2022 Early Career and Hastie Career Advancement Fund Awards announced
We're delighted to announce the latest winners of the Early Career and Hastie Career Advancement Fund Awards. September 2022
The Institute of Genetics and Cancer Early Career Award provides researchers with the chance to develop ideas and gain experience, training and practice in applying for grants. Funds were awarded via competitive assessment by a panel drawn from across the IGC. This year the panel felt the standard of applications was extremely high with a large number of exciting studies with much potential for translation.
The award supports:
- Pump-priming research projects to attract future grant support
- Funds for consumables and access to equipment for specific experiments
- Support for visiting other labs to undertake specific research
- Funds for conferences or training courses related to a specific project
- Translation of research ideas for commercialisation
In addition, the Hastie Career Advancement Fund award was launched in 2018 to honour the legacy of Emeritus Professor Nick Hastie. It has become the most prestigious award and supports talented early-career scientists at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer to progress in their careers.
We're excited that we can now announce the winners of these awards.
Early Career Awards
Congratulations to our 6 Early Career Award winners:
- Chloe Stanton (Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Vitart Lab) - Developing a high-content screening assay to identify compounds to increase collagen expression by keratocytes
- Antonia Churchouse (ECAT Clinical Lecturer - Myant Lab) - Investigating tryptophan depletion as a source of Dock2-mediated colonic tumourigenesis
- Craig Steven (PhD Student - Brunton Lab) - Raman-active probes for histopathological screening of cancer tissues
- Aslihan Bastem (PhD Student - Myant Lab) - In vivo inhibition of alternatively-spliced Kras4B isoform in advanced colorectal tumorigenesis
- Hazel Thoms (Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Stark Lab) - Development of a Phenotypic Assay to Identify agents that mimic the effects of aspirin against colon cancer (some funding contributed by iTPA translation Fund)
- Grant Marshall (Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Abbott Lab) - Generating a face valid mouse model of eEF1A2-related epileptic encephalopathy (some funding contributed by iTPA translation Fund)
Hastie Career Advancement Fund Award
Congratulations also to Rafael Contreras Montoya (Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Unciti-Broceta Lab) who has received funding from our most prestigious Hastie Career Advancement fund award. It was awarded for work titled 'Biocompatible protein crystal-based devices for chemotherapy drug bioorthogonal release.'
As former Director of the Institute and the MRC Human Genetics Unit, Professor Hastie played an active and inspirational role in the careers of hundreds of research scientists and continues to do so through the Fund. A committee of current researchers from across the Institute assessed the applications to select the winner. As part of this award, Rafael will also get the chance to present their work to Nick Hastie and get his help, career advice and support.