LISTER NEWS

Research Prizes 2011

Application forms for the 2011 Prizes are now available.  Completed forms should be returned to the Institute by Friday 3 December 2010.   THE 2011 PRIZES WILL BE £200,000 EACH AND THE MONEY MAY BE EXPENDED OVER A FIVE-YEAR PERIOD.

Scientific Advisory Committee

The Lister Institute is pleased to welcome Professor Wendy Bickmore and Professor Irene Leigh to our Scientific Advisory Committee. 

Professor Wendy Bickmore

Wendy Bickmore has worked on the nuclear organisation of mammalian genomes for the last 17 years.  As a fellow of the Lister Institute between 1991 and 1996, she demonstrated that human chromosomes vary widely in the density of genes that they contain. She then went on to show that chromosomes are not randomly organised in the nuclear space, with the periphery of the nucleus being populated by gene-poor chromatin. Later studies revealed that genes themselves also have a specific organisation within the nucleus and that this is modulated as genes become activated during development. Recent work has developed an experimental system that allows for specific chromosomes to be repositioned in the nucleus, providing direct evidence that spatial context can alter gene expression. Wendy Bickmore is currently head of the Chromosomes and Gene Expression Section at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh. She is a member of EMBO, and a fellow of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor Irene Leigh

Professor Irene Leigh is a graduate of the London Hospital Medical College.  After graduation she gained a lecturership in medicine at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.  In 1979 she returned to the UK and worked as a Senior Registrar at St John’s Hospital for Diseases of the Skin.  Professor Leigh joined the London Hospital four years later as a Consultant Dermatologist.  She went on to become a Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Dermatology in 1991. 

She was Director of the Cancer Research UK Skin Tumour Laboratory and Head of the Centre for Cutaneous Research at Bart’s and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry from 1983 until 2006.  The Research Centre’s laboratories comprise multiple research teams focusing on: keratinocyte differentiation, connexins and keratin mutations; non melanoma skin cancer and molecular mechanisms; human papillomavirus and cellular mechanisms;  hair biology; keratinocyte  migration and extracellular matrix; stem cells; prostate cancer; cutaneous viruses; tissue engineering and skin equivalents 

In 1997 she was appointed Dean for Research, St Bartholomews and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 1999 she was awarded a DSc, became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and became Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. In 2002 she became Joint Director of Research and Development for Barts and the London Trust/School of Medicine and Dentistry. She was awarded an OBE in the 2006 Birthday Honours List for services to medicine. 

In 2006, she became Head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing at the University of Dundee and continues to research into skin cancer and genetic disease, in collaboration with existing groups led by Birgit Lane and Irwin McLean, and was instrumental in the move of the Cancer Research UK Skin Tumour Laboratory to Dundee.

Governing Body

The Lister Institute is pleased to welcome Professor Tony Minson to our Governing Body.  Tony was elected onto the Governing Body at the AGM in September 2009.

Professor Tony Minson

Professor Tony Minson is a graduate of Birmingham University and received his Ph.D. from the Australian National University for studies in fungal genetics.  His subsequent research has been devoted almost entirely to studies of viruses, primarily herpesviruses, initially in the University of Birmingham and, since 1976, in the University of Cambridge.  He served as Chair of the School of Biological Sciences from 2001 – 2003 and as Pro Vice Chancellor of the University from 2003 – 2009.  He became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002.  He is currently a Trustee of the Animal Health Trust and Chair of the Cambridge University Press Syndicate.