Fergus Preston, who is undertaking a PhD within the DDU and WCAIR, was one of 10 successful applicants for the Scientific Update Young Chemist award. This award is open to PhD students presenting work at the Scientific update 7th Winter Process Chemistry Conference, 8-9 December 2021.
Dr Susan Wyllie, Head of the Mode of Action group within WCAIR and Principal Investigator in the School of Life Sciences, underwent a successful tenure review recently.
The annual third year PhD poster session took place last week on-line, with excellent entries from 21 students across the School. Each poster was judged by three of the 12 judges, who included PIs and senior postdoctoral researchers – very many thanks to all who took part and congratulations on setting such high standards. Thanks also to FLUOROCHEM who kindly sponsored the event.
This year was incredibly competitive with many excellent posters and enthusiastic presentations. The judges were really tasked with a difficult job. The winners are :
Joana Faria, a postdoctoral researcher in David Horn’s Lab (BCDD-WCAIR) who is moving to establish her own group at the University of York, has been awarded the Wellcome-Beit Prize.
“I am so grateful to the Wellcome Trust for supporting me and my research and recognising the importance of the work I have been doing and want to do next in Trypanosomes. I could not be more humbled by this award, especially considering that Trypanosomes are often disregarded as relevant model systems outside the Parasitology community.”
Glycosyltransferases (GTs) are enzymes that transfer sugars from donor to an acceptor molecule. There are dozens of GT gene families, classified by sequence, sequence motifs and enzymatic function.
GTs are defined by their donor and acceptor specificities and the type of glycosidic linkage they make. For example, a UDP-Gal : ßGal ß1-3 galactosyltransferase transfers galactose from UDP-Gal to a ßGal acceptor residue in a ß1-3 linkage (making a Galß1-3Galß1-R product).
Local children are being offered a special experience over the summer holidays in the first ever Dundee Science Centre STEM summer club.
Each week, a different pre-selected set of 20 children will enjoy a packed programme of workshops and activities created by the University of Dundee and the Science Centre.
As well as exploring the recently transformed attraction, youngsters will design and build amazing contraptions using a range of materials, make their own science snacks, learn about forensics, make slime, and get to grips with dino rocks and fossils!
Joana Faria, a postdoctoral researcher in David Horn’s Lab (BCDD-WCAIR) has been awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society. Joana was awarded over £1 million and will use this award to set up her laboratory at the York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York. Joana will study how a cell controls the expression of one gene out of a large gene family that code for variations of the same functional protein).
Researchers at the University of Dundee are among those celebrating being named in HM The Queen’s birthday honours.
David Gray, Head of Biology and Professor of Translational Biology at the University’s Drug Discovery Unit, has been given a BEM for services to the Delivery of Testing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
