Two postdoctoral researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Babraham Institute have been placed first and second in the Researcher’s Prize category in the first ever National Brain Science Writing Prize.

Dr William Davies, a postdoctoral researcher from the Babraham Institute produced a winning entry for his article ‘Battle for the Brain’. Focussing on imprinted genes, Dr Davis investigated how genes from your mother and father fight it out for supremacy in your brain. Following in second place, fellow Cambridge postdoctoral researcher Dr Martin O’Neill, from the Department of Anatomy, gave an intriguing insight into the relatively new research field of Neuroeconomics, in his article ‘My Money on my Mind’.

The judging panel for the National Brain Science Writing Prize included Dr Penny Fidler - neuroscientist and creator of the Your Amazing Brain website, Elaine Snell - Senior PR consultant for the European Dana alliance for the Brain (EDAB) and Yvonne Allen - Executive Secretary of The British Neuroscience Association.

The competition was launched by the ‘Your amazing brain’ website, www.youramazingbrain.org, The European Dana Alliance for the Brain and The British Neuroscience Association. Created to celebrate the amazing field of brain science, this national writing competition received a huge level of interest in its launch year, with entries from students, researchers and scientists from all over the UK.

Dr Fidler comments, “The success of the writing competition just goes to show how fascinated people are by the exciting and astonishing field of brain science. We wanted to intrigue people and make them talk, think and question how amazing their brains are. We also wanted to encourage brain scientists across the UK to tell the world about their research in a lively and intriguing way.”

Winning entries can be viewed at www.youramazingbrain.org

The field of brain science (neuroscience) is one of the most rapidly growing areas in science. It encompasses elements of biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, maths and psychology and hopes to find cures for some of the world’s most difficult diseases.


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