Research Prizes 2013
APPLICATION FORMS FOR THE 2013 PRIZES
ARE NOW
AVAILABLE AND CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM THIS SITE. THE PRIZES WILL BE £200,000 EACH AND THE MONEY MAY BE EXPENDED OVER A FIVE-YEAR PERIOD.
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Scientific Advisory Committee
The Lister Institute is pleased to welcome Professor Jon Cohen,
Professor Annette Dolphin, Professor Nick Lemoine and Professor Kate Storey to
our Scientific Advisory Committee.
Professor Jon Cohen
Jon Cohen trained in medicine at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School
(now part of Imperial College) and graduated in 1974. After junior
training posts he decided to specialise in Infectious Diseases, at that
time an almost extinct speciality in the UK. He was awarded a Wellcome
Trust Fellowship in Infectious Diseases and used it first to obtain a
formal training in microbiology at the London School of Hygiene, and
then to go to the US to get a clinical and research training in the
field. He returned to the UK and established a new academic unit at
Hammersmith Hospital; over time this became the largest academic
department of infectious diseases & microbiology in the country. His
own research was focused on sepsis and explored both microbial and host
factors in pathogenesis. As well as a basic science programme around
humoral mediators of sepsis and the pathogenic role of superantigens, he
was closely involved with clinical trials in the field; his group were
the first to give anti-TNF monoclonal antibody to a patient, and were
also involved in designing and leading a series of major international
phase III trials of novel mediators in sepsis. In 2003 he accepted the
post of Foundation Dean of Brighton & Sussex Medical School which took
in its first students a year later. The school has become one of the
most sought after in the country.
Professor Annette Dolphin
Professor Annette C. Dolphin received her BA in Natural Sciences
(Biochemistry) from the University of Oxford, and her PhD at the
Institute of Psychiatry in London on animal models of Parkinson’s
disease. She then held postdoctoral fellowships at the College de France
in Paris, and at Yale University, working on G-protein coupled
receptor–mediated signalling. She returned to UK to work at National
Institute of Medical Research on long term potentiation and presynaptic
modulation of transmitter release. She then established her own group
working on neuronal calcium channel modulation by G-protein coupled
receptors, first at St. George’s Hospital Medical School and then at
Royal Free Hospital Medical School in London, where she was appointed to
a Chair in 1990. Currently she is Professor of Pharmacology in the
Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology at University
College London. She was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in
1999. Her research interests are in the field of neuronal
voltage-dependent calcium channels, particularly their modulation by
neurotransmitters, G proteins, the role of accessory subunits and the
importance of voltage gated calcium channels as drug targets, as well as
their role in a number of diseases including neuropathic pain.
Professor Nick Lemoine
Professor Lemoine trained at the Medical College of St Bartholomew’s
Hospital and won the University Gold Medal in 1983. He specialised in
cancer medicine and pathology in Cardiff and London. He is now Director
of the Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London, as
well as the Head of Research & Implementation for the new Integrated
Cancer System for Central & East London. For the last twenty years he
has directed a research programme into the genes and molecules that
cause pancreatic cancer, and his current work focuses on new approaches
for early diagnosis and the development of a gene therapy for this
disease.
Professor Kate Storey
Kate Storey is Head of the Division of Cell & Developmental Biology and
Chair of Neural Development at the University of Dundee. She
investigates cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating vertebrate
neural differentiation in embryos and embryonic stem cells. She is well
known for development of novel imaging approaches for monitoring cell
behaviour and cell signalling in living tissues and for the discovery of
a signalling switch that controls differentiation onset. Her most recent
work addresses how key differentiation signals direct changes in
chromatin organisation. She also provides leadership in Science
Communication at the University of Dundee and has undertaken a number of
Sci-Art collaborations. These include the exhibition "Primitive Streak"
developed with her sister, artist/designer Helen Storey, which
chronicles key events in early embryonic development through the medium
of fashion design.
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Governing Body
The Lister Institute is pleased to welcome
Professor Janet Darbyshire, Professor Dame Kay Davies and
Professor Douglas Higgs to our
Governing Body.
Professor Janet Darbyshire
After training in respiratory medicine Professor Darbyshire joined the
UK Medical Research Council Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases Unit to
co-ordinate a programme of clinical trials and observational
epidemiological studies in East Africa and the UK which led to the short
course chemotherapy regimens which are now the basis of tuberculosis
treatment worldwide. She subsequently moved into HIV research at the
time when the first antiretroviral drugs were becoming available and led
the MRC HIV Clinical Trials Centre developing a programme of clinical
trials and observational studies in the UK and in collaboration with
research groups across Europe, Australia and North and South America and
subsequently in Africa.
In 1998 she became the Director of the newly established MRC Clinical
Trials Unit (CTU) which incorporated the HIV programme and the MRC
Cancer Trials Office. The remit of the (CTU) also extended into other
disease areas where there was no strong tradition of clinical trials
such as arthritis and blood transfusion. She retired as Director
of the CTU in March 2010.
In 2005 with Professor Peter Selby she became Joint Director of the
UKCRN Clinical Research Network co-ordinated jointly between the MRC CTU
and the University of Leeds. The UKCRN (which became the NIHR CRN) was
set up to support both commercial and non-commercial research in the UK
by providing clinical infrastructure in the NHS. The aim was to
increase the quality and quantity of clinical research with the overall
goal of improving both the health and wealth of the UK.
She has been involved in drug regulation for many years, initially on
the Committee on Safety of Medicines and then on the Commission on Human
Medicines which replaced it. She has served on many research and funding
committees and advisory boards and on WHO and other Expert committees as
well as numerous trial oversight, data monitoring and scientific
advisory committees.
Although never living in Africa, Professor Darbyshire has spent much
time there involved in collaborative research in resource poor countries
to improve the treatment initially of tuberculosis and subsequently of
HIV infection although the two are inextricably linked.
Professor Kay Davies
Professor Davies is Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy and Associate Head,
Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, and Honorary Director
of the MRC Functional Genomics Unit. Her research interests cover the
molecular analysis of neuromuscular and neurological disease,
particularly Duchenne muscular dystrophy. She has an active
interest in the ethical implications of genetics research and the public
understanding of science. She has considerable experience of
biotechnology companies as a conduit for translating the results of
experimental science into new therapeutics and diagnostics. She is a
founding editor of the journal 'Human Molecular Genetics' and a founding
fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Douglas Higgs
Douglas R Higgs qualified in Medicine at King’s College Hospital Medical
School (University of London) in 1974 and trained as a haematologist (FRCP,
FRCPATH). He joined the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit (University
of Oxford) in 1977 and was awarded a DSc (Medicine) in 1990. He was
elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001, a member
of EMBO in 2006 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005. He is
currently Professor of Molecular Haematology at the University of
Oxford, Director of the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit (MHU) and
co-Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM).
The main interest of his own laboratory is to understand how mammalian
genes are switched on and off during differentiation and development
using haematopoiesis as the experimental model. His laboratory
investigates a comprehensive set of transcriptional, co-transcriptional
and epigenetic influences on gene expression including the role of
nuclear position, chromosome conformation, the timing of replication,
chromatin and DNA modification, and the potential role of non-coding
RNAs. Initial studies using the well characterized globin loci are used
to initiate genome-wide studies to establish the general principles
underlying mammalian gene regulation. An important aim of this
work, supported by strong clinical programmes, is to improve the
management of patients with common blood diseases ranging from inherited forms of anaemia (including thalassaemia)
to leukaemia.
Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys
The Governing Body is pleased to announce that Professor Sir Alec
Jeffreys has been made a lifetime member. This is
to reflect the huge contribution that he has made to the Institute over
the last 30 years.
