Newly-qualified postdocs scoop prestigious fellowships
14 August 2008
Now in their second year, the awards will provide the researchers with the freedom to pursue important biomedical research questions, working in the best laboratories in the UK and overseas.
"The Wellcome Trust is pleased to support such a strong group of newly qualified postdoctoral scientists who have the clear ability, maturity and vision to make an early start in their independent research career," says Dr Candy Hassall, who oversees the Fellowship programme at the Wellcome Trust. "We have already seen last year's group of fellows make a number of exciting breakthroughs and we have high expectations that our newly appointed fellows will also make outstanding progress in their research and their careers."
Dr Robert Snelgrove received one of the prestigious Fellowships in 2007 and is currently working in a research laboratory with Professor Blalock at the University of Alabama in the US. He recently published a paper in the journal 'Nature Immunology' looking at how lung tissue avoids excessive damage in response to airborne irritants and infections.
"I am enjoying immensely the fantastic experience and the variety of challenges that this Fellowship has afforded," says Dr Snelgrove. "The award offers huge flexibility and freedom to conduct cutting-edge research independently in an area that I am passionate about and in the institute of my choice. I have benefited greatly from first-hand experience of how successful, leading scientific researchers manage and operate, and have set up collaborations and contacts that will undoubtedly assist my future career."
This year's recipients, who are based at institutions across the UK, include:
Misha Ahrens
Misha is currently finishing his PhD at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London. During his Fellowship, Misha plans to investigate the neural representation of time. Researchers have found that when we are looking at a fast flickering light, for example, a second may seem more than a second. Why is this, and how is it that we can tell time at all? He will study this question at the University of Cambridge, and at Baylor College of Medicine and Princeton University in the US.
Marie-Jo Brion
Working with the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) at the University of Bristol and with a Brazilian cohort in Pelotas, Marie-Jo will study such factors as smoking during pregnancy and maternal anaemia and how these affect obesity, cognitive function and psychological health of the offspring.
Rachel Freathy
Currently based at the University of Exeter, Rachel will investigate the role of genetic variants influencing type 2 diabetes and other newly-arising variants in foetal and childhood growth, using large studies of mothers and children. During the Fellowship, she will visit the Universities of Chicago, Bristol and Oxford to improve her knowledge and skills in genetics, epidemiology and the physiology of pregnancy.
Emma Hodson-Tole
Emma will use her Fellowship to study human movement at Manchester Metropolitan University. She will explore how the arrangement of fibres within a muscle affects the way in which the muscle works and whether this differs between people of different age groups. She will look at how changes in their design can influence their effectiveness and therefore limit the tasks a person is able to carry out as they get older, are injured or are recovering from injury.
Johanna Hoog
Johanna is studying how protein scaffolding determines cell shape in kinetoplastids, protozoan parasites, including a number responsible for serious diseases in humans and other animals, such as African sleeping sickness. She will be performing her research at the University of Oxford and the University of Colorado.
Ede Rancz
As a Wellcome Trust Prize Student, Ede studied information processing in single neurons. During his Fellowship, he aims to combine a number of complementary approaches to understand the cortical representation of our sense of balance whilst working in Germany, the US and at University College London. He aims to understand how the vestibular system contributes to navigation and how it helps to build an internal map of the outside world in our brains.
Applications have now opened for the 2009 Fellowships. Find out more from our website.
Image: Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome; oil painting by Hugh Goldwin Riviere, 1906. Wellcome Library, London.
Contact
Craig Brierley
Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
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c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
Notes for editors
1. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.