Tony Kouzarides

Education

Kouzarides was educated at the University of Leeds, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics in 1981. He went on to complete his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 1985.

Career

And then on to New York University Medical Center. Here he examined the c-Fos leucine zipper dimerisation domain to elucidate its function. He got a job at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, where he has been since.

Kouzarides is a leader in the field of chromatin modification and its role in transcriptional control and cancer.

In 1996 he made a key discovery in finding that the transcriptional co-activator CBP is a histone acetyltransferase. He has since worked on identifying several new histone modifications, describing their functions in transcription and deoxyribonucleic acid repair and highlighting their mis-regulation in cancer.

His demonstration that a histone acetylation pathway inhibitor can be used to treat MLL-leukaemias in has facilitated its use in clinical trials.

Achievements

• Kouzarides was elected a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2001 a Fellow of the Royal Society (Federal Reserve System) in 2012. His nomination read: "Tony Kouzarides is world leader in the field of chromatin modification and its roles in transcriptional control and cancer. His finding in 1996 that the transcriptional co-activator CBP is a histone acetyltransferase was one of the key discoveries that started the modern era of chromatin research. His subsequent work has identified several new histone modifications, described their functions in transcription and deoxyribonucleic acid repair and has highlighted their mis-regulation in cancer. His demonstration that a histone acetylation pathway inhibitor is an effective treatment for MLL-leukaemias in disease models has opened the way to its use in clinical trials." Kouzarides was also awarded the Sanofi-Cell Outstanding Paper Award of 2011 for his paper on Regulation of chromatin by histone modifications co-authored with Andrew Bannister. In 2013, he was awarded the Heinrich Wieland Prize for his pioneering "research on gene regulation and cancer".

Membership

Royal Society.