The 2019 Biochemical Society Award was presented to Paul Bieniasz from The Rockefeller University, USA. Paul has made major contributions to our understanding of HIV-1 replication. His group helped to elucidate how the ESCRT proteins are recruited by HIV-1 and other viruses to drive particle release, resolved controversies over the location in the cell where HIV-1 virion assembly occurs and illuminated how HIV-1 packages its RNA genome. With collaborators he developed techniques that allowed the first moving images of the genesis of individual virus particles in living cells to be captured. His group has also discovered several host antiviral mechanisms, including proteins that prevent the release of viral particles from cells, inhibit nuclear import of incoming HIV-1 DNA and enable recognition and elimination of non-self RNA molecules based on their nucleotide composition. His group used knowledge of host variation in antiviral proteins to break host range barriers and develop a macaque model of HIV-1 infection. He has also pioneered the field of ‘paleovirology’, showing that extinct retroviruses and their proteins can be resurrected in functional form from molecular fossils that are present in modern genomes.

Of winning the Biochemical Society Award, Paul said “I am surprised and delighted to be receiving the Biochemical Society Award. This honor recognizes the efforts and achievements of colleagues, past and present, as much as it does my own work. I am especially grateful to my wife and scientific partner, Theodora Hatziioannou, who has made me a better man and a better scientist”.

The 2017 Biochemical Society Award was awarded to Keith Gull from the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford. Keith has a special interest in the biochemistry of the microtubule cytoskeleton, cell motility and division. He has made a major contribution to understanding the molecular components of the microtubule cytoskeleton and how it operates in flagellar motility, cell division, and morphogenesis of the African trypanosome. His work has led to the establishment of novel insights into the evolution of the cytoskeleton and its components. He has served on numerous government, learned society and medical charity committees as well as the governing bodies and science advisory committees of many institutes in the UK and Europe. He has had a long-term interest in graduate education and the careers of young scientists. Professor Gull has organised many courses for young African scientists in sub-Saharan Africa.  

Discover Sir Tom Blundell's article published in Biochemical Society Transactions:

Genomes, structural biology and drug discovery: combating the impacts of mutations in genetic disease and antibiotic resistance | Biochemical Society Transactions | Portland Press

Discover Sir Michael Berridge's article published in Biochemical Society Transactions:

Calcium signalling remodelling and disease