Dr James Locke, Group Leader at the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU), was awarded the Merrimack-CSB2 Prize in Systems Biology this week at the International Conference on the Systems Biology of Human Disease 2013 in Heidelberg, Germany. The Prize, sponsored by Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, is awarded to a young scientist for exceptional contributions to the development and application of innovative new modelling and computational methods as judged by their technical quality, broad utility and fundamental theoretical insight. Dr Locke presented some of his research at the conference during his Award Lecture on Wednesday 12 June, entitled “Stochastic signal encoding strategies in single cells.”
Dr Locke joined the Sainsbury Laboratory in 2012 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. His growing research group is working to develop a quantitative understanding of signal integration and gene circuit dynamics at the single cell level in Cyanobacteria, and is currently recruiting 2 postdoctoral scientists to move this work forward.
Ottoline Leyser, the Director of SLCU, said “We are delighted that James’ work has been recognised with this prize. His work beautifully illustrates how combining theoretical approaches with biological experiments can provide insights applicable across biology, in plant, animal and microbial systems. This interdisciplinary approach is a central pillar of the SLCU philosophy”.
The International Conference on the Systems Biology of Human Disease 2013 (SBHD 2013) took place on June 12-14 at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany. The conference is organized by the Helmholtz Alliance on Systems Biology in cooperation with the Council for Systems Biology in Boston (CSB2), Harvard Medical School and the Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology SystemsX.