Liezel Tamon, a fourth year thesis student of the Disease Molecular Biology and Epigenetics Laboratory (DMBEL) at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB) in UP Diliman, is this year’s winner of the prestigious Sanger Institute Prize Competition.
The sole winner is offered a three-month internship with a research group at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, United Kingdom. All travel, living and research expenses are covered by the award.
The Wellcome Trust Sanger institute is a world leader in genomics research and the internship provides the winner the opportunity to use cutting-edge experimental and genomics approaches to answering scientific questions.
The winner was determined in a two-stage selection process that involved writing a long scientific essay on a specified topic.
Tamon’s winning essay on personalized medicine and human genetic variation touched on personalizing drug dosage, patient stratification according to genotype and identification of likely responders/non-responders to therapy, as well as the new research areas on non-coding RNA being pursued by their laboratory at NIMBB to further explain inter-individual and inter-ethnic variability in drug responses and predispositions to disease
The annual outreach competition is open to undergraduates from low and middle income countries.
Tamon is one of four summa cum laude candidates from DMBEL this year.
The other three candidates have also won prestigious awards.
Kenneth Anthony Roquid and Jose Lorenzo Ferrer each received a Sigma-Aldrich Excellent Poster Award at the 2014 Annual Conference of the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology in Gangnam, Seoul, Korea, while Martin Daniel Qui placed first at the Youth Science Forum during the Philippine Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s 2014 Annual Convention.
Liezel Tamon, winner of the 2015 Sanger Institute Prize, with major winners of other life sciences competitions Kenneth Anthony Roquid, Jose Lorenzo Ferrer and Martin Daniel Qui (2nd, 3rd and 5th from left, respectively). Photo by Brandon Sy.
