Young Investigator Award
BNOS 2010 marked the launch of the Young Investigator Award, where a young person who is making an outstanding contribution in the field of British neuro-oncology, either in laboratory or clinical work, is invited to present their work at the conference and is presented with this prestigious award, sponsored by Brain Tumour UK.
This is an important and encouraging milestone as our vision is to help in promoting the work of young investigators and to offer a golden opportunity for them to advance in their career in neuro-oncology.
Below is a recent report from Dr Sara Piccirillo, Research Associate at the Univeristy of Cambridge, outlining how she has benefited from receiving the Young Investigator Award.
Dr Sara Piccirillo - BNOS 2010 Young Investigator Award winner
In 2010 I was awarded with the first BNOS/BTUK Young Investigator Award during the Annual Meeting of the British Neuro-oncology Society that was held at the University of Glasgow, 23rd-25th June 2010. This Award was launched during early 2010 by the Council of BNOS, in partnership with Brain Tumour UK (BTUK) to recognise the work of young scientists and clinicians working in Neuro-oncology.
It was a great honour to see my research work recognized with such an important Award and I am really grateful to BNOS and BTUK for that.
My research in Neuro-oncology spans from gene-therapy of experimental brain tumours to stem cell biology applied to the most aggressive brain cancer, i.e. glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The putative involvement of stem cells and neural precursors in the genesis and growth of human GBM is an interesting topic but there are several contrasting evidences. As a consequence, in the last years working in this field was exciting but challenging and scientific discussion was extremely important to move the field forward. For this reason, I was really honoured to receive the BNOS/BTUK Award and have the opportunity to present my research in such an important event, like the BNOS Annual Meeting, where I could meet scientists and clinicians involved in the study, diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours and receive inputs for my research.
The BNOS/BTUK Award gave me also the unique opportunity to attend the Keystone Symposium on “Stem Cells, Cancer and Metastasis” that was held in Keystone, U.S.A. in March 2011. This meeting provided a forum for exchange of information and insights in my field of investigation and was mostly attended by post-doctoral scientists like me. The scientific program included talks about basic stem cell biology, the role of stem cells in cancer pathogenesis, imaging and tracking stem cells in tumours and metastasis and cancer therapy and it concluded with a roundtable about “insights and controversies on stem cells in metastasis” led by some of the eminent speakers of the symposium. I benefited a lot from the poster sessions that took place during evenings between 7pm to 10 pm. As a poster presenter, I had the opportunity to discuss new unpublished results of the project I am in charge of at the University of Cambridge in the lab of Dr Colin Watts.
I found this symposium the best environment for a productive maturation as post-doc and for networking with scientists working in my field. Being active part of such a meeting it is crucial for my career development and a “scientific inspiration” to generate new ideas for my research.
In this view, the BNOS/BTUK Award represented for me not only a recognition for my past work on GBM but also a boost to continue my research in this field. I am sure this Award will represent such an important contribution also for the next BNOS/BTUK Young Investigator Winners.
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