Background

The Foulkes Foundation Academy of Medical Sciences Medal has been awarded biennially since 2007 to a rising star making a significant impact on UK bioscience research, typically within ten working years of achieving their PhD.  Applicants are nominated by Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences, which handles the administration of this prestigious award.

The 2023 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu
[BigT Images]

2023 MEDAL

Professor Sam Behjati has been awarded the 2023 Foulkes Foundation Academy of Medical Sciences Medal. He works in the NHS as a practising consultant, leads a research group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and is a Clinical Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University of Cambridge. In his clinical research role, Professor Behjati ensures that every child with a solid tumour in the region can have a test called whole genome sequencing. This provides patients with a quicker and more precise diagnosis and more targeted therapies than other methods, which enables the clinical team to provide tailored treatment to each child. At the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Professor Behjati’s research is unravelling the identity and origin of cancer cells, specifically childhood cancer, with the aim of finding new ways of diagnosing and treating cancer, and identifying those at high risk of developing the disease. He uses cutting edge genetic and data analysis techniques to understand normal human development at a cellular level and how changes in cell DNA drive cancer growth and survival, deepening our understanding of how cancer develops and progresses.

The 2021 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu

2021 MEDAL

Professor Serena Nik-Zainal has been awarded the 2021 Foulkes Foundation Academy of Medical Sciences Medal. She is Professor of Genomic Medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Cambridge as well as CRUK Advanced Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics. Professor Nik-Zainal’s research holds the key to personalised and more effective treatments for cancer patients, by identifying the ‘fingerprints’ of cancer tumours in the pattern of mutations they contain. Over the last few years, Professor Nik-Zainal has pioneered research into the clinical applications of mutational signatures. She led the development of an algorithm that can detect specific breast cancers through their mutational signature, picking up those that are missed by conventional screening methods. She has recently demonstrated the algorithm’s potential in predicting the most effective treatment for these patients by taking it through a Phase II clinical trial in collaboration with colleagues and industry. In April 2021, Professor Nik-Zainal led the development of her second pioneering algorithm, which is used to spot the patients who may respond well to certain drugs that allow their own immune systems to attack their cancer. This algorithm has been trained to find the mutational signature that occurs in these specific cancers, meaning that the patients can quickly receive the correct, most effective treatment.

The 2019 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu

The 2019 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu

2019 MEDAL

Professor Muzlifah Haniffa, FMedSci has been awarded the 2019 Foulkes Foundation Medal. She is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science; Lister Institute Research Prize Fellow and Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at Newcastle University, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Clinical Fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Her research achievements include providing better understanding of the developing human immune system and childhood kidney cancer, mapping the maternal-fetal interface and discovering new immune cells in the skin. Recently, Professor Muzlifah and her collaborators announced the completion of the first ever cell map of the developing immune system in the human liver, skin and kidney. In 2018 she and her team completed the first ever single-cell reconstruction of the maternal-fetal interface in humans. A champion of international scientific collaboration, Professor Haniffa is one of the pioneers behind the Human Cell Atlas, a global initiative aiming to map and characterise every cell in the body. She has also contributed to the identification of the prenatal cellular origin of Wilm’s tumour, a childhood kidney cancer most often found in children under the age of seven.

The 2017 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu

The 2017 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu

2017 MEDAL

Professor Cristina Lo Celso was awarded the 2017 Foulkes Foundation Medal. She is a Reader in Stem Cell Biology at Imperial College London and uses stem cells to study how leukaemia develops and relapses. Professor Lo Celso’s prolific career has stretched across several disciplines and countries, taking her from Italy to England via the USA. By working internationally and setting up an interdisciplinary laboratory, she has set out a clear example of integrative and shared global science, both of which are key passions of hers.  More recently she has made great advances in looking at the way in which leukaemia cells move around the body, and why the bodies’ bone-making cells disappear during the development of the disease. The aim of this research is to optimise bone marrow transplantation and treatments for the most common type of adult leukaemia.

The 2015 Medal Winner, Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld

The 2015 Medal Winner, Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld

2015 MEDAL

Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld, FMedSci was awarded the fifth Foulkes Foundation Medal in 2015. He is Senior Group Leader at Cancer Research U.K. Cambridge Institute, based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. His research has centred on non-invasive diagnostic tools for cancer using circulating DNA. The Institute’s work has also resulted in a method for the sequencing of circulating cancer DNA that can identify cancer mutations during treatment. Nitzan is the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of a spin-out company using circulating DNA analysis to improve testing and treatment for oncologists.

 

The 2013 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Walton of Detchant

The 2013 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Walton of Detchant

2013 Medal

The winner of the 2013 Foulkes Foundation Medal is Dr Akhilesh Reddy, a neuroscientist and Wellcome senior clinical research fellow at the Wellcome Trust – MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge.

Dr Reddy’s research focuses on how disruption of circadian rhythms in the brain affects health and life expectancy, and specifically on the role of sleep dysfunction in patients with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.

The 2011 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Waltonof Detchant

The 2011 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Waltonof Detchant

2011 Medal

Professor Patrick Chinnery, FMedSci has been awarded the 2011 Foulkes Foundation Medal. A Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow since 2003, Professor Chinnery continues to study the inheritance and expression of mitochondrial disorders both in the clinic and in the molecular laboratory, running several clinical trials in rare genetic diseases. Professor Chinnery was appointed Professor of Neurogenetics in 2004, studying mitochondrial mechanisms in late-onset multi-factorial diseases including stroke and Parkinson’s disease. He became an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2010 and became Director of Newcastle University’s Institute of Genetic Medicine. He is currently Head of Department of Neurology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2009.

 

The 2009 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Walton of Detchant

The 2009 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Walton of Detchant

2009 MEDAL

The second Foulkes Foundation Medal was awarded in 2009 to Professor Peter Rothwell, FMedSci, of the Department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford. Professor Rothwell’s work has revolutionised the treatment of transient ischaemic attacks, or ‘mini-strokes’, and minor stroke. His contribution to medical scientific knowledge during his relatively short research career has been remarkable and there can be few more inspirational demonstrations of the impacts of research on clinical practice. His recent findings on the link between variability in blood pressure and risk of stroke, and the effects of aspirin on risks of cancer and infection, promise to have a similar impact. Professor Rothwell is founding Director of the Stroke Prevention Research Unit at the University of Oxford, set up in 2000 and now employing over 30 staff, which is considered to be one of the most successful stroke research groups in the world.

The 2007 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Walton of Detchant

The 2007 Medal Winner with Maureen Foulkes-Hajdu and Lord Walton of Detchant

2007 MEDAL

The first Medal was awarded in 2007 to Professor Robin Ali, FMedSci, for his outstanding contribution in the fields of ophthalmology and translational research, particularly in the area of gene and stem cell therapy. His main interest is in the development of novel therapies for retinal disorders with a major emphasis on translating research into clinical application. A major aspect of his research is the development and use of a wide variety of genetic and experimental animal models of retinal disorders, including large animal models, in order to assess novel therapeutic approaches.

For 25 years, Professor Ali was Professor of Human Molecular Genetics at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology & Molecular Immunology Unit at the Institute of Child Health, and Head of the
Division of Molecular Therapy at the Institute of Ophthalmology. He is currently Director of the
new KCL Centre for Cell & Gene Therapy, and also Deputy Director of the NIHR Guy’s & St
Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre with special responsibilities for advanced therapies across King’s
Health Partners. He was appointed Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2007.