The British Society for Cell Biology has announced that Dr Meritxell Huch, group leader at the Gurdon Institute, is the winner of the 2018 Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal for her research on stem cells and organoids.
Dr Huch is researching the replicative potential of adult stem cells during tissue regeneration and disease. Her focus is liver and pancreas cells, creating organoids from stem cells in order to multiply tissue from small samples. In a recent breakthrough her lab published a method for reproducing the characteristics of patient-specific liver tumours as organoids in vitro, opening up the possibility to test drugs for personalised anti-tumour activity.
In honouring Dr Huch with this award, the British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB) explained: “We agreed that your research on stem cell biology is pioneering, and in particular your work on liver organoids is unique.”
The WICB Early Career Medal was established in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the BSCB. It is awarded annually to an outstanding female cell biologist who has started her own research group in the UK within the past seven years, to serve as inspiring role models for the next generation of female cell biologists.
The medal will be awarded at a special lecture during the BSCB meeting 'The Dynamic Cell III' in Manchester, 18-21 March 2018.