News 2023

The University has launched a new strategy on how it will use its world-class research and innovation to tackle some of the society’s biggest challenges.

Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, has opened the Institute for Regeneration and Repair South building (IRR South).

A new Discovery Research Platform launched today and funded by £9 million grant from Wellcome, will reveal deep insights into the inner world of cells, shedding new light on diseases and antimicrobial drug resistance.

An ambitious project to sequence the genomes of all eukaryotic species found in Britain and Ireland has passed a major milestone.

Dr Sandy Hetherington, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in biological sciences, in recognition of the exceptional impact and promise of his research.

The Max Planck-Humboldt medal 2023 has been awarded to Dr Amy Buck, Professor of RNA and Infection Biology, for her research into inter-species communication via RNA. The medal will be presented this November in Berlin. 

Dr Sandy Hetherington, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to investigate the evolution of Fibonacci spirals.

Dr Giovanni Stracquadanio, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Synthetic Biology, and Co-director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry, along with Prof Susan Rosser and Dr Eve Miller-Hodges, is the recipient of a UKRI - Artificial Intelligence Innovation to Accelerate Health Research Award.

A team of Scottish researchers is exploring a new process that could see plastic waste from industrial processes used to manufacture pharmaceuticals for neurological conditions, in what is believed to be a world first.

Dr Frank Machin, a Postdoctoral Research Associate has won the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) Early Career Researcher (ECR) prize. Dr Machin is the SULSA ECR Prize Winner 2023 in the Plant category.

Professor Eleanor Riley has been awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to immunology in the King’s Birthday Honours 2023.

A 3D model of a 407-million-year-old plant fossil has overturned thinking on the evolution of leaves. The research has also led to fresh insights about spectacular patterns found in plants.

A research team developing enzyme replacement therapies for people with rare diseases has been awarded £74,600 in funding from Scotland’s national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise.

Dr Stephen Wallace, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, has been named winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Norman Heatley Award.

Dr Richard Milne has been awarded Teacher of the Year in the College of Science & Engineering at the Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) 2023 Teaching Awards.

Professor Sally Lowell, Personal Chair of Stem Cell Biology and Early Development in the Institute for Stem Cell Research, has joined 58 other outstanding biomedical and health researchers elected to Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship.

Professor Loeske Kruuk has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, in recognition of her exceptional contribution to science.

A £9 million grant from Wellcome will fund a new Discovery Research Platform that will reveal deep insights into the inner world of cells, shedding new light on diseases and antimicrobial drug resistance.

A new study, conducted by an international team of researchers, has constructed the largest cellular proteomic map to date, which could pave the way to new disease insights and treatments.

Dr Aida Rodrigo Albors and Dr Richard Wheeler have been awarded one of the University of Edinburgh’s most prestigious fellowships to develop their innovative work.

A study of Britain’s native flowering plants has led to new insights into the mysterious process that allows wild plants to breed across species - one of plants’ most powerful evolutionary forces.

A successful Africa-led global health research programme, contributing to World Health Organisation (WHO) policy development, has shared the key to its success and is calling for a shift in the centre of gravity of health research, designed to benefit developing countries.

Professors Karen Halliday and Steven Spoel have been named as Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh within the 2023 cohort.

A video-game based model of infectious disease spread will form the basis of a pilot public engagement project that aims to engage Scottish communities with public health research data.

In February we welcomed two researchers from Engage Nepal with Science - a project initiated in the School to engage Nepalese communities with STEM - to explore new research collaborations and conduct public engagement with Scottish schools.

The higher prevalence of common cold viruses in Africa may have helped the continent experience relatively lower death rates from Covid-19, a study of people in Zimbabwe suggests.