Explore our grantees and awardees

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2024

Geography: United Kingdom

Dr. Claire Higgins, is a Reader in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London in the UK,

She receives the award in support of her impressive academic achievements and her remarkable leadership within her research group and to future generations of skin scientists. Her research aims to achieve scarless wound healing in human skin by studying the human hair follicle and understanding how it can be used as a model for skin healing.

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Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2023

Geography: United Kingdom

Dr. Lavinia Paternoster is Associate Professor at the University of Bristol in the UK.

She receives the award for her research pushing the boundaries of our knowledge on the genetic landscape of skin diseases. Lavinia Paternoster’s work has led to significant breakthroughs in the understanding of atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and other complex human disorders.

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Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2019

Geography: United Kingdom

Shoba Amarnath is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University, UK

She receives 100,000 USD for her research in the field of immune tolerance in cutaneous inflammation.

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Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2016

Geography: United Kingdom

Presented to Dr. Virós who has made important contributions to the area of skin research by describing mechanisms behind the development of squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. She has published in top-ranking scientific journals and received a number of prestigious awards, including a recent Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinician Scientist Fellowship to set up her laboratory at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute in the newly-built Manchester Cancer Research Centre, UK, which is based at The University of Manchester.

Dr. Virós will focus her future research on the under-researched area of skin cancer and ageing. Ageing skin appears to have unique properties and patterns of tumour development that may explain the surprising increase in aggressive primary melanoma and mortality from this disease. Her aim is to identify the factors in elderly people that make them more prone to developing melanoma and less likely to survive once they develop the disease.

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2013

Geography: United Kingdom

Presented to Muzlifah Haniffa, Wellcome Trust Clinical Intermediate Fellow in Dermatology at the Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, UK.

Dr. Haniffa’s research focuses on dendritic cells; a type of white blood cells also present in the skin that are important in regulating immune responses against microorganisms, cancer and tolerance to self-proteins. Her research has the potential to lead to enhanced vaccination strategies against cancer, such as melanoma, and infections.

Grant category: LEO Foundation Awards

Year: 2008

Geography: United Kingdom

Presented to British researcher William Agace. Agace and his research team investigated the underlying control mechanisms for the processes behind the generation and movement of lymphocytes in the intestines, and identified the factors that determine which are activated and where they go in the intestinal system.

Insight gained from William Agace’s research will enable new and more targeted therapies for ailments such as chronic inflammatory bowel disease, a serious disorder with only limited treatment options available today. William Agace earned his MSc at Bristol University in microbiology, and his PhD in immunology from Lund University. In the late 1990’s, he spent three years as a postdoc at Harvard Medical School. In 2006, he was appointed professor of experimental medical research and head of the immunology section at Lund University. He has published more than 35 original articles and several book chapters.