ISAPP’s Inaugural Early Career Researcher Prize Awarded to Two Rising Star Probiotic Scientists

June 6th, 2021

This year, ISAPP established a prize for early career researchers with the goal of recognizing individuals who contribute substantial research findings in the fields of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics and fermented foods. The criteria for this award included evidence of impact through citizenship, general outreach and citations, as well as a dissertation with novel contributions that advance the field.

The ISAPP board is pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural Early Career Researcher prize for 2021: Irina Spacova, University of Antwerp, Belgium, and Car Reen Kok, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, USA. The winners each receive a cash award and the opportunity to speak at a future in-person ISAPP meeting.

Car Reen’s education includes a BSc in biochemistry and MS in Food Science, both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she now is working on her PhD. Her research focuses on untangling factors leading to responsiveness or non-responsiveness to prebiotic interventions through metagenomics readouts. This line of research has great potential to personalize prebiotics, thereby increasing their effectiveness.

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Story by International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP)