Professor David Lilley at the University of Dundee, has been given one of the most prestigious awards that a British scientist can receive. In recognition of his outstanding work on the structure of RNA and DNA, he has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
David Lilley, Director of the Cancer Research UK Nucleic Acid Structure Research Group in the School of Life Sciences researches nucleic acids. He has developed powerful methods for studying the structure and folding of branched nucleic acids. This has had a major impact in the understanding of genetic recombination.
DNA is the famous double-helical molecule that acts as the store of genetic information. Professor Lilley's group study the way these molecules break and rejoin, a key phenomenon in genetics. In particular, they solved the structure of the branched junction that is formed in DNA during genetic recombination. More recently, he has studied the proteins that recognise and bind to these structures. This is fundamental work that has helped to lay the foundation of our knowledge about these processes and how they can go wrong during cancer.
Over the past few years Professor Lilley's work has centred on the structure of RNA, the molecules that are produced from DNA during the genetic decoding process. He has studied how RNA molecules fold up and act like enzymes to speed up chemical reactions in the body. This work is of importance for our understanding of the way in which life evolved on this planet, and Professor Lilley likens the work to peering back 2 billion years to the chemistry of life at a very early stage.
On receiving this award Professor Lilley said. "I am delighted to be elected FRS - it is an incredible honour. But at the same time I am humbled. The Royal Society is more than 300 years old, and fellows include all the giants of British and Commonwealth science including Newton, Faraday, Maxwell and Kelvin. To be in such company is quite awe-inspiring."
The Royal Society was founded in 1660. It received its Royal Charter from King Charles II and is the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. It is Britain's National Academy of Science and its objectives are to recognise excellence in science, to stimulate and support leading-edge research, to advise the Government about science and to promote education and the public's understanding of science. Famous Fellows of the Society include Issac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.
Each year, just 42 scientists from Britain and the rest of the British Commonwealth are elected to the Fellowship from the tens of thousands of scientists who work in these countries. Professor Lilley joins the five other scientists at the University of Dundee who have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society (Sir Philip Cohen, Professor Michael Ferguson, Sir David Lane, Professor John Raven and Professor Cheryl Tickle).
Professor Lilley came to Dundee in 1981 as a lecturer in biochemistry and over the years has been the recipient of many awards. Earlier this year he was given The Royal Society of Chemistry award in RNA and Ribozyme Chemistry.
Contact Angela Nicoll, School of Life Sciences 01382 348377