Dr Kim van der Heiden is Promega UK Young Life Scientist Winner

Promega UK has announced the winner of this year’s UK Young Life Scientist Award as Dr Kim van der Heiden from Imperial College London. Dr van der Heiden with her award, £2000 in cash and the equivalent in Promega products at the Young Life Scientists’ Symposium, Neurological Disorders: from molecules to medicine, held at Bristol University. Dr van der Heiden beat over 160 applicants to win the award, with second place going to Kerstin Voelz of Birmingham University, and Leila Luheshi from the University of Cambridge taking third place.

Dr van der Heiden said: “I felt very honoured that my abstract was selected for the final of the Promega UK Young Life Sciences award. I was not certain of the outcome because of the high quality of the research and the very good presenting skills of my fellow competitors. So I was overjoyed when I was announced as the winner.”

Kim’s research, sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, focused on the role of the shear stress-induced transcription factor Nrf2, in protecting arteries from susceptibility to atherosclerosis. She also demonstrated that Nrf2 could be activated by a dietary antioxidant (sulforaphane) which is present in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, suggesting a possible novel therapeutic strategy to prevent or reduce atherosclerosis.

The Symposium was also supported by The Biochemical Society, The Physiological Society,  The Genetics Society and the British Pharmacological Society along with Science Magazine and Promega UK.

Alexa Hime, Scientific Conference Organiser, The Biochemical Society, commented on this year’s symposia: “The ‘Young Life Scientists’ Symposium attracted over 120 attendees, and with excellent poster sessions, high quality presentations - including those competing for the prestigious Promega Award - was a hugely successful event.”

Derek McCall, Managing Director of Promega UK, said: ”We are committed to supporting the Life Science industry in the UK and in particular, the scientists of tomorrow. Imperial College should be very proud of Dr van der

Heiden’s achievement. We wish her every success for the future.”