Anthony Whetton's Biography

Anthony Whetton, Professor, Manchester University

Professor Tony Whetton is Vice Dean and Deputy Head of the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences at the University of Manchester. Prior to this he was the Head of School for Cancer and Enabling Sciences. In respect of cancer research Manchester was the leading university in the UK in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008. He is past Director of the Leukaemia Research Fund Cellular Development Unit and is now Director of the Leukaemia Research Fund Mass Spectrometry Unit based at the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre, Christie Hospital. He obtained a PhD in signal transduction research and biophysical chemistry from UMIST. This was followed by one year of research into membrane structure using electron spin resonance techniques and a move into the completely different field of experimental haematology, with 2 years postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Michael Dexter FRS. He left this position to take up a lectureship at UMIST in 1984 where he became the Professor of Cell Biology in 1995 and Head of Department in 2001. He then joined the School of Medicine at Manchester University in 2003 as Professor of Cancer Cell Biology, based at the Christie Hospital. Here he established a state of the art biological mass spectrometry facility for stem cell and leukaemia research. He is currently systematically defining the downstream proteomic and phosphoproteomic effects of the protein tyrosine kinases associated with myeloproliferative disorders and myeloid leukaemias to discover common mechanisms for leukaemic transformation. The proteomics research has recently grown and developed to include a clinical proteomics research capability, where the objective is to discover new biomarkers associated with the cancers. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Gene and Cell Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, USA where he works with the Black Family Stem Cell Institute, using proteomics to define embryonic stem cell differentiation control.