Professor Alessi joins science Hall of Fame

Professor Dario Alessi, Deputy Director of the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation Unit and Professor of Cell Signalling in the College of Life has been elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of London, the highest accolade a UK scientist can receive.

Professor Alessi's election to the science 'Hall of Fame' recognises his major contributions to our understanding of how mutations in particular enzymes cause diabetes, cancer and hypertension.

Professor Alessi discovered the enzyme that was the missing link in a chain of events by which insulin induces the conversion of glucose in the blood to its storage form, glycogen, in muscle and liver. His research went on to identify the enzyme as a promising anti-cancer agent. He then solved the structure of another enzyme and explained how mutations in it cause cancer. In a further project, he worked out how mutations in a particular family of enzymes give rise to an inherited hypertension syndrome.

These wide-ranging discoveries have suggested new ways to prevent and treat cancer and to develop improved drugs for the treatment of high blood pressure. Professor Alessi has now shifted his attention to the role of another enzyme and why mutations in it cause Parkinson's disease.

"I was completely amazed to hear about my election," said Professor Alessi. "Now the shock is over, I'm especially looking forward to signing my name in the Royal Society Charter Book, which contains signatures of legendary scientists from the past 350 years including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Francis Crick. This will be an unbelievable moment for me, and a tribute to the researchers in my lab, past and present, with whom I've had the privilege to work."

"The excellent facilities here at Dundee University and the fabulous support from my colleagues have also made an enormous contribution to my work and I'd especially like to thank Philip Cohen for providing me with much of the inspiration, resources and laboratory facilities to undertake my research.

"A crucial ingredient has also been the Medical Research Council which, for the last 17 years, has generously supported a large proportion of my research. This has enabled me to tackle long-term challenging projects that I would otherwise have been unable to undertake.

"I have also benefited greatly from the support of many charities including Diabetes UK, the Association for International Cancer Research, the Wellcome Trust, the Moffat Charitable Trust and Camperdown Lodge in Dundee. I would like to thank them profusely for the research funds they have provided."

Professor Alessi obtained a BSc and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham. In 1991 he came to Dundee to work with Sir Philip Cohen in the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation Unit. In 1998 he set up his own research team in the unit becoming its Deputy Director on 2007.

Professor Alessi's work has already won him a glittering array of research prizes and awards including the EMBO gold medal, the premier award in Europe for a life scientist under the age of 40, which he won in 2005. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002, was made an Honorary Professor of the University of Dundee in 2003, and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 2005. According to the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia, Professor Alessi was the world's 13th most cited scientist working in the field of biochemistry and biology over the ten-year period from 1995 - 2005.