Julian Hopkin

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 ...

is a physician, researcher and medical teacher. In 2004, he became the founding Head of the new

Medical School A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...

. He is now Professor of Experimental Medicine at Swansea University Medical School and Honorary Physician at the Abertawe-Bro-Morgannwg (ABM) University Hospital. He was appointed a

in 2011 for his services to medicine.

Career

Born in

Ystradgynlais Ystradgynlais (, ) is a town on the River Tawe in southwest Powys, Wales. It is the second-largest town in Powys and is in the historic county of Brecknockshire. The town has a high proportion of Welsh language-speakers. The community includes ...

, Wales, Hopkin attended Maesydderwen School before proceeding to the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, graduating MB in 1972.http://www.wales.nhs.uk/documents/W080152-Hlt.pdf He proceeded with his postgraduate clinical training in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, including a career-influencing period with John Crofton, the initiator of successful combination chemotherapy for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Hopkin undertook scientific training (Master and Doctorate) at the University and Medical Research Council Human Genetics (

MRC Human Genetics Unit The Medical Research Council (UK) Human Genetics Unit is situated at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. It is one of the largest MRC research establishments, housing over two hundred scientists, support staff, research fellows, PhD stude ...

) in Edinburgh. In Edinburgh, with John Evans, he described the potent mutagenic actions of cigarette smoke on human cells - going on to quantify the mutagenic and cytotoxic actions of cigarette smoke and their relationship to lung cancer and

pulmonary emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

risks respectively. Hopkin spent periods in pulmonary medicine practice, in medical student teaching (Fellow and Supervisor of clinical students at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

, 1992–99), and in research at Birmingham and Oxford. In those periods he developed a robust bronchoscopic lavage method to secure precise microbial diagnostics and improved survivals for

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

in immuno-suppressed subjects. With Anne Wakefield, he settled the fungal taxonomic status of the important opportunistic pathogen,

pneumocystis The Pneumocystidomycetes are a class of ascomycete fungi. It includes the single order Pneumocystidales, which contains the single monotypic family Pneumocystidaceae, which in turn contains the genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic r ...

, and devised a precise mitochondrial rRNA diagnostic for pneumocystis pneumonia, applicable to simple non-invasive simple clinical samples and adopted worldwide. With the rise in asthma prevalence (1980-2000), Hopkin undertook highly collaborative work addressing the underlying causes. He showed that common up-regulating genetic variants of Th2 immune signalling related to allergic disorder and high IgE levels (sharing, with Dr

Taro Shirakawa Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...

, the 2001

Daiwa-Adrian Prize This Daiwa Adrian Prize is an award given by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, a UK charity, to scientists who have made significant achievements in science through Anglo-Japanese collaborative research. Prizes are awarded every third year and ...

in Medicine) but also to low burdens of parasitic work infestation - proposing an evolutionary mechanism in which prevalent parasitic worm infection has provided long term evolutionary selection for up-regulating genetic variants of Th-2 immunity. He contributed epidemiologic data that relate diminished bacterial exposures in early childhood (less tuberculosis; more oral antibiotic receipts) to increased allergic disorder. His current work builds on the latter and focuses on how bacterial exposures shape human immunity relevant to asthma, and how unravelling these microbial mechanisms may provide disease preventing agents.

Distinctions

* Fellow,

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 ...

(2005) * Fellow,

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales (Welsh: Cymdeithas Ddysgedig Cymru) is a learned society and charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the Welsh nation ...

(2011) * Commander of the

Order of the British Empire 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 ...

, (CBE) - for services to Medicine (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkin, Julian Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Welsh scholars and academics Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Academics of Swansea University