Pioneer work on cellular response to DNA Damage wins GlaxoSmithKline award

Mar 22 2007

The Biochemical Society's GlaxoSmithKline Award 'for distinguished research leading to new advances in medical science' goes to Stephen Jackson (University of Cambridge) for his pioneering work on cellular response to DNA damage.

Steve Jackson has emerged as one of the international leaders in the field of recombinational repair, structure of damaged chromatin and cellular DNA damage. The medical relevance of this work is that defects in these processes are the cause of many diseases, most notably cancer.

Steve's work is leading to clinical trials of drugs being developed that may be effective at killing cells mutant for breast cancer susceptibility genes BRAC1 and BRAC2.

The Biochemical Society's GlaxoSmithKline award winner receives a beautiful glass sculpture designed by the Katharine Dowson.

Stephen Jackson is the Frederick James Quick Professor of Biology and the Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories, The Wellcome Trust and cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. Stephen's PhD was at University of Edinburgh with Professor Jean Beggs. After a spell at University of California with Professor Roger Tjian he returned to the UK to work at the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research Campaign Institute.