We are delighted to announce that Tom Deegan has been awarded the Biochemical Society’s prestigious Colworth Medal for 2027. The Colworth Medal is a prestigious annual award for outstanding research by an early career biochemist who has carried out the majority of their work in the UK or Republic of Ireland.

Tom is a former member of Karim Labib’s group at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU), where he was supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2021, he established his independent research group at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, where his laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate chromosome duplication in eukaryotic cells.

Tom’s research combines biochemical reconstitution with cutting-edge structural biology approaches to dissect how DNA replication is controlled. His group has made important discoveries revealing conserved mechanisms by which the yeast and human replisome is regulated by ubiquitylation when replication forks converge. In addition, his work has provided key insights into how accessory DNA helicases enable replication forks to overcome protein–DNA barriers, ensuring faithful genome duplication.

Tom’s achievements have been recognised through other awards, including the Biochemical Society’s Early Career Research Award in 2022. More recently, his continued excellence has been recognised through his election to the EMBO Young Investigator Programme in 2025 and the award of tenure by the University of Edinburgh.

We warmly congratulate Tom on this outstanding and well-deserved recognition.

This award continues a remarkable tradition within the University of Dundee’s School of Life Sciences, where 10 Principal Investigators, two former postdoctoral researchers, including Tom and three former PhD students have previously been honoured with the Colworth Medal.