Joana Faria short-listed for SULSA Early Career Researcher Prize
The Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance, SULSA, have just announced their annual Early Career Researcher Prize shortlist.
The Prize is open to all Life Sciences post-docs working in a SULSA Institution. The winners are fully-funded to tour 3 Scottish Universities where the awardee will deliver a seminar and meet with staff in order to raise their profile around Scotland, and develop their independent networks. In addition, the awardee will receive £2,000 of flexible funding to be used at their discretion for attending conferences, buying consumables, attending training courses or visiting collaborators etc.
There is a winner for each of the 4 themes
- Ecosystems
- Development and Regulation
- Technology and Analysis
- Understanding and Treating Disease
Congratulations to Joana Faria, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. David Horn (Deputy Director of WCAIR), who has been short-listed in the Development and Regulation theme. Joana submitted her research on understanding the strategies african trypanosomes, the parasite which causes sleeping sickness, use to avoid the human immune system. Joana has identified an important regulatory complex which allows the parasite to choose and change the coat proteins it presents to the human immune system. This is a crucial defence mechanism for the parasite to avoid being detected by the human immune system. Read more about this discovery.
Congratulations also go to Joana’s fellow University of Dundee post-docs who have also been short-listed. Sofia Arnaouteli for the Ecosystems theme; Adam Fletcher and Tom Deegan who are short-listed with Joana in the Development & Regulation theme (may the best scientist win!).
Joana is no stranger to competition short-lists. In 2019 she was a finalist in the Infectious Diseases Hub Photographic competition with her image ‘The VEX’ed Trypansome’. Maybe she will be first to cross the winning line this time!
The COVID-19 measures mean the short-listed postdocs will no longer be able to present their work at the Royal Society of Edinburgh as planned. However, SULSA are working on an alternative judging day. We will let you know the outcome.
