Sanger Institute scientist wins 2021 Biochemical Society award
Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, is one of the ten researchers to have been honoured in the 2021 Biochemical Society Awards. These prestigious awards recognise excellence and achievement by eminent scientists and by researchers in the early stages of their career.
Roser studies interactions between immune cells in reproductive organs and development. She has developed new computational methods to understand the signals that cells use to communicate with each other, and has used them to investigate maternal-fetal communication during early pregnancy. This is helping to understand women’s health and issues with reproduction. More broadly, CellPhoneDB has also been key to identifying cell-cell interactions mediating fundamental biological processes including hematopoiesis and the tumour microenvironment. Roser is also the coordinator of the Reproductive Network of the global Human Cell Atlas (HCA) initiative, bringing together researchers from all over the world.
“I am thrilled to receive the Early Career Research Award from the Biochemical Society, which recognises the work of my superb team and collaborators. Together, we combine computational and experimental expertise to define novel cell identities, their regulation and their functional role in health and disease. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my nominators and mentors for their support during the early stages of my career as an independent investigator.”
Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute
The Early Career Research Awards recognise the impact of research carried out in the molecular biosciences by early career scientists, with no more than six years postdoctoral research experience. There were two winners of this award for 2021: Dr Roser Vento-Tormo and Dr Kirsty Wan from the University of Exeter.
The Society received a large number of nominations for the 2021 Awards, and the winners were agreed by a judging panel of respected scientists, from across a range of different scientific areas.
As part of the award, Roser will deliver an Award Lecture at a 2021 Biochemical Society meeting, and is invited to submit an article to one of the Society’s publications.
“Bioscientists represent an incredible community of researchers and academics that are dedicated to understanding biology at a molecular and cellular level. Due to current events, I am pleased that we have this opportunity to highlight the true value of excellence in biosciences via our awards programme. The 2021 Biochemical Society award-winners have all made significant contributions to their field of study. There is no doubt that their research is fundamental to life and of transformative relevance to health and disease. These individuals demonstrate a commitment to enhancing knowledge and, on behalf of the Society, I’d like to sincerely congratulate all of these winners for their excellence and hard work in the pursuit of biology.”
Professor Colin Bingle, Professor of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Sheffield, and Chair of the Biochemical Society’s Awards Committee
More information
The Biochemical Society is a learned society and membership body that works to promote the future of molecular biosciences; facilitating the sharing of expertise, supporting the advancement of biochemistry and molecular biology, and raising awareness of their importance in addressing societal grand challenges.
It achieves its mission by:
- Bringing together molecular bioscientists;
- Supporting career development and lifelong learning;
- Encouraging wider dialogue and working collaboratively across and beyond our community;
- Promoting and sharing knowledge;
- Promoting the importance of our discipline and through this, the broader life sciences; and
- Continuing to ensure sustainable support for the advancement of science.
To find out more, please visit www.biochemistry.org
