Professor Tony James from our Department of Chemistry led a team awarded a Daiwa Adrian Prize at a ceremony held at The Royal Society in London last month.

The team also includes Dr Steven D Bull from our Department of Chemistry, John S. Fossey from the University of Birmingham, Professor Shinkai from Kyushu University, Kazuo Sakurai from Kitakyushu University and Yuji Kubo from Tokyo Metropolitan University.

The £10,000 prize will further their work developing diagnostic devices to target age-related diseases – specifically non-invasive glucose sensors for diabetics and blood tests for early stage diagnosis of cancer and dementia.

Professor James said: “Our hope for the future is to design a cheap and simple to use, handheld diagnostic device. The teams' aim is to transfer science fiction to science fact.”

Professor Matthew Davidson, Head of Department, said: “This award recognises 20 years of hard work by Professor James.

“We are particularly delighted as this prize not only reflects well on Professor James professionally but enhances the international reputation of our University.”

The prizes are awarded every three years by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in recognition of “significant scientific collaboration between Japanese and British research teams.”