Awards

Vilde Leipart awarded Alf Bjørseth’s Inspiration Award

Vilde Leipart awarded Alf Bjørseth’s Inspiration Award

Vilde Leipart has been awarded Alf Bjørseth’s Inspiration Award for her doctoral work, entitled “Understanding the structure-function relationship of honey bee Vitellogenin”. Her research examined the protein vitellogenin in honey bees by using artificial intelligence – an article summarising her research was published in the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Full article of Vilde’s award can be read here. 

Vilde is currently a postdoc working in Christine Orengo’s and Franca Fraternali’s labs, continuing her work on Vitellogenin with the aim to boost honey bee health.

Posted by Cyndy Thooi in Awards
EMBO Fellowship Successes!

EMBO Fellowship Successes!

Dec 2020: Postdoctoral EMBO fellowships awarded to ISMB postdoc Sander Van der Verren and former ISMB PhD student Joshua Hutchings.

ISMB’s Sander Van der Verren has been awarded a prestigious and highly competitive EMBO fellowship to work at ISMB in Giulia Zanetti’s laboratory. The fellowship will support structural studies of the human COPII coat complex and its regulatory factors. COPII mediates vesicular transport of proteins out of the Endoplasmic Reticulum, and its regulation in humans is important for secretion of a wide range of cargoes, including the most abundant secretory proteins: collagens. As part of the Birkbeck cryo-EM lab, Sander will use cryo-tomography and single particle cryo-EM techniques to understand how regulatory factors TANGO1 and cTAGE5 assemble and interact with the coat to promote collagen secretion.

Sander says: “I am honoured to have been awarded an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship and look forward to tackle outstanding questions in the membrane trafficking field.”

A Zanetti lab recent alumnus, Josh Hutchings, was also successful in securing an EMBO fellowship. His postdoctoral studies in Elizabeth Villa’s lab at UC San Diego will focus on in situ characterisation of the LNK complex.

Posted by ubcg03u in Achievements, Awards, News
Prof. Sanjib Bhakta wins prestigious Microbiology Society 2020 outreach prize

Prof. Sanjib Bhakta wins prestigious Microbiology Society 2020 outreach prize

The Microbiology Society Outreach Prize 2020 was awarded for the charity project ‘Joi Hok’, which uses educational intervention as a means of spreading awareness of tuberculosis.

Professor Sanjib Bhakta, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Biochemistry at the ISMB and ‘Joi Hok!’ founder Sreyashi Basu have been awarded the 2020 Microbiology Outreach Prize by the Microbiology Society, for effectively bridging the gap between laboratory science and public health research with their project ‘Joi Hok!’, a community tuberculosis (TB) awareness programme.

The programme’s aim is to alter the perception of TB among the local community in Kolkata, India, through a network of local artists, musicians and health professionals. A series of routine interdisciplinary workshops were introduced in semi urban and rural schools around the city over a span of 6 months.

Sanjib Bhakta commented: “TB has progressively worsened with the advent of antibiotic resistance, hence there is urgent need to review and deal with the disease not only as a medical concern or even public health problem alone, but also as a socio-economic challenge.”

Sreyashi Basu commented: “we used traditional folk-art and music as a creative tool to engage and educate underprivileged youth on the influence of local stigmas and antibiotic resistance in the context of TB. We have been fortunate to see a discernible impact amongst the masses whereby the transfer of knowledge from children to household members has resulted in an increased awareness of TB in the community and encouraged patients to adhere to anti-TB treatment regimens .”

Professor Mark Harris, General Secretary of the Microbiology Society, said: “The Microbiology Society Prizes panel felt that the ‘Joi Hok!’ tuberculosis awareness programme demonstrated an inventive and exciting approach to informing the public about an important disease.  The novelty of the programme was its innovative use of traditional art and music to raise awareness of tuberculosis in rural India, with potential to positively influence treatment and control in a country that has the highest global incidence of this devastating infection – a worthy winner of the Microbiology Society Outreach Prize 2020.” 

The Microbiology Society is a membership charity for scientists interested in microbes, their effects and their practical uses, and is one of the largest microbiology societies in Europe. The Microbiology Outreach Prize is awarded for an outstanding outreach initiative, that shows innovation, originality and a sustained impact over time.

The Joi Hok programme uses traditional art and music to raise awareness of Tuberculosis in rural India.
Posted by ubcg03u in Achievements, Awards, News
Prof. John Christodoulou awarded the British Biophysical Society’s 2020 Sosei Heptares Prize

Prof. John Christodoulou awarded the British Biophysical Society’s 2020 Sosei Heptares Prize

Congratulations to Prof. John Christodoulou (jointly affiliated between UCL and Birkbeck in the ISMB), on being awarded the British Biophysical Society’s 2020 Sosei Heptares Prize for Biophysics. The prize is in recognition of Prof. Christodoulou’s original and influential contributions to the advancement of biomolecular NMR and the biophysical analysis of protein folding on the ribosome.

John is serving as the director of the NMR facility at the ISMB and has been a driving force behind high-calibre structural biology at the ISMB for more than twelve years.

Posted by ubcg03u in Achievements, Awards, News
Prof. Bonnie Wallace wins the RSC Khorana Prize 2020

Prof. Bonnie Wallace wins the RSC Khorana Prize 2020

Congratulations to Professor Bonnie Ann Wallace for winning the Royal Chemical Society’s Khorana Prize 2020.

This prestigious accolade is awarded for her pioneering development of biophysical methods and bioinformatics tools to enable the characterisation of ion channel-drug molecule complexes. The Khorana Prize is the latest marker of esteem reflective of a highly successful career, as Bonnie also received the RSC Interdisciplinary Prize 2009 and the Biochemical Society’s AstraZeneca Award 2010.

Further details about the award are available here.

Posted by ubtowe001 in Achievements, Awards, News