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World-leading research in lipid biochemistry recognised with Award

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23.03.2007

The Biochemical Society’s Morton Lecture for 2008 outstanding contributions to lipid biochemistry is to be given by Roger Williams (MRC LMB, Cambridge). The Morton Lecture was instituted in 1978 to commemorate the late R.A. Morton (University of Liverpool 1944 - 66).

Roger Williams has made a world-leading contribution to our understanding of how inositol lipids can act as messengers regulating the function of proteins at a membrane surface, through his elegant and detailed structural analysis of key enzymes .

Roger’s team combine X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy to analyse these structures. Cellular processes are mediated by complex networks of molecular interactions. Dissection of their role most commonly is achieved by using genetic mutations that alter, for example, protein–protein interactions. Roger Williams’ outstanding work on PI3-kinases has provided the platform for the development of small molecule inhibitors in academia and the pharmaceutical industry.

The lecture is given biennially at a meeting of the Society and at the University of Liverpool

Roger Williams gained his PhD at the University of California, his first post-doc post at the Boris Kidric Institute, Belgrade from whence he went to work as an NIH Fellow at Cornell University, USA. Roger is now Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge.

Mark Burgess | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.biochemistry.org/medals/morton.htm

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