Cancer essay wins 2010 Max Perutz Prize
25 August, 2010
A Medical Research Council (MRC) funded PhD student, Nicola Harris, has won the prestigious Max Perutz Science Writing Award for describing her research into why some people respond to cancer drugs and others don’t. Her essay, Wanted: Dead or Alive, is an engaging read about Nicola’s quest to discover why the cancer drug fenretinide has varying effects in different children.
The 2010 competition received entries from some of some of the UK’s brightest science communicators - all eager to explain their research to a non-scientific audience. The award, which is in its 13th year, is the MRC’s annual competition to recognise the ability of its PhD students to write compellingly about their research.
Nicola works at the Northern Institute of Cancer Research at Newcastle University and is funded by the MRC to investigate the enzyme CYP26. The enzyme, which helps the body break down the drug fenretinide, is found in higher levels in some tumours than others. Nicola is trying to work out whether one of the by-products of metabolising fenretinide provides an extra weapon for killing cancer cells – giving those people who have more CYP26 in their tumours an advantage.
Wanted: Dead or Alive was chosen from a shortlist of 12 essays by a distinguished panel of professional scientists and writers comprising the MRC’s chief executive, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, the Guardian’s science and environment correspondent, Alok Jha, author and broadcaster Dr Alice Roberts, head of the MRC Centre, Cambridge Dr Megan Davies and the 2009 Max Perutz competition winner Dr Jacqueline Maybin.
Commenting on the winning essay, Sir Leszek said:
“Nicola’s essay personalised the science, and her enthusiasm for her research really shone through. The essay was a very well structured example of lay writing which gave the reader credit for being intelligent.”
Nicola, whose winning essay will be printed in the Guardian newspaper, was presented with her prize of £1,000 at an awards ceremony at BMA House in London on 25 August. A runner-up and two commended entrants were also announced from a shortlist of 12 outstanding essays. Shortlisted entrants were also invited to attend a master class with professional writers to help hone their skills.
The 2010 award received a record number of submissions, with 114 entries from MRC facilities and universities across the country. The competition is open to all MRC-funded PhD students and asks them to describe the importance and excitement of their research in only 800 words.
The prize is named after the eminent scientist and Nobel laureate Professor Max Perutz, an accomplished and natural communicator, who died in 2002. Since the competition started in 1998, hundreds of students have submitted entries and taken their first steps in communicating their science to the public.
2010 Max Perutz Award:
From statistics to Superman, conquistadores to cortisol, the essays covered a range of scientific subjects with great skill and imagination.
Winner: Nicola Harris, Northern Institute of Cancer Research, Newcastle: “Wanted: Dead or Alive”
Runner-up: James Nicholas Sleigh, MRC Functional Genomics Unit, Oxford:
“Spinal muscular atrophy: worming our way towards a cure”
Commended for making well explained, interesting points about science: Sam Gibbons-Frendo, MRC Centre for Neurodegeneration Research, London: “Illuminating the darkness”
Commended for being novel and different: Neil Rajan, Institute of Human Genetics, Newcastle: “Surgery-sparing science: moving away from the cutting edge”
Shortlisted:
Lucas Amenga-Etego, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford: “Evolutionary arms race, finding the trade-offs”
Stephen Burgess, MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge: “A few causal remarks about your health”
Simon Cox, Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Edinburgh: “Cortisol: the brain accelerator?”
Olly Donnelly, Leeds Institute for Molecular Medicine: “An enemy’s enemy”
Davy Evans, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge: “On the border: when extreme emotions take control”
Catherine Mercer, Human Genetics Division, University of Southampton: “From the heart”
Marianne Neary, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London: “Conquistadores and cot death”
Laurence O’Connor-Read, University of Sheffield: “Why the world needs Superman”
The MRC will publish all 12 shortlisted entries on its website once The Guardian has published Nicola’s.
