MRC scientists honoured in annual Royal Society Fellow election
Friday 21 May 2010
The Royal Society has elected 44 distinguished scientists to join the ranks of its Fellows. Each researcher honoured has made a substantial contribution to the improvement of knowledge in mathematics, engineering science or medical science. Four of this year’s new fellows have received support from the Medical Research Council or are active in research at an MRC institution.
A maximum of 44 new fellows from the fields of science, engineering and technology are elected to the Royal Society annually. An additional eight foreign members (scientists who are not residents of a Commonwealth country or Ireland) have also been elected.
List of new Royal Society Fellows in receipt of MRC funding:
Dr Michael Harvey Hastings FRS
Staff Scientist, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
Dr Hastings is distinguished for his highly influential contributions to our understanding of biological clocks through the study of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. He was instrumental in unravelling how the SCN, via its control over the pineal hormone melatonin, controls seasonal cycles of physiology and behaviour. He then took understanding of circadian neurobiology to the molecular and cell biological level by developing in mammals a model of the SCN clock based on transcriptional negative feedback loops. In doing so, he identified important differences with the original Drosophila model of clocks. He has unravelled the powerful influence of the SCN on the mammalian transcriptome and established its relevance for medicine. In pioneering studies, Hastings discovered the role of neuropeptidergic and intracellular cAMP-mediated signalling in both sustaining clock function and synchronising clock cells across the SCN neuronal circuit.
Professor Alan Robert Lehmann FRS
Chairman, Genome Damage and Stability Centre and Professor of Molecular Genetics, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex
Professor Lehmann is distinguished for his use of molecular biology, genetics and cell biology to understand the mechanisms of DNA repair and to elucidate defects in these processes in several human genetic disorders. His most significant contribution has been the insights he has provided into the way in which cells are able to replicate damaged DNA. He showed that xeroderma pigmentosum variant patients were defective in this ability, he characterised numerous aspects of this process and showed how a specialised DNA polymerase is employed to replace the replicative polymerase blocked at DNA damage. Lehmann's work has provided deep insights into the relationship between DNA repair and cancer.
Professor Robin MacGregor Murray FRS
Professor of Psychiatric Research, Institute of Psychiatry at the Maudsley, Kings College, University of London
Professor Murray is distinguished for his major original contribution to the paradigm shift from the view of schizophrenia as an adult-onset psychosis to the view that it is an early-onset neurodevelopmental disorder. Rigorous empirical studies have identified obstetric risk factors, the role of language delay and cognitive impairment in childhood, and the provoking role of early onset heavy cannabis use. His research group has shown that African-Caribbeans living in the UK (but not those living in the Caribbean) have a markedly increased rate of schizophrenia. They have also shown the brain imaging abnormalities associated with schizophrenia, identifying their implications.
Professor Elizabeth Simpson FRS
Emeritus Professor of Transplantation Biology, Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre and Senior Research Investigator, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London
Professor Simpson is recognised for her elucidation of the nature of male-associated minor transplantation antigens, and their roles in the generation of immunological tolerance, graft versus host disease, and transplant rejection. Her seminal contributions have paved the way for detailed understanding of regulatory mechanisms operating in transplantation tolerance and have led to therapeutic strategies to harness such mechanisms.
ENDS
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