Research Prizes 2012
The deadline for submitting an application for the 2012 Prizes has now
passed and the Scientific Advisory Committee are currently assessing
applications received. APPLICATION FORMS FOR THE 2013 PRIZES WILL BE
AVAILABLE IN JULY 2012. THE PRIZES WILL BE £200,000 EACH AND THE MONEY MAY BE EXPENDED OVER A FIVE-YEAR PERIOD.
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PRESENTATION AT UCL
A presentation was held on Tuesday 17 January at 4.00 pm by Lister Institute Prize Fellow, Dr
Josef Kittler (2010 winner) This was very well received and Dr
Kittler accepted a small memento from the Lister Institute's Chairman,
Sir Alex Markham.
Scientific Advisory Committee
The Lister Institute is pleased to welcome Professor Jonathan Waltho to
our Scientific Advisory Committee.
Professor Jonathan Waltho
Jonathan Waltho graduated in Chemistry from the University of Durham UK
in 1983 and completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1987. He
held postdoctoral fellowships at Smith Kline & French and at the Scripps
Research Institute before taking up a Lectureship in the Krebs Institute
for Biomolecular Research at the University of Sheffield in 1990. In
1996 he became a Lister Institute Research Fellow and in 1999 Professor
of Biochemistry. Since 2008, he has undertaken a 50% position as
Professor of NMR Spectroscopy at the University of Manchester, and in
2009 he became the inaugural Gibson Professor of Biophysics at the
University of Sheffield. Research in the Waltho Laboratory has focussed
on the biophysics of biomolecular interactions, utilising a broad range
of structural biology and kinetic methods, and aimed at questions in
protein folding and misfolding, protein-ligand and protein-protein
interactions, molecular assembly mechanisms and protein dynamics.
Current studies are primarily centred on deciphering the fundamental
properties of enzymes that catalyse phosphate and hydride transfer
reactions.
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Governing Body
The Lister Institute is pleased to welcome Professor Douglas Higgs,
Professor Janet Darbyshire and Professor Dame Kay Davies to our
Governing Body.
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 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 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.
