Gregory Winter
Sir Gregory Paul Winter CBE FRS FMedSci (born 14 April 1951) is a Nobel Prize-winning English molecular biologist best known for his work on the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies. His research career has been based almost entirely at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering, in Cambridge, England.
Sir Gregory Winter | |
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Winter in 2016 | |
Master of Trinity College, Cambridge | |
In office 2012–2019 | |
Preceded by | Lord Rees of Ludlow |
Succeeded by | Dame Sally Davies |
Personal details | |
Born | Gregory Paul Winter 14 April 1951 Leicester, Leicestershire, England |
Website | LMB web page |
Education | Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge (MA, PhD) |
Known for | Cambridge Antibody Technology Domantis Bicycle Therapeutics Antibody engineering |
Awards | Colworth Medal (1986) EMBO Member (1987) Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1989) Knight Bachelor (2004) Royal Medal (2011) Prince Mahidol Award (2016) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2018) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biochemistry |
Institutions | University of Cambridge Laboratory of Molecular Biology Imperial College London |
Thesis | The amino acid sequence of tryptophanyl tRNA synthetase from Bacillus stearothermophilus (1977) |
Doctoral advisor | Brian S. Hartley |
He is credited with having invented techniques to both humanize (1986) and, later, to fully humanize using phage display, antibodies for therapeutic uses. Previously, antibodies had been derived from mice, which made them difficult to use in human therapeutics because the human immune system had anti-mouse reactions to them. For these developments Winter was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with George Smith and Frances Arnold.
He is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge on 2 October 2012, remaining in office until 2019. From 2006 to 2011, he was Deputy Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council, acting Director from 2007 to 2008 and Head of the Division of Protein and Nucleic Acids Chemistry from 1994 to 2006. He was also Deputy Director of the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering from 1990 to its closure in 2010.