Dr. Joanna Sadler, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Dr. Eugene Douglass, University of Georgia, Athens, USA, have received the Chemical Translational Biology – Early-Career Award of the journal ChemBioChem. The prize honored outstanding essays describing future visions in the field of chemical translational biology (CTB).
ChemBioChem created this award in connection with a special collection that highlights the emerging trend of chemical biology in effectively bridging chemistry and biology disciplines through translationally-focused research. The journal felt it was important to give a voice to the next generation of researchers and invited postdocs to write an essay describing their vision of chemical translational biology. The article could be either based on their research or a more general perspective.
In her winning article, Joanna Sadler wrote about her vision to link synthetic biology with synthetic chemistry to advance a green chemical industry. Eugene Douglass discusses in his article opportunities and challenges of bridging “Big Data” and mechanistic insights to enable precision medicine. Both articles are part of the collection and the authors received 250 EUR each as prize money.
Joanna Sadler studied chemistry at the University of Bristol, UK, and obtained her Ph.D. at GlaxoSmithKline in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, in 2017. Following two post‐docs in biotechnology at the University of Manchester, UK, and the University of St Andrews, UK, she is currently a BBSRC Discovery Fellow in the Stephen Wallace lab at the University of Edinburgh.
Her research lies at the interface between chemistry and biology, where she is developing novel processes for the valorization of plastic waste to boost the circular economy and remove recalcitrant polymers from the environment.
Eugene Douglass obtained his Ph.D. from Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, in 2014. After work as a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, he currently is an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, Athens, USA.
He has received several awards, including the 2006 ACS Analytical Chemistry Division Undergraduate Award. His research focusses on
- Collection Chemical Translational Biology (CTB),
Guest-edited by Yael David (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA), Rob Oslund (Merck & Co., Inc. Cambridge, MA, USA),
ChemBioChem 2021. - The Bipartisan Future of Synthetic Chemistry and Synthetic Biology,
Joanna C. Sadler,
ChemBioChem 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202000418 - Bridging “Big Data” and Mechanistic Insight To Enable Precision Medicine,
Eugene F. Douglass Jr,
ChemBioChem 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202000494
