Award for Biotec scientist
A researcher at the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec), Dr Chawanee Thongpanchang, has become the first Thai to win a Unesco-L'Oreal Co Fellowship for Young Women in Life Sciences.
The 34-year-old researcher was selected for the Fellowship programme based on her research to create medicine for malaria. She will receive a grant of up to $US 20,000 (Bt730,000) per year for two years. Her research was among 15 chosen from 300 worldwide applicants last year.Chawanee has succeeded in producing a medicine to terminate a fatal strain of malaria called Plasmodium Sanctorum, which is found in Thailand. The strain mutates all the time and is thus prone to becoming drug-resistant. However she could only extract a small amount of the medicine in the laboratory. After receiving the funds, Chawanee will work at the University of Zurich in Switzerland from April to September this year. Over the next two years, she will conduct research in Thailand and Switzerland in six-month shifts. "Malaria is found mostly in Africa and Asia and most patients are poor, so big pharmaceutical firms don't give much attention to research and producing the medicine for this disease. Thailand must therefore research and manufacture this medicine itself," she said. Chawanee worked at Biotec between 1996 and 1999 before pursuing further studies and receiving a PhD in Organic Chemicals at Mahidol University in 2004. She then went back to work at Biotec and started research into malaria. Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong The Nation
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