Lily Southcott Awarded the Carl H. Westcott Fellowship to Advance Nuclear Medicine

June 28, 2021

This story was originally published by TRIUMF, and was reposted with minor edits.

Photo of Orvig Lab PhD Candidate Lily Southcott on the left and quote from Lily on the right that reads: "To be able to focus on my research and be recognized for it makes me feel very accomplished and that the hard work of grad school is paying off. Being able to see how the Life Sciences Division at TRIUMF collaborates with UBC and BC Cancer has given me a lot of opportunities to learn more about the field and make connections!"

 

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Lily Southcott from the Orvig Lab, who was recently awarded the 2021 Carl H. Westcott Fellowship from the University of Alberta Physics Department!

Part of the UBC Centre for Blood Research (CBR) and the Department of Chemistry, Lily is also a participant of the Isotopes for Science and Medicine (IsoSiM) program, which was established by TRIUMF and UBC. The Westcott Fellowship is awarded each year to a graduate student whose research work is being carried out at TRIUMF or on TRIUMF-related projects.

“My research focuses on developing new ligands with high affinity for radiometals that can be used in Nuclear Medicine for cancer imaging or therapy,” Lily shares.

“I synthesize new chelators that incorporate a molecule called 8-hydroxyquinoline. After the synthesis, purification, and analytical chemistry and characterization in the UBC Department of Chemistry, I test for their ability to bind certain radiometals at TRIUMF, and their stability over time and with competitors.”

“The past year has been pretty rough with everything going on in the outside world. To be able to focus on my research and be recognized for it makes me feel very accomplished and that the hard work of grad school is paying off. Being able to see how the Life Sciences Division at TRIUMF collaborates with UBC and BC Cancer has given me a lot of opportunities to learn more about the field and make connections!”

IsoSiM is funded through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) CREATE program. Congrats, Lily!