Natural Sciences student wins prestigious Beaumont Award

Daniel West, a final year Natural Sciences student, has won a University of Leeds Beaumont Award for his research into the biomedical applications of protein hydrogels.

​Daniel won the award for his research project: Mimicking human tissue mechanics using protein hydrogels and its potential in medical applications. The research was an interdisciplinary project between Daniel, Professor David Brockwell (School of Molecular and Cellular Biology) and Professor Lorna Dougan (School of Physics and Astronomy).

This year, 10 students from the University of Leeds have been awarded a coveted Beaumont Award to acknowledge their outstanding research projects that have the potential to impact society and solve real-world problems.

Sponsored by innovator and technologist, Professor Adam Beaumont, the award scheme enables each winning student to take advantage of personal introductions to relevant contacts within industry and opportunities to work with world-class organisations to further progress their research.

Reflecting on his achievement, Daniel said: “My project has investigated how you can control the mechanical properties of a protein hydrogel material. Protein hydrogels have very similar mechanical properties to biological tissues and similar structures to the extracellular matrix, and so they are very useful for biomedical applications, such as wound healing.”

“I’ve looked into how you can mimic the mechanical properties of tissues by regulating the properties of protein hydrogels and potentially improve the biomedical applications of protein hydrogels. I feel very honoured to have won the Beaumont Award and have my research recognised.”

I feel very honoured to have won the Beaumont Award and have my research recognised.