Gavin Wright (biochemist)

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Gavin Wright
FMedSci
Born
Gavin James Wright

(1973-12-15) 15 December 1973 (age 51)
Holmfirth, Yorkshire, England
NationalityBritish
Alma mater University of Oxford (Balliol College)
Known forAVEXIS technique; RH5–basigin malaria research; CD200–CD200R interaction; JUNO–IZUMO1 fertilization receptor pair
Awards Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2023)
Scientific career
Fields Biochemistry, Microbial biochemistry, Parasitology
Institutions Hull York Medical School, University of York, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Thesis Interactions of the OX-2 lymphoid/neuronal glycoprotein  (1999)
Doctoral advisor A. Neil Barclay
Marion H. Brown
Website wright-lab.org

Gavin James Wright FMedSci (born 15 December 1973) is an English molecular biochemist, academic, and former first-class cricketer. He is Chair of Microbial Biochemistry at the Hull York Medical School, University of York.

Contents

Early life and education

Wright was born at Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, in December 1973. [1] He attended Greenhead College in Huddersfield, earning four A-levels in science and mathematics, before studying at Balliol College, University of Oxford. [2] He graduated in 1996 with an M.Biochem. degree with first-class honours, then completed doctoral research in molecular immunology at the University of Oxford, receiving his D.Phil. in 2000. His doctoral thesis was supervised by A. Neil Barclay and Marion H. Brown and entitled Interactions of the OX-2 lymphoid/neuronal glycoprotein. [3]

Academic career

From 2000 to 2003, Wright held an Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) Research Fellowship in London. He joined the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2003 as a Junior Fellow, later becoming a Group Leader in 2008 and Senior Group Leader in 2014. [2] In 2021, he was appointed Professor in the Department of Biology at the Hull York Medical School, University of York, where he leads research in microbial biochemistry. [4] His work on extracellular protein interactions has contributed to the development of diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines for tropical parasitic diseases including malaria, leishmaniasis, and trypanosomiasis. [5]

Research

Wright’s research focuses on extracellular interactions mediated by cell surface receptor proteins, particularly in host–parasite systems. [6] He developed the AVEXIS technique to detect low-affinity interactions between membrane proteins, [7] which led to the discovery of the essential interaction between the Plasmodium falciparum protein RH5 and the human erythrocyte receptor basigin. [8] [9] This overturned earlier models of erythrocyte invasion and provided the basis for RH5-based malaria vaccine development. [10] His group has since characterised other components of the RH5 complex, investigated therapeutic antibody strategies targeting basigin, and examined the evolutionary origins of the RH5 gene. [11] [12]

Beyond malaria, Wright’s laboratory has used recombinant protein approaches to identify invariant parasite surface proteins, including antigens conferring sterile protection against Trypanosoma vivax in a murine model. These results supported the feasibility of subunit vaccines for trypanosomes. [13] He has also developed large-scale protein expression methods to produce full ectodomains of parasite proteins, facilitating serological studies, structural biology, and reverse vaccinology across multiple parasitic species. [14]

In immunology, Wright’s PhD work identified the CD200 receptor (CD200R) as the binding partner for CD200 (then known as OX-2), establishing the molecular basis of this immunoregulatory pathway. [15]

Another major contribution was the identification of JUNO as the egg receptor for IZUMO1, showing that this interaction is essential for mammalian fertilization. The loss of JUNO from the egg surface after fertilization provided a molecular explanation for the membrane block to polyspermy. [16] His group has also published follow-up studies exploring additional molecular aspects of gamete recognition. [17]

Honours

Wright was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2023. [18] He is a member of the British Society for Parasitology and the British Society for Immunology. [19]

Cricket career

While at Oxford, Wright played first-class cricket for Oxford University on four occasions, making one appearance in 1996 and three in 1997. [20] A right-arm medium pace bowler, he took a single wicket from 55 overs bowled, conceding 279 runs. [21]

References

  1. ↑ "Player profile: Gavin Wright" . CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  2. 1 2 "Wright, Gavin". Wellcome Sanger Institute.
  3. ↑ Wright, Gavin James (1999). Interactions of the OX-2 lymphoid/neuronal glycoprotein (Thesis). University of Oxford.
  4. ↑ Way, Wentworth. "Professor Gavin Wright joins the Department". University of York.
  5. ↑ "Professor Gavin Wright FMedSci". The Academy of Medical Sciences. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  6. ↑ "Cell surface signalling: targeting membrane receptor proteins in infectious and genetic diseases". University of York.
  7. ↑ Kerr, Jason S.; Wright, Gavin J. (5 March 2012). "Avidity-based extracellular interaction screening (AVEXIS) for the scalable detection of low-affinity extracellular receptor-ligand interactions". Journal of Visualized Experiments: JoVE (61): e3881. doi:10.3791/3881. ISSN   1940-087X. PMC   3460577 . PMID   22414956.
  8. ↑ Campeotto, Ivan; Galaway, Francis; Mehmood, Shahid; Barfod, Lea K.; Quinkert, Doris; Kotraiah, Vinayaka; Phares, Timothy W.; Wright, Katherine E.; Snijders, Ambrosius P.; Draper, Simon J.; Higgins, Matthew K.; Wright, Gavin J. (8 September 2020). "The Structure of the Cysteine-Rich Domain of Plasmodium falciparum P113 Identifies the Location of the RH5 Binding Site". mBio. 11 (5): e01566–20. doi:10.1128/mBio.01566-20. ISSN   2150-7511. PMC   7482062 . PMID   32900802.
  9. ↑ Wright, Gavin J.; Rayner, Julian C. (March 2014). "Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte invasion: combining function with immune evasion". PLOS Pathogens. 10 (3): e1003943. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003943 . ISSN   1553-7374. PMC   3961354 . PMID   24651270.
  10. ↑ "Vaccines: Life savers against infectious diseases". Wellcome Sanger Institute. 2 August 2019.
  11. ↑ Galaway, Francis; Yu, Ryan; Constantinou, Anastasia; Prugnolle, Franck; Wright, Gavin (October 2019). "Resurrection of the ancestral RH5 invasion ligand provides a molecular explanation for the origin of P. falciparum malaria in humans". PLOS Biology. 17 (10): e3000490. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000490 . PMID   31613878.
  12. ↑ "The Global Fight Against Malaria". Wellcome Sanger Institute. 14 January 2024.
  13. ↑ Autheman, Delphine; Crosnier, Cécile; Clare, Simon; Goulding, David A.; Brandt, Cordelia; Harcourt, Katherine; Tolley, Charlotte; Galaway, Francis; Khushu, Malhar; Ong, Han; Romero-Ramirez, Alessandra; Duffy, Craig W.; Jackson, Andrew P.; Wright, Gavin J. (July 2021). "An invariant Trypanosoma vivax vaccine antigen induces protective immunity". Nature. 595 (7865): 96–100. Bibcode:2021Natur.595...96A. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03597-x. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   34040257.
  14. ↑ Elton, Catherine M.; Rodriguez, Marilis; Ben Mamoun, Choukri; Lobo, Cheryl A.; Wright, Gavin J. (February 2019). "A library of recombinant Babesia microti cell surface and secreted proteins for diagnostics discovery and reverse vaccinology". International Journal for Parasitology. 49 (2): 115–125. doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2018.10.003. ISSN   1879-0135. PMC   6406021 . PMID   30367868.
  15. ↑ Barclay, A. Neil; Wright, Gavin J.; Brooke, Gary; Brown, Marion H. (June 2002). "CD200 and membrane protein interactions in the control of myeloid cells". Trends in Immunology. 23 (6): 285–290. doi:10.1016/s1471-4906(02)02223-8. ISSN   1471-4906. PMID   12072366.
  16. ↑ Bianchi, Enrica; Doe, Brendan; Goulding, David; Wright, Gavin J. (24 April 2014). "Juno is the egg Izumo receptor and is essential for mammalian fertilization". Nature. 508 (7497): 483–487. Bibcode:2014Natur.508..483B. doi:10.1038/nature13203. ISSN   1476-4687. PMC   3998876 . PMID   24739963.
  17. ↑ Bianchi, Enrica; Jiménez-Movilla, Maria; Cots-Rodríguez, Paula; Viola, Cristina; Wright, Gavin J. (21 February 2024). "No evidence for a direct extracellular interaction between human Fc receptor–like 3 (MAIA) and the sperm ligand IZUMO1". Science Advances. 10 (8): eadk6352. Bibcode:2024SciA...10K6352B. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adk6352.
  18. ↑ "Professor Gavin Wright". Academy of Medical Sciences.
  19. ↑ "Congratulations to new Fellows 2023". British Society for Immunology.
  20. ↑ "First-Class Matches played by Gavin Wright" . CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  21. ↑ "First-class Bowling For Each Team by Gavin Wright" . CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
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