| Authorised form of name | Wright; Ernest Marshall (1940-2026); cell physiologist |
| Dates | 1940-2026 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 08/06/1940 |
| Date of death | 19 January 2026 |
| Occupation | Cell physiologist |
| Research field | Biophysics |
| Molecular medicine |
| Physiology |
| Cell physiology |
| Activity | Education:
Unversity of London BSc (1961); DSc (1978); Uiversity of Sheffield, PhD (1964)
Career: Became a member of the faculty at Sheffield (1964); joined the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (1967); Visiting Professor at the Center for Advanced Studies at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City (1973); Visiting Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt (1974-1975); Visiting Professor at the Queen Elizabeth College, London (1977); served as Chair of Physiology (1987-2000); Distinguished Professor of Physiology and the Mellinkoff Professor in Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (-2026)
Memberships:
Fellow of the Biophysical Society
Member of the National Academy of Sciences
Member of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 26/05/2005 |
| Age at election | 64 |
| OtherInfo | Ernest Wright was a cell physiologist with a research focus on the structure and function of cotransporters - specialised proteins that transport substances into cells. His work aimed to understand how sugars, amino acids and signalling molecules are transported into our cells. As mutations in cotransporters can lead to diseases, determining the underlying mechanisms of these mutations may result in new treatments.
He was well known for developing expression cloning, an effective technique for generating copies of proteins such as cotransporters in order to study them.
He was the first to identify mutations in a transporter protein.
He also co-invented a new electron microscopy technique, allowing improved determination of the structures of transporters. |
| Source | The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Professor Ernest Wright FRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/ernest-wright-12567/; last accessed: 27/04/2026]
National Academy of Sciences, Ernest M. Wright, [URL: https://www.nasonline.org/directory-entry/ernest-m-wright-6vfikp/; last accessed: 27/04/2026]
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, People, Ernest M. Wright, FRS, [URL: https://wrightlab.physiology.ucla.edu/people/ernest-m-wright-frs; last accessed: 27/04/2026] |
| Code | NA8821 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| IM/005598 | Wright, Ernest Marshall | 2005 |
| EC/2005/44 | Wright, Ernest Marshall: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| RR/66/340 | Referee's report by George Neville Watson, on a paper 'The asymptotic expansion of integral functions defined by Taylor series' by Ernest Marshall Wright | [May 1939] |
| RR/66/338 | Referee's report by George Barker Jeffery, on a paper 'The asymptotic expansion of integral functions defined by Taylor series' by Ernest Marshall Wright | [July 1939] |
| RR/67/435 | Referee's report by Harold Davenport, on a paper 'The asymptotic expansion of integral functions defined by Taylor series' by Ernest Marshall Wright | 1940 |
| RR/67/434 | Referee's report by George Barker Jeffery, on a paper 'The asymptotic expansion of integral functions defined by Taylor series' by Ernest Marshall Wright | 5 December 1940 |
| RR/66/339 | Referee's report by Edward Charles Titchmarsh, on a paper 'The asymptotic expansion of integral functions defined by Taylor series' by Ernest Marshall Wright | [May 1939] |