MRC Millennium Medal 2013

MRC Millennium Medal 2013

MRC Millennium Medal The Millennium Medal is the MRC s most prestigious award, presented every two years to an outstanding scientist who has made a major contribution towards the MRC s mission to improve human health through world class medical research. It recognises those who currently or have previously received MRC funding. In this respect the medal is unique to the MRC and distinct from many other awards for high quality science. Past recipients Dr César Milstein for his pioneering work on monoclonal antibodies Professor Tom Meade for his contribution to UK health, particularly in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. Professor Sir Peter Mansfield for his role in the development of MRI scanning Professor Sir Edwin Southern for his work in developing the Southern blotting technique for DNA analysis

2013 Millennium Medal Award To mark the MRC s Centenary in 2013, two medals are being awarded to Professor Sir Philip Cohen and Professor Sir Gregory Winter. These awards recognises their pioneering research which has led to significant health and economic benefits for the UK, and the pivotal role they have played in driving successful collaborations with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Message from the Chief Executive The MRC is proud to award this year s Millennium Medal to Sir Philip and Sir Greg. Over the past century, the MRC has been at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. It is with great pleasure that I, along with the MRC s Council, can recognise those that have contributed significantly to the transformation of healthcare and the advancement of the way the research community collaborates and innovates. Congratulations to Philip and Greg. Professor Sir John Savill MRC Chief Executive

Professor Sir Philip Cohen Deputy Director of the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy and former Director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, Dundee. Philip Cohen has devoted his career to studying a cell regulation process called phosphorylation, an endeavour which has contributed to one of the fastest growing areas of drug research. He is also known for his pioneering collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry. He d been a researcher for 25 years before he first received a phone call from a pharmaceutical company. People used to say Oh, what you re doing is interesting but it will never have the slightest bit of use for improving health or for wealth creation, Philip recalls. Phosphorylation is a type of cell regulation that involves the attachment to, or removal of, phosphate groups from proteins, thereby switching their biological functions on or off, or making them more or less stable. Once thought to be a highly specialised process, Philip s research helped to show that it was, in fact, universal, regulating almost all aspects of cell life. When phosphorylation goes wrong, it can cause diseases such as cancer, diabetes and arthritis. That first phone call marked the beginning of Philip s long and fruitful collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. In 1998 he established the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy, a unique collaboration between researchers from the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, the College of Life Sciences of the University of Dundee and six pharmaceutical companies. The collaboration employs 200 research and support staff in Dundee and has brought in more than 50 million in funding in its 14-year history. Therapies based on phosphorylation are one of the largest and fastest growing areas of drug discovery: there are 24 approved drugs that target this process, sales of which were 18 billion globally in 2011. So what has his experience taught him? I think it shows how important it is to fund blue skies research. It can take an awfully long time for research to reach the stage where it becomes obvious how it can be exploited for the benefit of mankind, says Philip.

The Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT) established by Sir Philip employs 200 research and support staff in Dundee and has brought in more than 50m in funding There are 24 approved drugs based on protein phosphorylation, with a further 150 in clinical trials Protein phosphorylation is one of the largest and fastest growing areas of drug discovery sales of which were 18bn globally in 2011 Upstate, a spin out from DSTT, grew to 125 employees before it was acquired in 2004, with royalty payments being made to the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit

Professor Sir Gregory Winter Master of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and former Deputy Director of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. For a researcher whose science has been applied on such an extraordinary scale, it might be surprising that Greg Winter sees himself foremost as an academic whose interests lie firmly in answering fundamental scientific questions. At the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the late 1970s Greg was interested in the idea that all antibodies (part of the immune system that fights invading bacteria and viruses) have the same basic structure, with only small changes that make them specific for one target. To test this theory, he transplanted small parts of mouse antibodies, into human antibodies, in the process humanising them and solving the problem of patient immune responses against mouse-derived antibody treatments. Sometimes it s better to do basic research and be opportunist. I stumbled across humanising antibodies I was interested in something else and then realised there was a more practical dimension to it. He met the first patient to be given a humanised antibody called Campath-1H in 1989. It was a turning point. I d only really been interested in laboratory research and I realised I had to do something with this technology I couldn t just walk off back to the lab, says Greg. Greg has established three spin out companies based on his research since then: Cambridge Antibody Technology in 1989, Domantis in 2000 and Bicycle Therapeutics in 2009, all of which focus on technologies for antibody or antibody-like drugs. I m essentially an academic rather than a commercial person. But I m willing to deal with the commercial side of things because that s what s necessary to make it work, he says. Greg believes strongly in the importance of fundamental research. Nobody else is going to fund discovery science if the Government doesn t do it. No one else is going to give you money to do work that might yield benefit in 20-70 years. We need to maintain a scientific cadre of people in the UK funded by Government to work on both basic and more applied research, he concludes.

The MRC has received around 390m in income from Sir Greg s intellectual property Sir Greg s technologies are involved in around 65 per cent of marketed antibody drugs today, including Humira and Herceptin Sir Greg has established three spin out companies based on his research: Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) in 1989 Domantis in 2000 Bicycle Therapeutics in 2009 In 2010 antibody therapies had a global market valued at 25bn CAT was sold in 2006 to AstraZeneca for 700m and Domantis went to GlaxoSmithKline in 2006 for 230m

Medical Research Council 2nd Floor David Phillips Building Polaris House North Star Avenue Swindon SN2 1FL Medical Research Council 14th Floor One Kemble Street London WC2B 4AN www.mrc.ac.uk www.centenary.mrc.ac.uk Published February 2013 Medical Research Council 2013