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MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit

 

Congratulations to Professor Sir John Walker, FRS, Emeritus Director of the MBU and Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, who received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa from the University of Cambridge yesterday - 22 June - at a ceremony that was previously postponed due to COVID-19.

The Chancellor of the University, The Lord Sainsbury of Turville, presided over the congregation, which was held inside the Senate House and conducted in both English and Latin. Around 400 staff, students and other guests were also in attendance.

John was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1997 for his work describing how the biological fuel upon which all biological life depends, known as adenosine triphosphate (or ATP), is generated by a molecular turbine.

John's current research is focused on understanding how the human version of this molecular turbine is assembled, and how it is regulated differently in the mitochondria of human cells and in bacteria, with the aim of devising drugs designed to kill antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria by stopping their turbines without influencing the human ones.

Further details of the ceremony and graduands can be found on the University's news page.