10 March 2005
MRC honours 'the grandfather of protein phosphorylation'
The Medical Research Council's Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee will
mark the 50th anniversary of the discovery of protein phosphorylation by Professor Edmond Fischer
with a symposium in his honour on March 10th.
The Nobel prize-winner - who celebrates his 85th birthday this year - will be the guest of
honour and keynote speaker. Internationally-renowned team leaders at the MRC Protein
Phosphorylation Unit, including Unit Director Sir Philip Cohen, will also give a series of talks.
In 1955 Professor Fischer and Edwin Krebs showed how muscles liberate energy from sugar stored
in the body by a complicated cyclical set of reactions called phosphorylation. They also
discovered that the process is reversible, so proteins can be regulated in both directions.
Subsequent research from a number of laboratories, including that of Sir Philip Cohen and his
colleagues in Dundee, revealed that protein phosphorylation constitutes a general principle,
regulating almost all aspects of cell life.
It also became clear that several major diseases, including cancer, diabetes and rheumatoid
arthritis were a consequence of imbalanced or abnormal phosphorylations. 30% of all research and
development programmes in pharmaceutical and biotech companies are now concentrated on the area of
protein phosphorylation.
The MRC set up the Protein Phosphorylation Unit in Dundee in 1990 under the direction of Sir Philip
Cohen. It is recognised as the world's most important centre in this area and has pioneered
collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry to help develop drug development.
Sir Philip Cohen, Director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit said: "Edmond Fischer's
groundbreaking research initiated everything that has developed in this field, including what has
become a multi-billion pound industry. It is highly fitting that we should pay tribute to the
'grandfather' of protein phosphorylation this week".
For further information, or to arrange an interview, contact the MRC press office on 020 7637 6011
Notes to Editors
1. The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organisation funded by the UK tax-payer.
Its business is medical research aimed at improving human health; everyone stands to benefit from
the outputs. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health
services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries and the academic world. MRC has
funded work which has led to some of the most significant discoveries and achievements in medicine
in the UK. About half of the MRC's expenditure of £450 million is invested in its 40 Institutes,
Units and Centres. The remaining half goes in the form of grant support and training awards to
individuals and teams in universities and medical schools.
Web site at: www.mrc.ac.uk
2. Edmond Fischer and Edwin Krebs were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in
1992, in recognition of the tremendous importance of their discovery for our understanding of cell
regulation and the improvement of human health.
3. Philip Cohen studied reversible protein phosphorylation as a postdoctoral fellow with Edmond
Fischer in Seattle over the period 1969 to 1971.
4. On March 10th a dinner will be held to celebrate both the 50th anniversary of Edmond
Fischer's discovery and his 85th birthday. The dinner will be attended by all the 12 research
team leaders working on reversible protein phosphorylation in Dundee, two representatives from each
of the six pharmaceutical companies with whom they collaborate and the CEO of local biotechnology
company Upstate, who sponsored Edmond Fischer's Lecture.
5. On March 8th Edmond Fischer attended the official opening of Upstate's new building in
Dundee. The company, set up in 1999 to exploit technology and reagents developed in the MRC
Protein Phosphorylation Unit at Dundee, supplies the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
The new building was named after him.
By Angela Durcan, Press Officer 01382 344768, out of hours: 07968298585, a.durcan@dundee.ac.uk | 
