St Andrews Researcher wins the 7th International Medicine PG Award

Senior Lecturer (School of Psychology and Neuroscience), Dr Gareth Miles has won the 7th International Medicine PG award.   The award given by the Paulo Gontijo Institute supports the research of young researchers to promote the cure of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Dr. Miles is Co-Director of the Institute of Behavioral and Neural Sciences at the University of St. Andrews and partner member of the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research at the University of Edinburgh in the UK."My lab investigates how motor neurons affected by ALS lose the ability to generate the electrical signals required to make muscles contract due to changes in specialised proteins called ion channels. This work highlights new targets that could lead to new treatments for ALS."

The International Medicine PG Award is recognised by the international scientific community, and its partners the International Alliance of ALS, Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) and the European Community for Research for the Cure of ALS (ENCALS). Dr Miles will receive $20,000 and a gold medal during the 25th International Symposium on ALS/MND to be held in Orlando (USA) in December.

[Press Release]
Research Publication: 
A.C. Devlin, K. Burr, S. Borooah, J. D. Foster, E. M. Cleary, I. Geti, L. Vallier, C. E. Shaw, S. Chandran and G. B. Miles (2015). Human iPSC-derived motoneurons harbouring TARDBP or C9ORF72 ALS mutations are dysfunctional despite maintaining viability. Nature Communications, 6:5999 doi:10.1038/ncomms6999

Royal Society of Edinburgh Prizes - St Andrews honoured

The Royal Society of Edinburgh has announced their Prize Winners for 2014 and the University of St Andrews is honoured to have received four! Sincere congratulations are in order to Professor Andrew Whiten FRSE FBA, Dr Katie Stevenson, Dr Per Ola Kristensson and Dr Catherine Cazin on their fantastic achievements.
  
Senior Prize for Public Engagement to Professor Andrew Whiten FRSE FBA, Wardlaw Professor of Psychology and Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology, School of Psychology and Neurosciences, for his extensive, creative and unique forms of public engagement particularly as founding Director of the “Living Links to Human Evolution” Research Centre at Edinburgh Zoo.
 

Thomas Reid Medal (Early Career Prize) to Dr Katie Stevenson, Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval History, School of History, for her outstanding scholarly work on the cultural and political history of late medieval Scotland which has established her as a leading international expert in the field and for her commitment to knowledge exchange. 
                     
RSE/Makdougall Brisbane Medal (Early Career Prize) to Dr Per Ola Kristensson, Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction, School of Computer Science, for his outstanding research work and entrepreneurialism that intersects human-computer interaction, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Dr. Kristensson is also a Member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland.

RSE/Makdougall Brisbane Medal (Early Career Prize) to Dr Catherine Cazin, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Lecturer, School of Chemistry, for her outstanding research work and breadth and depth of experience in her chosen field of homogeneous catalysis. Dr. Cazin is also a Member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland.