School of Life Sciences

Honours, fellowships and other awards for the period 1st August 2013 – 31st July 2020:

Our School includes 8 FRS, 30 FRSE, 12 EMBO members, 3 CBE and 2 Knighthoods.

During the REF period, honours and awards to UoA5 staff include:

Dundee part of UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium

Professor Doreen Cantrell is the lead academic representing Dundee in the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium. Doreen and colleagues will be involved in studying the role the immune system plays in determining variation in susceptibility to primary infection and how this varies over time.

Life Sciences Graduate has COVID-19 research published in microbiology journal

A University of Dundee graduate has discovered key information that will help scientists better understand the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. Conchita Fraguas Bringas’ has had her research into SARS-CoV-2 published in the journal Access Microbiology, a rare achievement for an undergraduate. Remarkably, Conchita’s computer-based bioinformatics project was undertaken while under the strict Spanish lockdown and while she was completing the final exams of her Biological Sciences degree.

Andy Howden Q&A

Andy Howden, from Dundee, is a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Doreen Cantrell’s lab in the Division of Cell Signalling and Immunology at the University of Dundee. Andy has been working on a COVID-19 project funded by the Chief Scientist’s Office, Scotland since it was awarded in May.

What COVID-19 project are you working on?

Frances Wong Q&A

Frances Wong is from and still lives in Edinburgh. She works remotely as part of the OME team where she is the Curator for the Image Data Resource (IDR). Since March, Frances has shifted from blended working to being based fully at home.

What COVID-19 project are you working on?

Jason Swedlow Q&A

Born in Los Angeles, USA, Jason Swedlow had an international upbringing, growing up Pittsburgh, London, Boston and San Francisco. Jason wears many hats as he is a Professor of Quantitative Cell Biology based within three divisions in the School of Life Sciences (Gene Regulation and Expression, Computational Biology, and BCDD). He is also founder of three organisations; Open Microscopy Environment (Director), Glencoe Software (CEO) and Tartan Cell Technologies (Director). Since March, COVID has become part of the portfolio of work that he and his teams work on.

Simon Li Q&A

Originally from Birmingham, UK, Simon Li is a systems and software engineer in the Open Microscopy Environment (OME). He is part of the OME team that develops and manages systems like the Image Data Resource, and School of Life Science's own nightshade OMERO.server. In April, new image data of the SARS-CoV-2 virus needed a platform for sharing with the wider scientific community. Simon assisted with this work.

What do you normally work on and how has COVID-19 become part of that work?

Lesley-Anne Pearson Q&A

Originally from Edinburgh, Lesley-Anne Pearson has been in Dundee for more than half her life, so feels like she is more from here than there! She is a Biologist working in the Drug Discovery Unit. Lesley-Anne has been conducting experiments investigating the actions of a particular SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) protein to aid the destruction of the virus.

What COVID-19 project are you working on?

Colin Robinson Q&A

Colin Robinson is originally from Ballymena, Northern Ireland and is a Medicinal Chemist within the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU). Since March, Colin has worked in the Units’ COVID-19 group to discover new medicines to treat the virus.

What COVID-19 project are you working on?