Babraham scientist receives accolade from the Biochemical Society

18 May 2010

Professor Sir Michael Berridge, FRS, Emeritus Fellow at the Babraham Institute, has been awarded the prestigious Biochemical Society Award for 2011 for his pioneering work in the field of cell signalling. Awarded biennially, the 2011 award recognises, “candidates whose research has had a transformative effect on biochemical research”.

Professor Berridge’s discovery of the central role that the molecule inositol trisphosphate, better known as IP3, plays in the calcium signalling pathway was a major breakthrough in understanding how cells communicate with each other. These chemical messengers translate chemical stimuli, such as hormones, at the cell’s external surface into a cascade of biochemical activity inside the cell that enables the cell to respond.

This breakthrough has had a profound influence on diverse areas of biomedical research such as cell proliferation, fertilisation, neural activity, memory and learning, metabolism and muscle contraction. It has also paved the way for research programmes at the Babraham Institute, an institute of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), which have given insight into conditions like hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia and heart failure, cancer and bipolar disorders. Today research in this field is bringing new understanding of a wide range of medical disorders and with it the potential to develop ever more sophisticated therapeutic strategies for the prevention and management of disease.

The Director of the Babraham Institute, Professor Michael Wakelam, said, “We are delighted that the Biochemical Society has honoured Professor Berridge with this prestigious prize, which recognises the fundamental studies performed by Mike and his colleagues.”

Professor Berridge’s ground-breaking research and leadership in the field have earned him a plethora of prestigious international awards, including: the Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics; the Gairdner Foundation International Award for outstanding achievement in biomedical research; the King Faisal International Prize in Science; The Wolf Foundation Prize in Medicine; the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award; and the Louis Jeantet Prize in Medicine. In 2005 Professor Berridge was awarded the prestigious Shaw Prize, hailed as the Nobel Prize of the East, for his pioneering work in cell signalling.