Sir Alan Fersht's Biography

Sir Alan Fersht, Professor, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Sir Alan Fersht, FRS, is a pioneer in the field of protein engineering since late 1970s. He is Herchel Smith Professor of Organic Chemistry and Master and Life Fellow of Gonveille and Caius College in University of Cambridge. His lab uses an amalgam of protein engineering, structural biology, biophysics and chemistry to study the structure, activity, stability and folding of proteins, and the role of protein misfolding and instability in cancer and disease.

We focus on how mutation affects proteins in the cell cycle, particularly the tumor suppressor p53, in order to design novel anti-cancer drugs that function by restoring the activity of mutated proteins. He published many papers and books with over 65,000 citations and h-index 135. He has been recognized by many awards including Gabor Medal, Davy Medal, and Royal Medal of the British Royal Society; Wilhelm Exner Medal Austria; G. N. Lewis Medal, Bijvoet Medal, Linderstrøm-Lang Medal, Anfinsen and Stein and Moore Awards. He is also Foreign Member of National Academy of Science USA, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Philosophical Society and Member of EMBO and Academia Europaea.