26 August 2004

2004 UK Young Biochemist

A promising young cancer scientist working in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee has been named Promega UK Young Biochemist of the year at the Bioscience 2004 conference for her groundbreaking research.

A 4th year PhD student, Kirsteen Campbell (25) was one of only seven finalists selected from 140 applicants of poster abstracts to give a 15 minute presentation on their work. The winner was selected by a panel of judges.

In her presentation Kirsteen highlighted her role in the discovery of how a group of proteins previously believed to cause cancer can also be used in the fight against cancer. NF-kappaB - a group of proteins present in every cell in the human body can actually assist some cancer therapies such as chemo and radio therapy. They believe that this discovery will allow clinicians to predict more accurately how tumours will respond to cancer therapy - improving treatment for cancer patients.

Working in the laboratory of Dr Neil Perkins, a Principal Investigator in the Division of Gene Regulation and Expression in the School of Life Sciences, the discovery was made in a laboratory using cells in culture. Neil and his team now hope to establish that what they have found in the lab is also the case in the human body. They now need to generate the tools that will allow them to see if this is occurring in real tumours.

The research by Dr Perkins, Kirsteen and Sonia Rocha all in the Division of Gene Regulation and Expression was published in the journal Molecular Cell in March 2004.

This is the second award for Kirsteen, who in December 2003 won the prestigious prize for original research displayed on posters at the 20th Anniversary Genes and Cancer meeting at the University of Warwick. Kirsteen’s colleague Sonia Rocha, a postdoctoral research assistant in Perkins’ laboratory, was given the prize for her poster at the same conference the year before.

Kirsteen is originally from Forfar and is due to complete her PhD thesis in September of this year.

Promega supply of molecular and cell biology reagents and systems.

Notes to Editors

The BioScience annual meeting is organized by The Biochemical Society, the UK’s leading biochemistry society. The aim of the Society is to promote international communication via scientific meetings, publish research through its flagship journal Biochemical Journal and provide information and opinion to government and its agencies, schools and universities, and the general public on policy and education activities.

By Jenny Marra, Head of Press 01382 344910, out of hours: 07968298585, j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk