The Academy’s investment will support 62 exceptional scientists across UK institutions who are pioneering innovative approaches to improve human health and wellbeing. Each researcher will receive £100,000-£125,000 through the Springboard programme, alongside mentoring and career development support to help establish their independent research careers.

Among this year’s awardees are researchers working on innovative approaches to some of society’s most urgent health problems. Amanda’s research focuses on the synthesis and application of fluorescent polymer nanoparticles in a range of healthcare applications.

Dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease, are chronic neurodegenerative diseases that may affect over 1 million people in the UK by 2030, costing the NHS and UK economy £3 billion per year. Amanda’s project aims to engineer synthetic polymer nanoparticles to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 therapy, a revolutionary technique for the highly specific and rapid modification of DNA within living organisms.

Amanda said: “In this project, I will engineer synthetic polymer nanoparticles to deliver the CRISPR/Cas9 therapy. These particles are non-toxic, highly tuneable to specific properties such as surface charge and size, and can also be enhanced with molecules to enable them to cross the blood-brain barrier and target diseased brain cells.

“I am extremely excited to begin this project looking at real-world healthcare applications of polymer nanoparticle technology. I have first-hand experience of the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease on both the sufferer and those closest to them, making this project particularly meaningful for me.”