Julian Hart Lewis FRS (12 August 1946 – 30 April 2014) was an English

developmental biologist Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and differentiation of stem ce ...

and researcher whose work shed light on the nature of cellular timing mechanisms and their role in animal development. He showed that the Notch ligand (a molecule involved in cell-to-cell communication) controls the timing of nerve cell differentiation and the synchronised cycling of neighbouring cell activity. He modelled the cellular oscillatory circuit that determines the segmentation of the developing body, and clarified the importance of delay kinetics in setting the frequency of those oscillations. He was an undergraduate at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, from 1964. He was elected a member of the

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

in 2005. The

British Society for Developmental Biology The British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB) is a scientific society promoting developmental biology research; it is open to anyone with an interest in the subject who agrees with the principles of the Society. History The British Society ...

awarded him the

Waddington Medal The British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB) is a scientific society promoting developmental biology research; it is open to anyone with an interest in the subject who agrees with the principles of the Society. History The British Society f ...

in 2003. He became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 2012. As well as leading a research team at

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 ...

London Research Institute The Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (LRI) was a biological research facility which conducted research into the basic biology of cancer. The LRI officially became a part of the Francis Crick Institute ("the Crick") in April 2015, rese ...

, he was co-author of '' Molecular Biology of The Cell, Alberts et al.,'' and '' Essential Cell Biology, Alberts et al.'', popular biology textbooks. He died in April 2014 after living with

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

for a decade.

References

External links

Appreciation, with list of his 20 most significant papers, links etc
London Research Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Julian 20th-century British biologists 21st-century British biologists Fellows of the Royal Society Developmental biologists Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford 1946 births 2014 deaths Deaths from prostate cancer