Chilean scientist wins Türkiye's Sabri Ulker Future Science Leader Award
Maria Elsa Pando San Martin receives award for project that developed innovative vitamin B12 delivery system using starch extracted from potato peels
Chilean biochemist Maria Elsa Pando San Martin from the University of Chile’s Faculty of Medicine was honored for her research that turns food industry waste into a health-focused innovation by Türkiye’s Sabri Ulker Foundation.
Promoting public health through science-based work in nutrition, food, health education, and research collaboration, the nonprofit foundation presented San Martin with the 10th Sabri Ulker Future Science Leader Award at a ceremony in Istanbul, attended by leading national and international figures from the scientific community.
San Martin was recognized for a project that developed an innovative vitamin B12 delivery system using starch extracted from potato peels, an agricultural byproduct.
The fast-dissolving oral film is designed to provide high absorption, particularly for older adults experiencing swallowing difficulties.
Sabri Ulker Foundation Chairman Yahya Ulker said at the ceremony that the challenges facing humanity are becoming increasingly complex and that science is needed more than ever in the fields of food, nutrition, sustainability, and quality of life.
“What began 10 years ago as a small step has grown into a structure that brings together scientists from around the world,” he said. “This award is no longer just an award but a platform where ideas meet, collaborations are born, and science is produced together.”
Yildiz Holding board member Murat Ulker said the group is proud to support people serving science and humanity.
Noting the company’s founder Sabri Ulker’s words: “Success is built first on hard work, then honesty, and then quality,” Ulker said the principle forms the foundation of the institution’s way of doing business.
From potato peels to biomedical product
San Martin said her award-winning work demonstrates how scientific knowledge can be turned into solutions that directly improve people’s lives.
“It is a great happiness and honor for me that the Sabri Ulker Future Science Leader Award is expanding globally, making research from different geographies more visible, and that my work has been recognized on this platform,” she said.
Her research aims to contribute to the circular economy and sustainable nutrition by transforming special starch derived from potato peels, typically treated as waste in the food industry, into a biomedical product.
San Martin also received the OPENICS 2024 Health and Innovation Award for the oral-dissolving film system she developed for vitamin B12.
She holds a national patent related to structuring omega-3 derivatives under supercritical carbon dioxide conditions and has contributed to next-generation antioxidant lipid technologies.
During the last five years, San Martin has published more than 10 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals. Her research areas include lipids rich in EPA and DHA, pomegranate peel polyphenols, and neurodegeneration.
