Tate group member Dr Jana Volaric has won the Symeres PhD Prize for Excellence in Chemistry in Lifes Sciences Research

The Symeres PhD Prize is given annually by Symeres in collaboration with EFMC Young Scientists Network to recognise outstanding research in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, executed by early career researchers during their thesis work. Six finalists were selected and invited to the Symeres Nijmegen site in the Netherlands to present and defend their PhD work. Jana, who is currently a Rubicon Fellow at the Tate group, was one of the finalists and she visited Symeres in Nijmegen last week where she presented her PhD work. Following presentations from the candidates and a tour of the Symeres facilities, the contestants joined the jury for dinner where the winner was announced. Jana won the Gold Prize and is invited to give an oral communication on her postdoctoral work at the EFMC Young Medicinal Chemists' Symposium (EFMC-YMCS) taking place at Rome, Italy September 5-6, 2024.

Before joining the Tate group at Imperial College London, Jana completed her PhD at the University of Groningen in the field of photopharmacology under the guidance of prof. Ben L. Feringa as her first promotor and prof. Wiktor Szymanski as the co-promotor. In her thesis titled "Water-soluble Azobenzene Photoswitches for Controlling Biological Systems" she describes the design and synthesis of azobenzene photoswitches, and their application to control various biological systems, such as cell-destroying biological toxins or to manipulate aggregation of polyglutamine peptides involved in Huntington's disease.

Congratulations Jana!