Two doctoral students in pharmacology at the University of Iceland, the Indians Varsha A. Kale at Matís and Vivek S. Gaware, received a grant from the Bergþóra and Þorsteinn Scheving Thorsteinsson Pharmacy Prize Fund yesterday, Monday 4 June. Their research has already led to new knowledge in pharmacology.
This is the seventh time that awards have been given from the fund to doctoral students in pharmacology at the University of Iceland for outstanding research. The total amount of the grant is ISK 700,000 and each grant recipient will receive ISK 350,000.
Vörsha A. Kale's research project aims to isolate cartilage sugars from Icelandic sea otters and determine their molecular structure. It has also grown marine bacteria that produce sugar-cleaving biocatalysts. Varsha has already isolated three different types of such sugars and demonstrated their immune-regulating activity. Utilization of the project involves the production of new bioactive sugars and catalysts. The project is carried out in collaboration with Matís. Varsha was born in India in 1985 and graduated with a master's degree in drug chemistry in 2004 from SRTM University in Nanded, India. She began her doctoral studies in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Iceland in 2009 and her main supervisor is Sesselja S. Ómarsdóttir, associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, and co-supervisor Guðmundur Óli Hreggviðsson, associate professor at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences and subject director at Matís.
In her doctoral dissertation, Vivek S. Gaware develops special nanomaterials that can be stimulated by light and thus eradicate cancerous tumors. The project is carried out in collaboration with researchers at Radium hospital in Oslo and the company PCI Biotech. Vivek has already succeeded in constructing and defining well over fifty new materials in this project. The results of tests in Norway have given good results and indicate that the substances are very active against cancer. Vivek was also born in India in 1981, and graduated with a master's degree in organic chemistry from the University of Pune in his home country in 2004. Vivek began his doctoral studies in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Iceland in 2008 and his main supervisor is Már Másson, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy.About the Bergþóra and Þorsteinn Scheving Thorsteinsson Pharmacy Prize Fund
The Bergþóra and Þorsteinn Scheving Thorsteinsson Pharmacy Prize Fund was established in 2001. The aim of the fund is to award prizes for scientific achievements and to support research and postgraduate studies in pharmacology. It was Bent Scheving Thorsteinsson who founded the fund in memory of his father, Þorstein Scheving Thorsteinsson, a pharmacist at Reykjavíkurapóteki, and his wife, Bergþóra Patursson.
The Bergþóra and Þorsteinn Scheving Thorsteinsson Prize Fund is one of three funds that Bent has established at the University of Iceland. The others are the Óskar Þórðarson Pediatrician Award Fund, which aims to award prizes for scientific achievements, research, dissertations and related activities in the field of pediatrics, and the Margaret and Bent Scheving Thorsteinsson Scholarship Fund, which is intended to support research on bullying. Bent has donated a total of ISK 60 million to the University of Iceland through financial contributions to the three funds.
For further information, contact Varsha and Guðmundur Óli Hreggviðsson at Matís.
This article first appeared on the University of Iceland website (www.hi.is/frettir/doktorsnemar_i_lyfjafraedi_hljota_styrk).