John Francis Xavier Diffley (born 4 March 1958) is an American biochemist and Associate Research Director at the

Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute (formerly the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation) is a biomedical research centre in London, which was established in 2010 and opened in 2016. The institute is a partnership between Cancer Research UK, Impe ...

. He is known for his contributions to the understanding of how DNA replication is initiated, and how it is subsequently regulated throughout the cell cycle and in response to DNA damage.

Research and career

Diffley was educated at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1985. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher with

Bruce Stillman Bruce William Stillman, Order of Australia, AO, Australian Academy of Science, FAA, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (born 16 October 1953, in Melbourne, Australia) is a biochemist and cancer researcher who has served as the Director of Cold Spri ...

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...

. In 1990, he established his own research group at the Clare Hall Laboratories,

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 ...

, which is now part of the

. His group studies the mechanism and regulation of eukaryotic DNA replication.

Awards and honours

In 1998, Diffley was elected a member of European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO). He is also an elected member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

(2009) and the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2011). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2005, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2007, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2011. He is a recipient of the

Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research The Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research is awarded by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to recognize cancer researchers who are making significant contributions to the understanding of cancer or are improving the treatment of the disease t ...

(2003), the

Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine Established in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prizes are funded by the ''Fondation Louis-Jeantet'' and awarded each year to experienced researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of biomedical research in one of the member states of t ...

(2016) and the

Canada Gairdner International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a p ...

(2019). He was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 2020.

References

1958 births Living people American emigrants to England Fellows of the Royal Society American molecular biologists Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom New York University alumni Scientists from New York City {{biologist-stub