Alan James Munro (born 19 February 1937) is a British immunologist and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

who served as the Master of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

(1995–2002).

Early life and education

Munro was born in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

to John Bennet Lorimer Munro, CB, CMG and his wife Gladys. He was educated at the

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, is now part of the Se ...

in Scotland.Sykes P (2002) Tribute to the retiring Master, Dr Alan Munro. ''Christ's College Magazine'' 227: 20–21 He attended the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, specialising in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

. His PhD in the area of protein synthesis was supervised by Asher Korner at the Department of Biochemistry (1964).

Career and research

His early posts were in the Cambridge biochemistry department (1963–68). His collaborators during this period include

Tim Hunt Sir Richard Timothy Hunt, (born 19 February 1943) is a British biochemist and molecular physiologist. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland H. Hartwell for their discoveries of protein molecu ...

. He joined the

MRC MRC may refer to Government * Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) * Medical Reserve Corps, a US network of volunteer organizations * Municipalité régionale de comté (regional county municipality), Quebec, Canada * Military Revolutionar ...

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1968 to set up a cellular

immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see there ...

programme. In 1971, he joined the Immunology Division of the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge. He spent sabbatical years at the

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

, USA (1965–66) and

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

, the Netherlands (1976–77). He became acting head of the Pathology Department in 1987. His research interests during this period included the regulation of the immune response and the generation of therapeutic antibodies. He was instrumental in the early investigation of the Campath series of antibodies, which eventually resulted in the cancer treatment,

alemtuzumab Alemtuzumab, sold under the brand names Campath and Lemtrada among others, is a medication used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and multiple sclerosis. In CLL, it has been used as both a first line and second line treatment. In MS it ...

. In 1988, Munro spent a sabbatical year working in the

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

company

Celltech Celltech Group plc was a leading British-based biotechnology business based in Slough. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History Celltech was founded by Gerard Fairtlough in 1980 with fina ...

. He left the university in 1989 to co-found the highly successful

-based biotechnology company Immunology Ltd, later renamed Cantab Pharmaceuticals plc (now part of Celtic Pharma), specialising in

therapeutic vaccine A therapeutic vaccine is a vaccine which is administered after a disease or infection has already occurred. A therapeutic vaccine works by activating the immune system of a patient to fight an infection. A therapeutic vaccine differs from a prophyla ...

s and

immunotherapy Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as ''activation immunotherapies,'' while immunotherap ...

, and he acted as its scientific director until 1995. He was also Chairman of Lorantis Ltd, another Cambridge-based immunology company. He served as Master of

1995–2002, being particularly active in establishing the college's fundraising campaign for the 2005 quincentenary. As of 2006, Munro chairs the New Agents Committee of

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

and holds non-executive directorships of

Blackwell Publishing Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

Ltd and Paradigm Therapeutics.

Personal life

He married Mary Robertson in 1960. They have two sons:Munro, Dr Alan James, ''Who's Who 2013''
(accessed 16 January 2013) ''(subscription required)''

Sean Munro Sean Munro is head of the division of cell biology at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, ...

, FRS, is a cell biologist.Munro, Dr (Bruce) Sean, ''Who's Who 2013''
(accessed 16 January 2013) ''(subscription required)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munro, Alan 1937 births Living people Businesspeople from Chennai British immunologists Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge People educated at Edinburgh Academy