Professor Christopher Danpure is Professor of Molecular Cell Biology at University College London. He has led an internationally renowned research programme into the molecular basis of the lethal autsomal recessive disease, primary hyperoxaluria type 1. He started by defining the basic biochemistry of this condition and has gone on to show that the disease is due to a deficiency in the liver peroxisomal enzyme alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase. He has characterised the molecular genetics of the defect and shown that the commonest cause results in mistargeting of the enzyme from the peroxisome to the mitochondrion.