Dario Alessi

Dario Alessi FRSE FRS (born in France, 1967) is a biochemist, Director of the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU) and Professor of Signal Transduction, at the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee.[2][3][4][5][6]

Dario Alessi
Born
Dario Renato Alessi

December 1967 (age 53)[1]
France
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham
Known forProtein kinase research
Awards
  • Colworth Medal (1999)
  • Morgagni Young Investigator Prize (2002)
  • Pfizer Academic Award for Europe (2002)
  • Royal Society of Edinburgh Makdougall Brisbane Prize (2002)
  • Philip Leverhulme Prize (2002)
  • FEBS Anniversary Prize of the Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie (2003)
  • EMBO Gold Medal (2005)
Scientific career
Fieldsprotein phosphorylation
InstitutionsUniversity of Dundee
Websitelifesci.dundee.ac.uk/people/dario-alessi

Education and career

He attended high school in Brussels. He graduated from the University of Birmingham, with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 1988, and with a PhD in 1991, where he studied with Ian Trayer and David Trentham.[7] His postdoctoral research was with Sir Philip Cohen FRS at the University of Dundee from 1991 to 1997. He became Professor of Signal Transduction at the University of Dundee in 2003 and Director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU) in 2012.[8][9]

Research

Alessi's work is concerned with unravelling the roles of poorly characterised components which regulate protein phosphorylation or ubiquitylation that have emerged from the genetic analysis of human disease. The aim of his research is to provide new knowledge to enable researchers to devise improved strategies for the treatment of disease.[10] Dario Alessi is also the current Director of the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy Unit (DSTT) that is a unique collaboration between University of Dundee and six major pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck KGaA, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Pfizer) that aims to accelerate drug discovery in the areas of protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation.[11] As of 2013 he has written over 180 peer-reviewed papers and has been cited more than 32,000 times, making him one of the most highly cited biochemists in the world.[12]

Awards and honours

Dario Alessi has received many awards, among these the Colworth Medal (1999), the Eppendorf Young European Investigator Award (2000), Philip Leverhulme Prize (2002), EMBO Gold Medal (2005) and the Francis Crick Prize Lecture of the Royal Society (2006). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002, Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 2005, Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008 and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2012.[13]

References
  1. "ALESSI, Prof. Dario Renato". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. 2014 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
  2. "Dario Alessi | College of Life Sciences". Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  3. "MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit :: Research :: Dario Alessi". Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  4. "Dario Alessi – SCILLS – The Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling". Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  5. "* Dario Alessi (professor), Scotland – Online Encyclopedia of the Italian Scientists and Scholars in America". Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  6. Cross, D. A.; Alessi, D. R.; Cohen, P; Andjelkovich, M; Hemmings, B. A. (1995). "Inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3 by insulin mediated by protein kinase B". Nature. 378 (6559): 785–9. doi:10.1038/378785a0. PMID 8524413.
  7. Alessi, D. R.; Corrie, J. E.; Fajer, P. G.; Ferenczi, M. A.; Thomas, D. D.; Trayer, I. P.; Trentham, D. R. (1992). "Synthesis and properties of a conformationally restricted spin-labeled analog of ATP and its interaction with myosin and skeletal muscle". Biochemistry. 31 (34): 8043–8054. doi:10.1021/bi00149a039. PMID 1324724.
  8. Gong, M. C.; Fuglsang, A.; Alessi, D.; Kobayashi, S.; Cohen, P.; Somlyo, A. V.; Somlyo, A. P. (1992). "Arachidonic acid inhibits myosin light chain phosphatase and sensitizes smooth muscle to calcium". The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 267 (30): 21492–21498. PMID 1328235.
  9. "MRC Clinical Sciences Centre – Overview – Scientific Advisory Board – Dario Alessi". Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  10. "Dario Alessi's research page". Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  11. "Division of Signal Transduction Therapy Unit". Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  12. "ISI". Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  13. "Dario Alessi: MRC PPU – Awards". Retrieved 22 November 2013.
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