Victoria Cowling Receives Top Honours

The inaugural Women in Cell Biology Early Career Award Medal is to be presented to Dr Victoria Cowling by the British Society for Cell Biology. Established to mark the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the BSCB, the medal will be an annual honour awarded to an outstanding female cell biologist who has started their own research group in the UK within the last seven years.

Based in the University of Dundee’s Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation (MRC-PPU) Unit in the College of Life Sciences, Dr Cowling’s research aims to find new methods of killing cancer cells by targeting how proteins are made.

“I am delighted that our research has received this recognition from the British Society for Cell Biology,” said Dr Cowling.

Following her recent discovery about how genes are regulated and how mutations in cancer genes promote unrestrained cell growth which can result in tumour formation, she was awarded a Medical Research Council Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship to continue her groundbreaking research, receiving funding of £2.5million over seven years to build upon the discoveries that her research group has made.

Dean of Research at the College of Life Sciences Professor Julian Blow said, “I am delighted that Vicky has been awarded this inaugural award from the BSCB, specifically for Women in Cell Biology. Vicky’s achievements as an early career researcher are outstanding, but she is also a mentor and champion of women researchers across the College of Life Sciences. Highlighting her contribution to cell biology as well as the example she sets in encouraging younger scientists – women and men – to fulfil their potential, is a positive step towards recruitment and retention of women researchers in life sciences.

Dr Cowling will be presented with the medal at the BSCB/BSDB Annual Spring Meeting in Warwick in April 2015, when she will deliver the inaugural Medal Lecture.