Education
University of Bristol. University of Birmingham.
University of Bristol. University of Birmingham.
Philosophy Hawkins has contributed much to the understanding of inositol lipids functions in eukaryotic cells. Together with his long-time collaborator Leonard R Stephens, he established that PtdIns(4,5)P2 is the main substrate of receptor-controlled Type 1 phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks), thus identifying PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 as the key output signal produced by this enzyme. They identified and isolated the GPCR-activated Type 1B PI3K (PI3KΥ) and, in a sustained body of work, defined its structure, explained its complex pattern of regulation by GβΥ and Ras, and proved its role in inflammatory events in vivo.
They - in parallel with Dario Alessi - identified phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 as the PtdIns(3,4,5)P3-activated link between PI3K-1 activation and protein kinase B activation, a key pathway through which PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 formation regulates cell proliferation and survival.
Philosophy Hawkins received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol (1980) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry (1983) from the University of Birmingham. After a post-doctoral training in South.K. & F. Research Limited, he joined the Molecular Neurobiology unit of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge (United Kingdom).
He joined the AFRC IAPGR (now Babraham Institute) in 1990 and became a group leader in 2003. Philosophy Hawkins has received several awards, including:.
Royal Society.