Fellow

Alan Fairlamb is Professor of Biochemistry and a Welcome Principal Fellow in Dundee. He is widely acknowledged as the one of the most influential figures in parasite biochemistry. His discovery of trypanothione was a landmark both in parasitology and in polyamine and thiol biochemistry. His many achievements include elucidation of the structure of trypanothione and its analogues in parasites; defining its biosynthetic pathway; mechanistic, structural and inhibitor studies of several trypanothione-dependent enzymes, defining the modes of action of several trypanocidal drugs, including those that interfere with trypanothione biosynthesis or function and defining modes of drug resistance in trypanosomatid parasites. For nearly twenty years Alan Fairlamb has served the World Health Organisation Tropical Disease Research (WHO/TDR) on one more scientific advisory committees and has been Chair of Drug Discovery Research (now the Chemotherapy Portfolio Review Committee) for the past six years. He is an active advocate for greater awareness of the problems associated with neglected tropical diseases through lectures to the public and other media appearances on TV and radio and interviews with the press. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is a foreign corresponding member of the National Academy of Medicine in Argentina. We now welcome him to the Fellowship of this Academy.