Jodie Malcolm wins RMS Early Career Award
Huge congratulations to Jodie Malcolm, who won the RMS Early Career Award following her presentation at Microscopy: Advances, Innovation, Impact 2026.
Jodie, who is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cancer Cell Physiology at the University of York, was shortlisted to deliver a talk about her research at the recent meeting, which took place at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Burlington House headquarters in London.
Jodie gave a talk titled: Adapting the OpenFlexure Microscope for Affordable Live-Cell Imaging. The project focuses on democratising access to advanced microscopy by developing a low-cost, open-source, live-cell imaging (LCI) platform based on Richard Bowman's OpenFlexure Microscope (OFM).
She said: “Having been fortunate enough to work alongside researchers from resource-constrained settings, I became really passionate about improving access to specialised microscopy techniques that could help address locally-relevant health challenges.
“Microscopy is such a valuable technique in all areas of research, and being able to study biological systems at a temporal resolution allows us to dive deeper into cellular phenomics that may be driving disease, promoting resistance to therapy, and to characterise novel organisms, at a level not possible with fixed samples. A key aim of the project was to produce biologically meaningful live-cell imaging data while maintaining affordability, allowing more researchers worldwide to explore cellular dynamics in ways that would otherwise be inaccessible.”
Jodie added: “Taking part in the competition was a fantastic experience. I'm incredibly grateful to my supervisors, Professor Will Brackenbury and Professor Pete O'Toole, for their enthusiastic support, and to the RMS for recognising the project with this award. I'm particularly pleased that the work is helping to raise awareness of affordable, open-source microscopy and its potential to broaden access to advanced imaging across the global research community.”
Runner-up: Nathan Day
The competition runner-up was Nathan Day, who delivered a talk titled ‘Fast-growing Mycobacerium tuberculosis evades antibiotic treatment’. It focused on his research highlighting the rapid growth of the bacterium in human immune cells even under antibiotic treatment – challenging the long-held view that TB bacteria survive antibiotics by entering a slow-growing, dormant state.
Nathan, who recently became a Research Associate in the Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said: “I really enjoyed the opportunity to present my work in person – and in such a beautiful building too. It was a valuable chance to share my research with the wider microscopy community, and I’m grateful to the society for supporting early-career scientists in this way.”