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RefNoEC/1996/41
LevelItem
TitleDarnell, James Edwin: certificate of election to the Royal Society
Date1994
DescriptionCertificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed
CitationDarnell's career has spanned almost four decades of noteworthy contributions in virology and cell and molecular biology. Pioneering work on the biochemistry of poliovirus in the late 1950's was followed by outstanding work on the characterisation of heterogenous nuclear (hn) RNA, polyA addition and the processing of hnRNA to mRNA. His work on the synthesis of adenovirus RNA presaged splicing. In the past decade he has turned his attention to two topics: 1) transcription factors that regulate liver-specific gene expression and mouse development and 2) signal transduction in response to polypeptide ligands. In the first area the HNF-3 fork head family of transcription factors have been defined and shown to be required for notochord formation, while HNF-4 had been characterised and shown to be one of the earliest transcription factors induced in mouse embryogenesis and to be required in gastrulation. Work in the second area has identified a novel type of signal transduction pathway. The analysis of interferon-inducible gene expression culminated in 1992/93 in the demonstration of signalling by activation of transcription factors at the cell membrane. Latent transcription factors were discovered which after ligand attachment to cells become phosphorylated on tyrosine, dimerise and translocate to the nucleus where they bind specific DNA sequences. More members of the family of latent transcription factors, termed STATs for signal transducers and activators of transcription, have been discovered and different ligands appear to direct different transciptional results through the activation of different STATs. Indeed it now is clear that pathways of this novel type are activated in response to a wide variety of cytokines and are likely to contribute substantially to the control of cell growth and function. In addition to his prodminance in research Darnell has also made a mojor contribution to teaching through his role on the faculty of Rockefeller University and the co-authorship, with Lodish and Baltimore, of the influential textbook 'Molecular Cell Biology'.
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