We are extremely proud that our Tutorial Fellow in Medicine, and Associate Professor of Physiological Metabolism, Robin Klemm, has been awarded a Wellcome Discovery Award.
The Wellcome Discovery Award scheme enables established researchers to pursue bold and creative research programmes that are expected to deliver significant insights into our understanding of human life, health and wellbeing.
Robin Klemm is honoured that his work on lipids has been recognised with this prestigious grant. The Discovery Award will provide the Klemm lab with significant support to establish a cutting-edge research programme investigating the functional role of lipids in cells.
Dr Robin Klemm
Robin is passionate about deciphering how lipids and fats are involved in cellular communication and govern fundamental processes in cellular decision making. He says that ‘the journey of re-imagining the biology of lipids beyond their role as nutrients has only just begun! The area has recently gained a lot of momentum and I see the skyline of an entire new research field appearing at the horizon’.
Lipids play a vital role in the context of how cells determine their function, but the language lipids speak (how the lipotype talks to our genes) is currently poorly understood. By mapping the metabolic pathways on the architecture of the cell, Robin’s team will be able to work out the mechanisms by which cells use lipids and fats to communicate information about their states. This research could have major implications for molecular medicine and basic cell biology.
The excitement of receiving the opportunity to build this vibrant research program with a Wellcome Discovery award is hard to beat!
Robin Klemm
Robin and his team are most excited by the multidisciplinary nature of this work. Robin comments, ‘The Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics with its neighbouring Department of Biochemistry and the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Discovery provides an ideal environment to build this vibrant research programme in’.
We congratulate Robin and look forward to a stream of exciting discoveries around ‘the lipid code’, which will open a new perspective on healthy life and aging.
With thanks to the Robin and the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics.