Top prize for University pharmacologist
PA 214/09 A star scientist from The University of Nottingham's School of Biomedical Sciences has won a prestigious award for her work in the field of pharmacology. Dr Jillian Baker has won the Novartis Prize, a leading award from the British Pharmacological Society for scientists in pharmacology under the age of 40. The award is a double whammy for the School of Biomedical Sciences as it's the second year in a row that a member of the School has won it⤦ last year it went to Professor of Neuropharmacology Vicky Chapman. The award is based on published work. Dr Baker has published several papers, including some single author papers. Perhaps the most important of these was her clear demonstration that all of the beta-blockers in common clinical practice for cardiovascular disease were not as selective for the human beta-1 receptors as previously assumed. This prompted her to establish a team in Nottingham to generate better beta-blocker drugs and this recently secured £3million funding from the Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery initiative.
