We are delighted to announce that Lister Fellow Dr. Sebastian Guettler has recently received a prestigious Wellcome Trust Investigator Award.
The Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards are designed to support high-achieving researchers with a compelling research vision to fund independent activities. The funding is provided over several years and can support many aspects of an academic’s work and operations.
Dr. Guettler is a Team Leader in the Divisions of Structural Biology and Cancer Biology at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), one of the foremost cancer research institutions in the world.
At the Guettler Lab, his team are employing a variety of structural biology, biochemical and imaging techniques in novel ways in order to better explore cell signalling mechanisms and pathways.
Prior to the Wellcome Trust funding, he was recently awarded one of our prestigious Lister Research Prizes in order to further his investigation into a category of proteins called PARPs, which play a role in DNA repair, cell signalling and telomere maintenance.
Our support is helping Dr. Guettler to expand the scope of his research so that his team can also focus on how telomeres, the ends of chromosomes, are protected and maintained. This process involves a PARP enzyme called tankyrase, which is encoded by the TNKS and TNKS2 genes and is involved in various signalling processes.
As explained in this ICR news story, Dr. Guettler said of his award of a Lister prize:
“I am delighted to have been awarded the Lister Institute Research Prize, which will enable me to expand my lab’s activities to do some very exciting new work on telomere protection and maintenance.”
“The award is exciting news, not only for me, but also and first of all for my entire team, who have been working very hard over the past years and without whom I wouldn’t have earned this recognition.”
Dr. Guettler’s team will use the Wellcome Trust Investigator Award to expand their research programme in order to better understand telomere protection and length maintenance. As he explains:
“I am grateful for the support we have been receiving from the Lister Institute, which enabled us to obtain critical pilot data and shape the project.”
“Even after only a year and a few months, we can very concretely see how the Lister Prize catalyses our work and enables us to embark on exciting new research avenues. So, many thanks to the Lister Institute!“”
We are always pleased to hear about the achievements of our valued Fellows and Members and are looking forward to hearing more about Dr. Guettler’s important research work in the future.
