RSC Khorana Prize Awarded to Dundee Scientist

Professor David Lilley, from the University of Dundee, has received the Royal Society of Chemistry Khorana Prize winner for 2016. This prestigious award recognises outstanding achievement for research at the chemistry and life science interface. Professor Lilley receives £5000, a medal and a certificate.

Professor Lilley said, “I am honoured to receive the Khorana Prize, and most grateful to the RSC for awarding this to me. I regard this as recognition of the work of my laboratory as a whole. I have a wonderfully talented group of postdoctoral colleagues who are incredibly productive and full of insight. It is a pleasure to work with them all and I am happy that they can share in this recognition.

“Lastly, I am especially pleased to receive an award in the name of Gobind Khorana, who was one of the most pioneering nucleic acid chemists of all time. I was lucky enough to know him a little.”

Professor Lilley holds a Chair in Molecular Biology and is Director of the Cancer Research UK Nucleic Acid Structure Research Group in the School of Life Sciences at the University. Professor Lilley’s group studies the junctions in DNA that are responsible for repairing damage and the enzymes that recognise and process them. He also studies RNA molecules that act like enzymes to accelerate chemical reactions. These probably played a critical role in the evolution of life on the planet in the early stages and they still perform some of modern cells' most important reactions.

In addition to his research, Professor Lilley is very active in promotion of links with science in China. He is a visiting professor at Xiamen University, a consultant for AB Life in Wuhan and has collaborative links with Shanghai Fudan University.