| Citation | Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Middlesex Hospital, London, Michael Waterfield is distinguished for his development of automated liquid and gas phase methods of protein microsequencing and their application in deciphering the role of key regulatory proteins in normal growth and development and their subversion in cancer. His most important contribution has been to show that oncogenes can be derived from genes that are involved in normal growth control. In 1983 he reported the first purification and sequence of platelet derived growth factor and discovered its homology with the transforming protein of simian sarcoma virus. This was the first time that the function of an oncogene had been deduced, and led to the concept that oncogenic viruses can mediate transformation by inappropriate expression of a growth factor. In 1984 he reported the purification of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and demonstrated that its sequence contained regions of virtual identity to the transforming protein v-erb-B of avian erythroblastosis virus. These studies introduced the concept that receptors lacking growth factor-binding domains can stimulate abnormal growth by delivering a continuous ligand-independent signal, and represented the second functional connection of an oncogene with normal growth control. His other significant achievements include analysis of the structure and function of the EGF receptor and its gene, influenza virus haemagluttinin (with Skehel), protein kinase C and its isoforms (with Parker) and the oestrogen receptor (with Chambon). Analysis of the oestrogen receptor revealed its homology with the erb-A oncogene. |