2013 Hunt and Elder Prizes Awarded February 3, 2014 In an exceptional showing for the division, five GRE members have been named the winners of this year’s Tim Hunt prize for Cell Biology and Howard Elder prize for Cancer Research. Sandra Moser (Swedlow and Blow groups), Dalila Bensaddek (Lamond group), and Brian Ortmann (Rocha group) have been jointly awarded the Tim Hunt prize for Cell Biology for their paper “PHD1 links cell-cycle progression to oxygen sensing through hydroxylation of the centrosomal protein Cep192.” The prize is awarded for a significant advance in basic research in any area of cell biology carried out in the College of Life Sciences. Asked to comment on the award, Ortmann noted, “I am very honoured to win this prize, but I think it reflects the great work carried out not only in GRE but in the whole college. The college creates an environment that stimulates these kind of discoveries.” Dr Kayo Ono (Yamada) and Dr Motoharu Ono, both of the Lamond group, are the joint winners of the Howard Elder prize for Cancer Research. The prize is awarded to a PhD student or postdoctoral researcher in the College of Life Sciences deemed to have published the most significant paper in an area related to cancer research. “It is a great honour for us to be awarded the Howard Elder Prize,” commented the recipients. “We feel so much gratitude to our colleagues for their support, especially Professor Neil Perkins, Dr Sonia Rocha, and Professor Angus Lamond. It was an unexpected discovery that FMN2 is a key regulator of tumour suppressor pathway p53 independently in humans, and possibly associated with cell proliferation and differentiation disorders. As p53 has been highlighted for a long time, we felt that we had found “the dark side of the moon” when we realised that FMN2 has equally important roles with p53 at the tumour suppressor pathway.” The GRE congratulates all the winners on their outstanding work.
