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Recipients of annual UK DRI Recognition Prizes announced at Connectome 2024

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 UK DRI Recognition Prizes, awarded this week at our annual conference, Connectome. The prizes are designed to recognise and highlight excellence across the UK DRI community, including the addition of 2 new exciting categories this year.

The prizes were awarded by UK DRI Director Prof Siddharthan Chandran during the conference, with categories for PhD, Discovery, computational reproducibility, 3Rs, imaging, posters and engagement.

The winners and honourable mentions were:

UK DRI Recognition Prizes

PhD Prize

The UK DRI is proud to announce the first annual UK DRI PhD Prize. This prestigious award aims to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of doctoral researchers whose work has significantly advanced the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.

WINNER: Ashling Giblin (Isaacs Lab, UK DRI at UCL) and Dorothea Böken (Klenerman Lab, UK DRI at Cambridge)
Discovery Prize

The prestigious Discovery Prize, awarded for the first time this year, aims to recognise and celebrate early career researchers who have made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of dementia research.

WINNER: Jonathan Benn (McEwan Lab, UK DRI at Cambridge)
3Rs Prize

Each year the UK DRI gives a prize to celebrate achievements in the 3Rs - Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in research.

We recognise that animals, often mice, are needed for some of our research, and that this needs to be carried out in the best possible way, looking for alternatives where possible.

WINNER: Soraya Meftah, Robert McGeachan, Lewis Taylor, James Catterson, Danilo Negro, Calum Bonthron, Claire Durrant (UK DRI at Edinburgh) for 'Setting up a Human Brain Slice Culture Team'

Runner up: Kathryn Newton (Bowles Lab, UK DRI at Edinburgh) for 'Set up and dissemination of cortical brain organoid method'
Reproducibility Prize

The Reproducibility in Dementia Research prize aims to promote open science by developing sustainable and reproducible practices as part of research output.

WINNER: Ira Iosub (Ule Lab, UK DRI at King’s) for riboseq-flow

Honourable mention: Alexander Capstick (Barnaghi/Sharp Labs, UK DRI Care Research & Technology)
Engagement Prize

The Engagement Prize highlights initiatives and activities in public engagement and patient involvement across the Institute. Following nomination from across the Institute, submissions were judged by a panel of communications & engagement specialists.

WINNER: Sophie Horrocks, UK DRI Care Research & Technology, for designing and implementing a Public Involvement strategy for the centre

Sophie advocated for, created, and implemented a three-tiered strategy to connect researchers with people with lived experience in a mutually valuable manner.
Scientific Imaging Prize

The Scientific Imaging prize highlights eye catching images from across the UK DRI. Entries were shortlisted by a panel from UK DRI headquarters based on visual impact and then judged by public vote on the UK DRI’s social media channels.

WINNER: Cecile Crapart (Avezov Lab, UK DRI at Cambridge) for AstrocytER
Poster Prize

The Poster Prize rewards excellent poster design, explanation and discussion of results or methodology at Connectome 2024.

WINNER: Louise Huuki-Myers (Ryten Lab, UK DRI at Cambridge) for her poster “A data-driven single cell and spatial transcriptomic map of the human prefrontal cortex”.

Article published: 8 November 2024