Dr Alexander Borodavka named 2024 Lister Fellow

Dr Borodavka and his research group receive six-figure funding boost from prize

Alex Borodavka is on a mission to save children's lives.

By researching ways to prevent the more than 170,000 children who die each year from rotaviruses.

He is modest about the potential impact of his biomedical research, but the assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology is at the cutting edge of groundbreaking research; leading to him being granted a prestigious honour with the annual Lister Prize.

Dr Borodavka and his research group are pushing the boundaries of their field in pursuit of their goal: to prevent the many deaths each year that can be attributed to rotaviruses. Rotaviruses are the leading culprit of diarrhoeal diseases in infants and young children, the third leading cause of death in children under five, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly every child in the world (>95%) suffers a rotaviral infection before the age of five, but it is children living in poor or remote communities who are most at risk.

Dr Borodavka’s work aims to reduce the number of tragedies by understanding how rotaviruses work. These germs are unique as their genetic material, called RNA, is divided into 11 separate pieces and it is that element that Alex’s team are keen to explore, figuring out how these germs put their RNA pieces together. To do this, he looks at the shapes and sequences of the RNA and how the germs build tiny factories inside cells to copy themselves. By understanding these processes, Alex hopes to discover new vaccines and other treatments that could save lives.

Dr Borodavka has been granted one of just six 2024 Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine Prize fellowships for his cutting-edge work. As part of the prize, The Lister Institute has awarded £300,000 to Dr Borodavka’s group to further his research. This money will be used to cover staffing, equipment and other costs to help drive his research onwards.

In accepting the prize, Dr Borodavka said:

“Winning the Lister Prize is an incredible honour and a significant milestone in my scientific journey. With this flexible support I can expand our team, and establish new cutting-edge technologies, as well as foster collaborations with the groups working on other important multi-segmented RNA viruses. "

“This will accelerate our efforts to uncover universal principles of replication and evolution of these pathogens, and advance our understanding of a fundamental biological problem that has been around for over half a century since the discovery that this class of viruses contain multiple genomic segments.”

Find out more about the work of Alex and his research group on their website: Borodavka Lab