The winner of the RIA/ Irish Times chemistry essay competition comes from Italy and studies sugar chemistry, writes Dick Ahlstrom
An Italian scientist who did her PhD at University College Dublin has won the Prize for Young Chemists 2004, an essay competition organised by the Royal Irish Academy. Dr Manuela Tosin won the top prize with a sweet essay describing her work on the sugar structures that support the complex interactions between living cells.
Structural sugars that help cells talk to one another are essential to life, Tosin told Science Today in Dublin last Monday when she received her prize. Tosin described how she first came to Ireland seven years ago on a three-month EU scholarship, only to return in 2001 to begin her PhD research at UCD.
Her degree research area is known as "carbohydrate chemistry" she says. "What I like about carbohydrate chemistry is it is not well known. It is unexplained and you can still find novel things." The sugars help cells communicate by linking sugar structures to matching proteins on the surfaces of neighbouring cells, says Tosin.
"When the two cells meet they recognise each other and trigger a sequence of events. If you are able to understand and control this interaction you can make drugs for this," she says.
"The aim of my PhD was to create sugar molecules that were able to interact with protein receptors in a specific way to trigger a particular type of signalling."
She completed her doctorate last year and decided to enter the Academy's competition, which is sponsored by The Irish Times and by AGB Scientific. Entrants are asked to describe their PhD thesis in a 1,000-word essay and Tosin's effort claimed the award for 2004.
AGB Scientific sponsors the prize, which includes a John Coen bronze sculpture and a cheque for €1,000. The win also allows her to go forward for a possible international prize for young chemists sponsored by IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Tosin moved to Cambridge University after graduating and she is now working on sugar structure synthesis using nature's own manufacturing method, enzymes.
At some stage she would like to return and continue working in research in Ireland. "I found a great environment here, I really enjoyed it," she says. "When they put you in a position to do good work, that is great. It is an enthusiastic environment."
Enterprise Ireland funding helped support her work in the lab and she also received funding from the Irish Council for Science, Engineering and Technology's Embark Initiative.