STEM for Britain Awards winner

A Faculty of Medicine academic has been recognised for his research into lung disease in premature babies.

Dr Alastair Watson, Research Fellow in Pulmonary Immunology, was given the bronze award in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences category at the 2018 STEM for Britain Awards.

Premature babies have delicate lungs and can develop chronic lung disease with complications such as lung infections and damage to their brain. Unfortunately, there are no drugs which work to prevent this disease. 

Dr Watson has made synthetic versions of the natural lung defence proteins known as surfactant proteins A and D with the aim of developing them into treatments to try and prevent this disease.

Dr Watson said: “I loved attending this STEM event and I am delighted to have won this award. The chance to attend the Houses of Parliament, engage with parliamentarians and showcase our scientific research was fantastic. I got a real buzz from having the chance to communicate my research in very simple and understandable terms and would definitely recommend other early career researchers to attend this event in the future.”