Nick Proudfoot Secures Seventh Consecutive Wellcome Trust Investigator Award
Professor Nick Proudfoot has been awarded his seventh consecutive Wellcome Trust Investigator Award in the Autumn 2019 funding round.
The award of £2.4 million grant over the course of 5 years marks three decades of continuous Wellcome Trust funding.
The project “Defining RNA polyermase II transcription units across the mammalian genome” hopes to aid researchers’ understanding of viral infections and cancer by investigating the discrepancy between the amount of coding vs noncoding RNA transcripts. Whilst 20–30 thousand genes directly encode proteins, many more produce noncoding transcripts.
Professor Proudfoot said, “In particular we will investigate how genes normally end (both protein coding and noncoding genes) as it is well established that many cases of cellular disease such as viral infection or cancer are associated with a breakdown in this process,”.
Ironically, the start date for the grant, 1 Oct 2020, coincides with the date that Professor Proudfoot will formally retire from the University. However, he expects that running a lab while retired will be close to “business as usual,” but with the added benefit of getting to do more of the science that truly interests and excites him—without the burdens of University bureaucracy.
To learn more on about his research, please visit the Proudfoot lab page.
Written by Derek Xu
