Tony Kouzarides (born 17 January 1958), FMedSci, FRS is a senior group leader

Gurdon Institute The Gurdon Institute (officially the Wellcome/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute) is a research facility at the University of Cambridge, specialising in developmental biology and cancer biology. History The Institute was founded in 1989 to prov ...

, a founding

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of the ...

Abcam Abcam is a producer, distributor and seller of protein research tools. History The company was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Milner with co-founders professor Tony Kouzarides and David Cleevely, with the idea of making it easier for research scie ...

and a Professor of Cancer Biology at 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 ...

Education

Tony did his PhD at th
University of Cambridge
and postdoctoral work a
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
in Cambridge an
New York University Medical Center
His research group at the Gurdon Institute is focused on epigenetic modifications and their involvement in cancer.

Research & Activities

Epigenetic modifications and cancer Do enzymes that modify chromatin and RNA offer therapeutic targets? DNA exists in the cell nucleus wrapped around histone proteins to form chromatin. The DNA and histones are decorated with many types of covalent chemical modifications, which can affect transcription and other cellular processes. In addition, non-coding RNAs that regulate chromatin function can be similarly chemically modified. Our lab is involved in characterising the pathways that mediate and control DNA, RNA and histone modifications. We try to understand the cellular processes they regulate, their mechanism of action and their involvement in cancer. Our focus at the moment is modifications of messenger RNA (mRNA) and non-coding RNA. There are very few modifications identified on these low-abundance RNAs, unlike on transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA, where there are many. We have been developing sensitive technologies to detect modifications, such as specific antibodies, chemical reactivity assays and mass spectrometry. Using these, we have been able to detect a number of novel modifications on mRNA and microRNA (short length non-coding RNAs) and have shown that these function to regulate mRNA translation and microRNA processing. Furthermore, we have shown that the enzymes that mediate these modifications are implicated in acute myeloid leukaemia. Tony Kouzarides is Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Cambridge and a group leader at th
Gurdon Institute
He currently holds the following directorships: Director and Co-founder of th
Milner Therapeutics Institute
director o
Cambridge Gravity
and director o
STORM Therapeutics
Tony is founder/director o
Cambridge Gravity
an organization for the promotion of science at the University of Cambridge. He is founder, patron and ex-director of a cancer charity in Spain called Conquer Cancer
Vencer el Cancer
. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of th
Institute of Cancer Research
(UK) and on the Executive Board of th
CRUK Cambridge Cancer Centre
Tony is a co-founder and ex-director o
Abcam plc
a publicly trading research reagents company in Cambridge, a co-founder and ex-director of Chroma Therapeutics, of a drug discovery company based in Oxford and a co-founder and current director o
STORM Therapeutics
a drug discovery company based in Cambridge.

Awards & Prizes

Kouzarides has been elected member of th
European Molecular Biology Organization
Fellow of th
British Academy of Medical Sciences
(FMedSci)
Fellow of the Royal Society
(FRS), Fellow of th
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
(AAAS) and is a Cancer Research UK Gibb Fellow. He has been awarded th
Wellcome Trust medal for research in biochemistry related to medicine
(UK), th
Tenovus Medal
(UK), th
Bodossaki Foundation prize in Biology
(Greece), th
Bijvoet Medal
(Holland), th
Biochemical Society Award

Novartis Medal and Prize The Portland Press Excellence in Science Award was an annual award instituted in 1964 to recognize notable research in any branch of biochemistry undertaken in the UK or Republic of Ireland. It was initially called the CIBA Medal and Prize, then ...

(UK) and th
Heinrich Wieland Prize
(Germany).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kouzarides, Tony 1958 births Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Academics of the University of Cambridge English people of Greek descent Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Bijvoet Medal recipients