Society News UK Bioscience Strengthened by Agreement Between Three Learned Societies

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Society News UK Bioscience strengthened by agreement between three learned societies

ree of the largest UK learned societies in the biological and environmental sciences took a signi cant step towards integrating the sector on 10 March, when they signed a Downloaded from http://portlandpress.com/biochemist/article-pdf/31/3/55/7004/bio031030055.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 Memorandum of Understanding on future activities. ey are the Society for Experi- mental Biology, the Biochemical Society and the British Ecological Society. Between them, these organizations have over 10000 individ- ual members. e interests of their members, who include many Nobel Prize winners and other leading UK scientists, span the entire range of biological enquiry. e Memorandum commits the three societies to work together in a variety of key areas, including the organization of scienti c meetings, education, policy and public Professor Martin Humphries, Chair BS, seated. Standing, left to right: engagement. It was signed at the House of Professor Malcolm Press, President, British Ecological Society; Professor Commons in a ceremony witnessed by Lord Ian Johnston, President, British Ecological Society; Lord Hunt, Minister Hunt (Minister for Sustainable Development of Sustainable Development and Energy Innovation, and Deputy Leader and Energy Innovation, and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords; and Phil Willis, MP, Chair, Innovation, University, of the House of Lords) and Phil Willis MP Science and Skills Committee (Chair of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee). Government and build an ever stronger base for UK science”. Lord Hunt commented: “Biosciences are Professor Malcolm Press, President of the British Ecological the emerging science of the 21st Century, Society, added: “Some of the greatest challenges that face the world and it is very positive that three of its most – climate change, the spread of infectious diseases, and food security, signi cant learned societies, including two for example – depend for solutions on interdisciplinary research in who are approaching their centenary are the environmental and biosciences. Our closer co-operation can only coming together in this way”. expedite progress”. Professor Martin Humphries, Chairman Professor Ian Johnston, President of the Society for Experimental of the Biochemical Society, said: “the old Biology, said: “We recognize that barriers between disciplines only divisions between biological disciplines that impede scienti c progress and we anticipate major bene ts to ow de ned our subject in the early years of the from collaborating with other learned societies. Furthermore, in areas last century have melted away. Biologists such as education and public outreach, the three Societies will have need to work together to help and in uence much greater impact by working together.” ■ Breaking News

At a special meeting on 1 May in Edinburgh, dum of Understanding (above). e building will provide joint o ce the Biochemical Society Trustees approved a space for the three Societies, the potential to rent accommodation to plan to purchase and refurbish a building in other, similar organizations and a purpose-built meetings suite that central London together with the other Socie- will be available for focused meetings of up to about 150 participants. ties who are co-signatories to the Memoran- More details will follow in the next issue of e Biochemist… ■

Each year, the Biochemical Society makes a series of prestigious awards that recognize excellence and achievement in both speci c and general elds of science. (See www.biochemistry.org/Awards/tabid/366/Default.aspx for details.) e winners for 2010 are as follows.

The Colworth Medal The Keilin Memorial Lecture Mark Dillingham (Bristol, UK) Andrew Halestrap (Bristol, UK) Professor Andrew Halestrap has been awarded Dr Mark Dillingham works in the eld of interac- the Keilin Memorial Lecture in recognition of his tions between proteins and DNA, particularly impressive body of novel research in the area of Downloaded from http://portlandpress.com/biochemist/article-pdf/31/3/55/7004/bio031030055.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 the relationships between structure, function and energy metabolism and mitochondrial biology. mechanism of action of DNA helicases. Mark has, at a very early stage He discovered the mitochondrial and plasma membrane mono- in his career, made an outstanding impact on the eld, and is one of the carboxylate transporters and has led the field of their characteriza- outstanding biochemists of his generation. Speci cally, his work with tion. In addition, he is making major advances in elucidating the colleagues on the crystal structure and translocation mechanism of mechanism of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore – the PcrA helicase, showed that this helicase functions by an inchworm one of the main executors of ischaemic cell death. mechanism – unquestionably a ‘classic’ nding.

Andrew Halestrap: homology model of rat MCT1 The Novartis Medal and Prize (monocarboxylate transporter 1) based on the D. Grahame Hardie (Dundee, UK) Escherichia coli glycerol 3-phosphate transporter (PDB code 1PW4) template. Acidic residues Professor Grahame Hardie was awarded the Novartis (aspartate, glutamate) are represented by red Medal and Prize for his discovery of the AMP-acti- spheres at the Cα position, basic residues (arginine, vated protein kinase (AMPK), the elucidation of the lysine) by blue spheres, histidine by pink spheres and mechanism by which it is regulated, and the establishment of its key role aromatic residues frequently found at the phospholipid interface (tyrosine, as a sensor of cellular energy status, and as a ‘metabolic master switch’ in tryptophan) in yellow essentially all eukaryotic cells. As a result of Grahame’s work, the AMPK system has emerged as a major eld of research in its own right, and as a key target for the development of drugs to treat obesity. His studies The Morton Lecture linking signal transduction pathways to metabolism have made major Peter Cullen (Bristol, UK) contributions to elds as diverse as exercise physiology and cancer. Professor Peter Cullen has made an outstanding contribution to lipid biochemistry, beginning with his work on inositol phosphates and then AstraZeneca Award moving onww to carry out seminal work on Bonnie Wallace (Birkbeck, London, UK) phosphatidylinostol (PI) phosphates His work on PI lipids, and the proteins that bind them has made groundbreaking internation- As a world leader in the area of membrane protein ally recognized contributions to both the cell signalling and the research, Professor Bonnie Wallace more than meets membrane trafficking communities. His recent work on SNX4 and the criteria of ‘biochemistry which leads to develop- its role in transferrin receptor sorting is a very elegant study. The ment of a new method’, for which she has been awarded the AstraZeneca mechanistic insights established for dynein-mediated transport in award in recognition of her outstanding work in developing Synchrotron this context and his further work on SNX1 and p150glued/dynein radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) spectroscopy and promoting will continue to have a substantial impact on the field. this as an exciting technique for the characterization of complex biochemical systems. Her pioneering the development of Peter Cullen: the endocytic network comprises the Protein Circular Dichroism a series of interconnected membranous Data Bank (PCDDB) will organelles that together regulate receptor provide benchmark validated sorting and signalling events. Re-modelling of data and will be invaluable endocytic function underlies a variety of human for protein pharmaceutical diseases including cancer, neurodegeneration drug development programmes. and pathogenic infection.

GlaxoSmithKline Award Gideon Davies (York, UK) Professor Gideon Davies has elegantly combined protein crystallography and chemistry to solve a number of crucial biological questions. Concen- trated in the area of glycosyl transfer, his papers have set the gold standard of conceptual rigour, and have been the largest single contributor to our present understanding of enzymic glycoside hydrolysis. e GlaxoSmithKline Award recognizes Gideon’s contribution to potential therapeutics for various diseases through his design and chemical synthesis of highly selective and potent inhibitors Downloaded from http://portlandpress.com/biochemist/article-pdf/31/3/55/7004/bio031030055.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 of enzymes that break or make glycosidic bonds.

Gideon Davies: active centre of the O-GlnNAcase enzyme with a mechanism and three-dimensional structure inspired n-butyl thiazoline inhibitor. Davies, in collaboration with the Vocadlo group at Simon Fraser University, has been using such compounds both to challenge preconceptions about Type 2 diabe- tes as well as to decrease levels of the disease-causing hyperphosphorylated form of the microtubule tau protein in rat brain

Early Career Research Awards: e awards aim to recognize the impact of research carried out by early career scientists, i.e. those who have been awarded their PhD within the last 5 years. It is expected that successful candidates will have produced international quality research outputs, and be able to demonstrate ambi- tions and aspirations consistent with the potential to achieve world-leading status.

Theme Panel II: Molecular Structure and Theme Panel IV: Cell Biology Function Jeremy Carlton (King’s College London, UK) René Frank (Cambridge, UK) Dr Jeremy Carlton (Jez)’s research has focused on Dr René Frank has made major achievements in studying the molecular interactions that drive cargo fundamental research on enzymes of central me- sorting within the endosomal network, and how tabolism. His experiments with deaza thiamine diphosphate ( DP) viruses hijack these systems for their own replicative needs. His work helped him to discover the communication that exists between the has made a landmark contribution to demonstrating that endosomal active sites of certain dimeric DP-dependent enzymes. He provided sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) proteins were evidence for half-of-sites reactivity involving proton transfer along a required for cytokinesis – work that changed thinking about ESCRT water- lled channel that connects the two active sites – dubbed the proteins and their function. ‘proton wire’. René’s proton-wire mechanism has since been accepted worldwide as the most likely mechanism. René has now taken his structural expertise into the eld of neurobiology. Theme Panel VI: Biotechnology and Bioinformatics M. Madan Babu (Cambridge, UK)

Dr Madan Babu’s published work on transcription factors represents a major contribution to our understanding of the evolution of transcription factors and transcriptional regulatory interactions in unicellular organisms, both prokaryo- Jez Carlton: localization of mCherry– tic and eukaryotic. His recently published analysis of the regulation Cep55 and YFP (yellow uorescent of intrinsically disordered proteins in yeast, as well as a study of protein)–Tsg101Δ158–162, Alexa Fluor® the chromosomal order of genes in yeast transcriptional regulatory 633-conjugated α-tubulin networks marks him out as a rising star in computational biology.