Virginie Sottile 

School of Clinical Sciences

The Anne McLaren Fellowship provided Virginie with her first independent funding. She was able to research adult stem cell biology, and secured funding for a Medical Research Council/Alzheimer’s Society Joint Career Development Fellowship in stem cell research. This has allowed her to establish herself as a principal investigator, junior group leader and lecturer in the School of Clinical Sciences, where she now leads the Adult Stem Cell Biology group. She has published over 20 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals since her Fellowship.

The Fellowship allowed Virginie to meet Dame Professor Anne McLaren, an inspirational figure for scientists and a role model for women biologists. The scheme also provided Virginie with mentoring support from senior female academics at the University, and a network of peers in other scientific disciplines.

Virginie says: “The award to the Anne McLaren Fellowship has allowed me to start my own research programme, and make the transition from postdoctoral researcher to independent research fellow. The scheme is unique in that it allows women scientists to make this transition early on in their career, and provides support including a dynamic mentoring scheme throughout the fellowship.”

This year, the Anne McLaren Fellowship has funded a brilliant young researcher in multiple sclerosis, Dr Laura Edwards. She obtained a highly competitive Fulbright-Multiple Sclerosis Society Research Award, which funded a one-year post-doctoral position at Harvard Medical School, and the scheme enabled us to attract her back to Nottingham to join a group of four Principal Investigators in Clinical Neurology working on what causes MS and how it can be monitored. Among other things, the group have pioneered new uses of magnetic resonance imaging (for which Sir Peter Mansfield was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine) in the assessment of MS.

Professor John Atherton, Head of the School of Clinical Sciences