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Cancer researcher celebrates silver award for excellence

11/03/2016

Cancer researcher celebrates silver award for excellence

Dr Vinodh Kannappan, aged 30, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wolverhampton, celebrated winning a Silver Award for biomedical research excellence - walking away with a £2,000 prize.

Vinodh presented his research to dozens of politicians and a panel of expert judges at the House of Commons as part of the poster competition SET for Britain, on Monday 7th March.

His research, which focuses on “Translation of an anti-alcoholism drug into a non-profit anticancer drug using nanotechnology” was judged against 59 other shortlisted researchers’ work and came out as one of the three winners.

Vinodh said: “This win highlights the importance of our work nationally.  It was a great honour to receive the Silver Award on behalf of our hardworking research team – especially considering the caliber of the Universities competing in the competition.

Professor Vinodh Kappanan celebrates winning Silver at the SET for Britain Awards with Rob Marris MP

“This national recognition will encourage the team to continue in its endeavours to provide cancer patients and the NHS with an economical, affordable and effective treatment. I am very grateful to the RIHS, University of Wolverhampton and the funding bodies who believed in our research capabilities. I would also like to extend my thanks to the event organisers for such a fantastic opportunity for all scientists in Britain.”

Team leader, Professor Weiguang Wang, said: “This is the second time the University of Wolverhampton Cancer Research Group has been shortlisted for this extremely prestigious competition and it’s an honour for our collective work to be nationally recognised at SET for Britain in the company of our local MPs and the wider audience.

“We are at a very exciting stage in our research following collaboration with scientists in Europe, the USA and China which has resulted in our invention being patented by the University. Hopefully this will be translated into treatment in the near future providing cancer patients and the NHS with an economical, affordable and effective treatment.”

Rob Marris, MP for Wolverhampton South West, said:  “I’m very proud of Vinodh and the team from the University of Wolverhampton and was honoured to be able to celebrate with them.  Although they were competing with the likes of Oxford and Cambridge, I was delighted that the team won a Silver Award – high praise indeed after four rounds of tough judging and examinations.”

SET for Britain aims to help politicians understand more about the UK’s thriving science and engineering base and rewards some of the strongest scientific and engineering research being undertaken in the UK.

Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chair of the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee, said: “This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.

“These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and SET for Britain is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”

The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee runs the event in collaboration with the Council for Mathematical Sciences, the Institute of Physics, The Physiological Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Biology, with financial support from Essar, the Clay Mathematics Institute, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), the Institute of Biomedical Science, the Bank of England and the Society of Chemical Industry.

ENDS

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Date Issued: 11th March 2016

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