Irene May Leigh

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRSE FMedSci is a British

dermatologist Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medica ...

. A former professor of

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry , mottoeng = Temper the bitter things in life with a smile , parent = Queen Mary University of London , president = Lord Mayor of London , head_label = Warden , head = Mark Caulfield , students = 3,410 , undergrad = 2,23 ...

, she is now a professor emeritus at the

University of Dundee School of Medicine The University of Dundee School of Medicine is the school concerned with medical education and clinical research at the University of Dundee in Scotland. In 1967, Dundee's medical school became independent in its own right having started in 1889 ...

. Her research has focused on

keratinocytes Keratinocytes are the primary type of cell found in the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. In humans, they constitute 90% of epidermal skin cells. Basal cells in the basal layer (''stratum basale'') of the skin are sometimes referre ...

, non- melanoma

skin cancer Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. There are three main types of skin cancers: basal-cell skin cancer (BCC) ...

s and genetic skin diseases. She was elected to the

Academy of Medical Sciences The Academy of Medical Sciences is an organisation established in the UK in 1998. It is one of the four UK National Academies, the others being the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. Its mission is to adv ...

in 1999 and appointed

in 2012.

Biography

Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, Leigh completed her medical studies at the

London Hospital Medical College Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical school, medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal Un ...

. After qualifying, she specialised in

dermatology Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medica ...

. During her specialist training, she lectured in medicine at the

University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. The university became an affiliate of the University of East Africa (UEA) in ...

in Tanzania for two years. She returned to London afterwards to complete her registrar training, and was appointed a consultant dermatologist to the

Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and s ...

in 1983. The same year, she set up a research laboratory at the hospital; she was also a research fellow at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, and was awarded an MD degree. Her research laboratory, the Centre for Cutaneous Research, became a national leader in skin biology research, and in 1992 Leigh was appointed professor of dermatology at

. She received a

DSc DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

degree and was elected to the

in 1999. She was made professor of cell and molecular medicine at Barts and The London in 1999 and held the positions of research dean (1997–2002) and research director (2002–2005). In 2006, Leigh moved to the

, where she was the head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, a vice-principal of research, and chair of cellular and molecular medicine. She was appointed OBE in 2006 and

in 2012. She was also awarded the Archibald Gray Medal, the highest honour of the

British Association of Dermatologists The British Association of Dermatologists is a charity established in 1920 whose charitable objects are the practice, teaching, training, and research of dermatology. It produces the ''British Journal of Dermatology The ''British Journal of De ...

, in 2012.

Research

Leigh's research focus has been

keratinocyte Keratinocytes are the primary type of cell found in the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. In humans, they constitute 90% of epidermal skin cells. Basal cells in the basal layer (''stratum basale'') of the skin are sometimes referre ...

s, a type of skin cell. She has studied the role of

keratin Keratin () is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as ''scleroproteins''. Alpha-keratin (α-keratin) is a type of keratin found in vertebrates. It is the key structural material making up scales, hair, nails, feathers, ho ...

in non- melanoma

s and hereditary skin diseases, and discovered that numerous genetic diseases of the skin are caused by mutations in keratin,

plectin Plectin is a giant protein found in nearly all mammalian cells which acts as a link between the three main components of the cytoskeleton: actin microfilaments, microtubules and intermediate filaments. In addition, plectin links the cytoskeleton ...

, desmosomal proteins and

connexin Connexins (Cx)TC# 1.A.24, or gap junction proteins, are structurally related transmembrane proteins that assemble to form vertebrate gap junctions. An entirely different family of proteins, the innexins, form gap junctions in invertebrates. Ea ...

s. Her research group also showed that

human papillomavirus Human papillomavirus infection (HPV infection) is caused by a DNA virus from the ''Papillomaviridae'' family. Many HPV infections cause no symptoms and 90% resolve spontaneously within two years. In some cases, an HPV infection persists and res ...

plays an

oncogenic Carcinogenesis, also called oncogenesis or tumorigenesis, is the formation of a cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. The process is characterized by changes at the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic levels and abno ...

role in non-melanoma skin cancers. In her early career, she helped to identify the cause of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa and develop a

monoclonal antibody A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell Lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies ...

for diagnosis of the condition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leigh, Irene Living people English dermatologists English medical researchers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of the London Hospital Medical College Academics of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Academics of the University of Dundee Medical doctors from Liverpool Year of birth missing (living people)