Commendation for Merton DPhil student

Chemistry DPhil student Anna Rydzik has been awarded a commendation for her thesis, making her the second Merton DPhil student to achieve this in the last three years. Anna—a Graduate Prize Scholar in 2012/13—carried out research on an enzyme called γ-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (BBOX), which acts as a catalyst in the production of carnitine in the human body. Although carnitine, a popular diet supplement, is indispensable in the metabolism of fatty acids, inhibiting the role of BBOX has been shown to aid the recovery of stroke patients; Anna's work focused on finding a specific inhibitor and measuring its activity.

Anna—who completed an MSc in Chemistry at the University of Warsaw, Poland, in 2009—came to Oxford as a Dulverton Trust scholar and started her DPhil in the Chemistry Research Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Christopher Schofield. The quality of her work had already been recognised at the departmental level; she was awarded commendations both for her first-year transfer report and for her third-year DPhil student presentation. Her work to date has been described in 17 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and presented at several international conferences.