Dr Felix Randow FMedSci

Felix Randow, a Group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, is an outstanding molecular immunologist. He has made major contributions to our understanding of human immunity by revealing novel principles of cell-autonomous defence. Guided by the importance of cell-autonomous immunity as the sole defender of unicellular organisms, he investigates the ability of individual human cells to defend themselves against infection. This work has provided important insights into the mechanism of anti-bacterial autophagy. Combined with the first molecularly defined examples for how viruses subvert autophagy his studies support development of autophagy as a drug target.