Gurdyal Besra | |
---|---|
Born | Gurdyal Singh Besra |
Alma mater | Newcastle University (BSc, PhD) |
Awards | Jeremy Knowles Medal (2014) [1] [2] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Microbiology Physiology [3] |
Institutions | |
Thesis | Studies on the lipids of the leprosy bacillus (1990) |
Website | www |
Gurdyal Singh Besra is a British scientist who is Bardrick Professor of Microbial Physiology & Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. [3] [5] [6] [7]
Besra was educated at Newcastle University where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree 1987 [8] followed by a PhD for studies on the lipids of the leprosy bacillus in 1990. [9]
Besra's research on tuberculosis has made many ground-breaking discoveries in our understanding of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall assembly. [1] The cell wall of M. tuberculosis is very distinctive, differing from other bacteria in containing an exceptional amount of unique lipids and sugars. [1] In unravelling and characterising the proteins involved in cell wall biosynthesis, he aims to find good drug targets, which can then be further exploited using specialised assays, screens and structural biology, to identify new molecules for hit-to-lead programmes for tuberculosis. [1]
Besra has been at the forefront in the discovery of M. tuberculosis T-cell lipid antigens and the elucidation of the CD1 antigen presentation pathway. [1] He is also exploring the immunotherapeutic potential of glycosyl ceramides and synthetic small molecules with colleagues against a wide range of tumours and infectious diseases, where it is important to fine tune the hosts immune response through the CD1 pathway. [1]
Besra was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2019 [1] and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2013. [1] He was awarded the Jeremy R. Knowles medal in 2014 by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). [1] [2]
Sir Alan Roy Fersht is a British chemist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, and an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. He was Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 2012 to 2018. He works on protein folding, and is sometimes described as a founder of protein engineering.
CD1 is a family of glycoproteins expressed on the surface of various human antigen-presenting cells. CD1 glycoproteins are structurally related to the class I MHC molecules, however, in contrast to MHC class 1 proteins, they present lipids, glycolipids and small molecules antigens, from both endogenous and pathogenic proteins, to T cells and activate an immune response. Both αβ and γδ T cells recognise CD1 molecules.
Richard Henderson is a British molecular biologist and biophysicist and pioneer in the field of electron microscopy of biological molecules. Henderson shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank. "Thanks to his work, we can look at individual atoms of living nature, thanks to cryo-electron microscopes we can see details without destroying samples, and for this he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry."
CD1a is a human protein encoded by the CD1A gene.
Dame Carol Vivien Robinson, is a British chemist and former president of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2018–2020). She was a Royal Society Research Professor and is the Dr Lee's Professor of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, and a professorial fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford. She is the founding director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, University of Oxford, and she was previously professor of mass spectrometry at the chemistry department of the University of Cambridge.
Sir Christopher Martin Dobson was a British chemist, who was the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and Master of St John's College, Cambridge.
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James Henderson Naismith is a Scottish Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Oxford, former Director of the Research Complex at Harwell and Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute. He previously served as Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of St Andrews. He was a member of Council of the Royal Society (2021-2022). He is currently the Vice-Chair of Council of the European X-ray Free Electron Laser and Vice-President (non-clinical) of The Academy of Medical Sciences. It has been announced that he will be the Head of the MPLS division at Oxford in the autumn of 2023.
David Ron FRS is a British biochemist.
Gideon John Davies is a professor of chemistry in the Structural Biology Laboratory (YSBL) at the University of York, UK. Davies is best known for his ground-breaking studies into carbohydrate-active enzymes, notably analysing the conformational and mechanistic basis for catalysis and applying this for societal benefit. In 2016 Davies was appointed the Royal Society Ken Murray Research Professor at the University of York. Gideon Davies has recently been elected to the Council of the Royal Society.
Jane Clarke is a British biochemist and academic. Since October 2017, she has served as President of Wolfson College, Cambridge. She is also Professor of Molecular Biophysics, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. She was previously a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Ketan Jayakrishna Patel is a British–Kenyan scientist who is Director of the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at the University of Oxford. Until 2020 he was a tenured principal investigator at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).
Andrew Oliver Mungo Wilkie is a British clinical geneticist who has been the Nuffield professor of Pathology at the University of Oxford since 2003.
Jonathon Noë Joseph Pines is Head of the Cancer Biology Division at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. He was formerly a senior group leader at the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge.
Andrew Neil James McKenzie is a British molecular biologist who is a group leader in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).
Roger Lee Williams is a British structural biologist who is group leader at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology. His group studies the form and flexibility of protein complexes that associate with and modify lipid cell membranes. His work concerns the biochemistry, structures and dynamics of these key enzyme complexes.
Sir Richard Henry Treisman is a British scientist specialising in the molecular biology of cancer. Treisman is a director of research at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Vincenzo Cerundolo was an Italian medical researcher who was the Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Immunology Unit at the University of Oxford, at the John Radcliffe Hospital and a Professor of Immunology at the University of Oxford. He was also a Supernumerary Fellow at Merton College, Oxford. He was known for his discoveries in processing and presentation of cancer and viral peptides to T cells and lipids to invariant NKT cells. Cerundolo died of lung cancer on 7 January 2020.
Robert Charles Swanton is a British physician scientist specialising in oncology and cancer research. Swanton is a senior group leader at London's Francis Crick Institute, Royal Society Napier Professor in Cancer and thoracic medical oncologist at University College London and University College London Hospitals, co-director of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, and Chief Clinician of Cancer Research UK.
Caetano Maria Pacheco Pais dos Reis e Sousa is a Portuguese scientist who is a senior group leader at the Francis Crick Institute and a professor of Immunology at Imperial College London.
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