The University of Dundee has been successful in securing one of the new and highly prestigious pre-doctoral fellowships offered by the Medical Research Council (MRC). Ed MacManus will join award winning scientist, Dr Dario Alessi, in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee in October 2001. Mr MacManus is the top biochemistry student in his year at Trinity College, Dublin, and received top 1st class honours.
The pre-doctoral fellowship scheme is a new initiative from MRC, launched in October 2000, introducing salaried Fellowship appointments to MRC units and institutions. Only 15 Pre-doctoral Fellowships are available within in the whole of the UK. This £1M investment from MRC will address the need for enhanced opportunities to attract outstanding graduates to a career in biomedical research, thus enabling the most talented of young researchers to launch their careers while working towards their PhDs. Successful Fellows will work in MRC units or institutes on a salary of around £17,000 per annum.
Dr Dario Alessi is a Principal Investigator in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit. His research was recently recognised in November 2000 by the award of the Eppendorf AG Young Investigator Award, and he won the Colworth Medal of the Biochemical Society, which is awarded annually to a British Biochemist under the age of 35. The award made in recognition of his groundbreaking work on insulin signalling, culminating in the discovery of 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1).
The Director of the MRC Unit is Professor Sir Philip Cohen.