The AstraZeneca Award will be presented to Professor Róisín M. Owens in 2025. Róisín is Professor of Bioelectronics at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology in the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Newnham College. She is deputy head of the School of Technology at Cambridge, in charge of research and strategy. She received her BA in Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin, and her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Southampton. She carried out two postdocs at Cornell University, on host-pathogen interactions. From 2009-2017 she was group leader in the department of bioelectronics at École des Mines de Saint-Étienne, on the microelectronics campus in Provence. She has received several awards including the European Research Council starting and consolidator grants. She is a 2019 laureate of the Suffrage Science award. From 2014-2020, she was principal editor for biomaterials for MRS communications (Cambridge University Press). In 2020 she became Scientific Editor for Materials Horizons (RSC). She is author of 130+ publications, and 3 patents and her work has been cited more than 9000 times. With her group, she studies the integration of electronic devices with biological systems for continuous monitoring, from cell membranes to tissues and organs, with a particular interest in studying the microbiome-gut-brain axis.

Róisín said: "I initially trained as a biochemist, but subsequently spent nearly 20 years learning how to best use electronic devices to serve the biological sciences community. With this award I feel like I’ve come full circle and the devices my team has developed are now recognised as being actually useful with real application in life sciences. It’s hugely validating for me and the team, and means a lot that it is sponsored by AstraZeneca, as our work hopes to be useful in the drug discovery space, to increase efficiency and reduce costs, ultimately benefitting patients."

Read Róisín's article published in the Biochemist - Bioelectronic tools to study the gut–brain axis

Róisín presented her Award Lecture 'Bioelectronic devices for studying the gut-brain axis' as part of the Biochemistry Focus webinar series. View the recording.

The 2019 AstraZeneca Award was presented to Ervin Fodor of Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, UK. Ervin’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of influenza virus replication, virus-host interactions and host responses to viral infection. His research group played pivotal role in uncovering the RNA-free high-resolution structure of the influenza virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and discovering how influenza virus hijacks the host transcriptional machinery for the transcription of its own genes. A reverse genetics system for influenza virus developed by Fodor and colleagues in the late 90s is used for the preparation of a live attenuated influenza virus vaccine for the UK National Childhood Flu Immunisation Programme.

Of winning the AstraZeneca Award, Ervin said: “I am surprised and delighted to receive the AstraZeneca Award; it is a great honour to join the list of previous eminent winners of this award. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the inspirational scientists who mentored me and thank present and past members of my research group as well as my collaborators whose hard work and dedication underpins all of our research achievements. I am also indebted to the Medical Research Council for generously supporting our research for many years.”

Ervin presented his award lecture at the Biochemical Society conference ‘Transcriptions in Health and Disease’ on 20-22 November 2019 in London, UK. 

The 2016 AstraZeneca Award was awarded to Dame Carol Robinson from the University of Oxford. Carol is a UK-based biochemist whose research has made a very significant contribution to the development of mass-spectrometry techniques for the analysis of biologically important complexes.

Read Carol's article published in Biochemical Society Transactions - From molecular chaperones to membrane motors: through the lens of a mass spectrometrist.

Carol Robinson presented her award lecture at Charles Darwin House, London on 17 October 2016.