Dario Alessi, of the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee, has just topped an extraordinary year by winning the sixth high profile award of his young career and the fourth this year for his double pronged research aiding the fight against cancer and diabetes.
Dario (34) has just secured a highly prestigious award from the Leverhulme Trust - one of only 24 awards made annually. The judges were impressed by Dario's "elegant contributions to understanding the mechanisms of cellular signalling". Dario has discovered a key enzyme molecule called PDK1, which controls both the growth of cells and how they respond to insulin. His discovery has implications for research into cures for both diabetes and cancer.
Dario intends to use his £50,000 prize money to design chemical compounds to generate drugs that target PDK1, which could be used for the treatment of both cancer and diabetes. Such compounds could also be used in research to probe in more detail the cellular roles of this enzyme.
Five years ago Dario discovred PDK1 - and this year, in collaboration with Dr Daan van Aalten in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, they mapped its atomic structure. This information will enable the design of drugs to specific parts of PDK1 and assist in research for drug design.
The Leverhulme award comes on the back of the Pfizer prize, the Young Investigator G.B. Morgani prize and the Makdougall Brisbane prize from The Royal Society of Edinburgh all awarded earlier this year for outstanding achievements in the field of metabolism.
Dario was elected to the Royal Society this year, was given the Eppendorf Young European scientist of the year in 2000 and the Colworth medal in 1999 for young scientists under the age of 36.
By Jenny Marra, Press Officer 01382 344910 j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk