Malaysian scientist wins prestigious award for cancer research

MALAYSIAN scientist Dr Serena Nik-Zainal, who is based in the United Kingdom, has been awarded the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture 2022 for her contributions to understanding the causes of cancer.

Dr Serena will receive a bronze medal and £2,000 (RM11,500) at the associated prize lecture in 2022.

On Twitter, Dr Serena said she was thrilled and grateful for the immense honour.

Wow!
Thrilled & hugely grateful for this immense honour ?

Francis Crick Medal & Lecture ?!
Thank you @royalsociety⁩ !

Thank you ? to all that have taught, supported, pushed & mentored me.
So appreciative!

My wonderful TEAM ?- this is for us!!
1/ https://t.co/rRVqqZRDbG

— Serena Nik-Zainal (@SerenaNikZainal) August 24, 2021

“Thank you to all that have taught, supported, pushed and mentored me. So appreciative!

“My wonderful team, this is for us!” she said.

A statement on the Royal Society website read: “The Francis Crick Medal and Lecture 2022 is awarded to Dr Serena Nik-Zainal for enormous contributions to understanding the aetiology of cancers by her analyses of mutation signatures in cancer genomes, which is now being applied to cancer therapy.” 

The Francis Crick Medal and Lecture 2022 is awarded to @SerenaNikZainal for her enormous contributions to understanding the aetiology of cancers by her analyses of mutation signatures in cancer genomes, now being applied to cancer therapy. #RSMedals https://t.co/0NzxwgtYhz pic.twitter.com/zVwspGgjaF

— The Royal Society (@royalsociety) August 24, 2021

According to her biography on the Cambridge website, Dr Serena is an advanced clinician-scientist and an honorary consultant in Clinical Genetics.

She qualified in medicine from the University of Cambridge in 2000 on a scholarship from Petronas.

After undertaking her PHD and several other fellowships, she was awarded a CRUK Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2017. She moved to the University of Cambridge to accelerate the translation of her genomics expertise towards clinical applications and further her work into the physiological mechanisms underpinning mutagenesis.

In 2019, she was honoured with the Dr Josef Steiner Cancer Research Prize 2019, which some have dubbed the “Nobel Prize for Cancer Research”.

The Francis Crick Medal and Lecture is awarded annually in any field in the biological sciences. 

The preference is given to genetics, molecular biology and neurobiology, the general areas in which Francis Crick worked, and to fundamental theoretical work, which was the hallmark of Crick’s science. – The Vibes, August 26, 2021