“Being the first to discover something that no one has seen before is the most exciting thing in the world.” This is how one of the winners of the 2012 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO ” Women and Science ” Awards summed up her passion for science, which was just presented in Paris to five exceptional international researchers, one from each continent. Among the winners of the 14th edition of the prestigious award is Jill Farran , molecular plant physiologist at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), awarded for her work on how plants survive under conditions of drought, and how even after drying they manage to “come back to life”, showing an extraordinary capacity to resist the lack of water.
Identifying for the first time genes involved in certain forms of epilepsy has been the great contribution to science of the neurologist and pediatrician at the University of Melbourne (Australia) Ingrid Scheffer , awarded for the great advance that this finding has meant for patients and their families. For her part, Frances Ascroft , professor and researcher at the Royal Society of the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, is among the winners in recognition of her discovery of a protein that acts as a link between glucose levels and insulin secretion , which has led to a great improvement in the control of glucose levels for diabetics.
The other winners are Susana López , an expert in developmental genetics and molecular physiology at the Institute of Biotechnology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, dedicated to the study of rotaviruses that cause the death of 600,000 children each year; and Bonnie Bassler , a researcher at Princeton University (USA) who pioneered the study of communication between bacteria, whose research is opening doors to the development of alternative methods to antibiotics to treat infections.
As the chairman of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Life Sciences Prizes jury, Günter Blobel, Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1999, states, ” If humanity wants to survive, we need all the good ideas generated by all brains, regardless of their sex “.
