Many congratulations to Reuben Fellows Emily Flashman for winning the RSC's Norman Heatley Award, and to Benjamin Schuster-Böckler for receiving the Associate Professor title.
Dr Emily Flashman is recognised for her work on the elucidation of molecular mechanisms of oxygen-sensing enzymes in plants and animals, in particular around revealing the structural and kinetic properties of plant cysteine oxidases.
Finding inhibitors for plant oxygen-sensing enzymes or engineering changes to their structure and mechanism could slow their activity and help plants survive flooded (low oxygen) conditions for longer. This will be important in generating crops that are more tolerant of stresses associated with climate change.
Emily says, 'I was absolutely delighted to receive this award, which is really a credit to the students and colleagues who I've worked with. The award recognises the research we've conducted on oxygen-sensing systems in animals and plants and I feel really celebrates the cross- and inter-disciplinary nature of the approach we've taken to correlate fundamental molecular properties with biological outcomes'.
Professor Benjamin Schuster-Böckler leads the computational genomics group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, based in the Nuffield Department of Medicine.
The main focus of his group is to understand the causes and consequences of mutation rate heterogeneity. In previous work, Benjamin established that epigenetic marks in the form of histone modifications have a profound influence on the mutational landscape in cancer cells.
Ben says, 'I'm incredibly honoured, and quite humbled, to have been awarded the title of "Associate Professor". Like many academics I know, I've always had a certain amount of "impostor syndrome" - being recognised for my work within the university and for my science really is a huge boost of confidence not just for me but for my whole research group.'
