| Citation | Pepys has made seminal contributions in three areas: complement and immune response, the pentraxin proteins, and amyloidosis, and is a leading authority on these subjects in the UK and internationally. He discovered the role of complement in induction of antibody production and antigen localisation to germinal centres. He has pioneered work on the structure, function and clinical applications of the pentraxins, C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P component (SAP), and identified most of the known members of this valuable aid to patient management. He discovered the capacity of SAP for calcium-dependent binding, which underlies its universal deposition in amyloid, described its interaction with DNA in-vivo and in-vitro, and its ability to solubilise chromatin, and identified SAP as a normal tissue protein. He introduced radiolabelled SAP as a diagnostic in-vivo tracer for amyloid, which has revolutionised knowledge of the natural history of amyloidosis and its response to treatment. He has discovered that variants of lysozyme can form amyloid and identified the first mutations in the human lysozyme gene, as well as novel amyloidogenic variants of apolipoprotein AI and transthyretin. |