| Citation | Distinguished for his seminal studies on a structurally distinctive form of cell death, known as apoptosis, a process that is now known to play a leading role in embryonic development, in cell turnover and tissue homeostasis in the adult, in immunological and toxicological reactions and in the growth and regression of tumours. In collaboration with Kerr and Currie, he was the first to describe apoptosis as a general phenomenon and to establish the paradigm whereby cells might be deleted from tissues under physiological conditions. Subsequently he went on to describe the many features that characterise this form of cell death and in particular the internucleosomal chromatin cleavage that occurs as a consequence of activation of an endogenous endonuclease and that is now accepted as being the hallmark of apoptosis. His present work, where he has made several major contributions, represents a fusion of his two main interests: the regulation of apoptosis and the function of genes involved in the development of tumours. This is currently one of the most active research areas in the biomedical sciences. |