Image of Kathryn Lilly (centre) being presented with her award certificate
Credit: HUPO

Professor Kathryn Lilley collects award

Congratulations to College Fellow, Professor Kathryn Lilley, on being presented with the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) 2018 Award for Distinguished Achievement in Proteomic Sciences at the recent HUPO World Congress in the United States.

Lilley, a Professor in the University's Department of Biochemistry and Cambridge Systems Biology Centre, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics and a Director of Studies at Jesus College, is delighted to be the recipient of the award presented by HUPO, the international society supporting research in the field of proteomics.

"These are exciting times for protein biochemistry, as we start to uncover the functional complexity of the proteome." Professor Kathryn Lilley

Proteomics is the study of all the proteins within a given sample, from cells in culture to clinical tissue biopsies. Analysis of the changes in the abundance of proteins, their biochemical modification, and binding partners within a cell are key to understanding the biological processes and mechanisms associated with disease.

In receiving this award, Professor Lilley and her co-workers have been acknowledged for their work in developing innovative multidisciplinary methods which, as she explains: "Enable the location of proteins within the intricate subcellular niches that make up cells. These ‘addresses’ can be simultaneously captured for thousands of protein per experiment. Application of these methods is shedding light on cellular processes that involve a change of address for a protein, but also how the re-localisation of faulty proteins can be involved in some diseases.

"Unexpectedly, the methods developed in the Lilley lab are unearthing the extent of protein ‘moonlighting’. The role a protein plays within a cell is known for a great many proteins, but increasingly we are discovering that proteins carry out multiple, and sometime totally unrelated, jobs within a cell. These are exciting times for protein biochemistry, as we start to uncover the functional complexity of the proteome."

Professor Lilley's award citation states: "Lilley provides leading efforts in developing technologies to enable the measurement of proteome dynamics. Few proteomics researchers have contributed comprehensive methods to study proteomes and we are proud of her distinguished achievements to date."