inaugural Wellcome Trust AwardProfessor Caceres receives inaugural Wellcome Trust Award

June 2011

Professor Javier Caceres has been awarded one of the inaugural Investigator Awards from the Wellcome Trust to pursue his work on the role of RNA-binding proteins in regulating gene expression and how alterations to RNA processing mechanisms can contribute to human disease. Investigator Awards provide funding for scientists with an excellent track record and in an established post. The awards offer the flexibility and time to enable them to tackle important research questions.

The Wellcome Trust has appointed 27 Investigators (7 New Investigators and 20 Senior Investigators). Most of the Investigators are based at institutions across the UK - from London to Liverpool and Edinburgh to Manchester - and one is a researcher in Brazil. The awards will range from around £1 million to £3m.

Dr Caceres is a Prgincipal Investigator at the MRC Human Genetics Unit (MRC HGU, Edinburgh) and an Honorary Professor at the School of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, University of Edinburgh. His laboratory based at the Chromosomes and Gene Expression Section (MRC HGU) is interested on the regulation of gene expression. Their focus is on the role of RNA-binding proteins (RNABPs) in gene expression and how alterations to RNA processing mechanisms can contribute to human disease. This represents the only award to an Investigator based in Scotland during this first round of applications.

Related Links

Outstanding researchers receive inaugural Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards

Professor Javier Caceres research page (MRC Human Genetics Unit)




 

 

IGMM news and events The 2011 Max Perutz Science Writing Award

Edinburgh MRC scientists scoop prestigious writing award

September 2011

Two young scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Edinburgh have been honoured in The Max Perutz Science Writing Prize, a national competition organised by the MRC.

The award is aimed at supporting and rewarding scientists to convey the importance and excitement of their work in a way that is accessible to everyone. MRC-funded PhD students were asked to write 800 compelling words about their research in a way that would interest a non-scientific audience. This year's essays, as ever, were written with passion and skill, covering an array of topics, from strokes to sleeping sickness, blood pressure to bipolar disorder.

The judging panel included MRC chief executive, Sir John Savill; Guardian science and environment correspondent, Alok Jha; science writer, author and broadcaster, Georgina Ferry; director of the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, Professor Mahesh Parmar; and last year's Max Perutz winner, Nicola Illingworth from Newcastle University. All judges noted the exceptionally high standard of this year's shortlisted entries. Catherine Mercer of the HGU was shortlisted for the award in 2010.

The writers of the shortlisted entries were invited to attend an awards reception in London. The Edinburgh-based winners were John Rushton, from the Centre for Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh and Neshika Samarasekera, from the Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Edinburgh. Professor Max Perutz, who died in 2002, was a world-renowned scientist who helped to found and later led the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of the blood protein haemoglobin.

Professor Perutz inspired countless young scientists and encouraged them to communicate their research in plain language to those whose lives are changed through their work.

Related Links

For more information about the competition and to enter next year