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EMBO young investigator honoured by Biochemical Society

Heidelberg, July 07, 2005

EMBO young investigator, Ian Collinson of the University of Bristol in the UK, has been awarded the Biochemical Society’s prestigious Colworth Medal. Ian receives the award for his landmark contribution to membrane protein research.

The young biochemist, together with Werner Kühlbrandt and Tom Rapoport, was responsible for determining the structure of protein-translocation machinery – an exceptional achievement that has led to the re-drawing of textbook diagrams.

The Colworth Medal is awarded for outstanding research by a young British biochemist. Donated in 1963 by Unilever Research Colworth Laboratory, the award is made annually to a scientist under the age of 35. Ian Collinson is not the first EMBO young investigator to be honoured with the Colworth Medal. David Owen received the medal in 2003, the same year as he was selected for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme. Tom Owen-Hughes won the award in 2002, two years after becoming an EMBO young investigator.

Recipients of the Colworth Medal receive an honorarium of £2000 and are invited to deliver a lecture at a Biochemical Society meeting. Ian will present the Colworth Medal Lecture on July 21 at BioScience 2005 in Glasgow, UK. The lecture will also appear in Biochemical Society Transactions.