We are delighted to announce that Gopal Sapkota has received the prestigious Biochemical Society 2025 Industry and Academic Collaboration Award. This is presented annually to an outstanding individual or team, from anywhere in the world, who has made an inspirational contribution to the biosciences and to industry–academia interactions.
Gopal was born and raised in a remote part of Nepal. After completing his his formative education from Nepal, he won a British Council Scholarship to study biochemistry at University of Bath. He undertook his PhD research at University of Dundee in Dario Alessi’s lab where he was the first researcher in the Unit to work on the LKB1 tumour suppressor protein kinase supported by a Diabetes UK PhD studentship. He then pursued postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York with Joan Massagué and was awarded the prestigious Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship to investigate the regulation of TGFβ signalling pathway. In November 2008, he re-joined the MRC PPU to take up a Programme Leader position. In 2020, Gopal was appointed Professor of Disease Signalling. Gopal research has focused on understanding the fundamental mechanisms underpinning reversible phosphorylation and ubiquitylation processes in cell signalling and disease and harnessing this knowledge for innovative drug discovery approaches. Gopal has been an integral part of our Units Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT), a long-running flagship collaboration between Dundee researchers and leading commercial pharmaceutical companies. Gopal has ongoing important collaborative drug discovery projects with GSK, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Amgen Inc.
On receiving the award, Gopal said: “I am delighted to have received this prestigious award. It is a recognition of the many productive collaborations that I have had, and continue to be part of, with some of the leading pharmaceutical partners. It is also a recognition of the hard work of all the students and postdocs in my lab over the years. I am hopeful this award will promote many more fruitful drug discovery collaborations with industry and allow our trainees an excellent opportunity to work alongside top pharmaceutical industries in a unique collaborative environment.”
Dario Alessi, director of the MRC PPU, added. “I am thrilled to learn that Gopal has received this esteemed award from Biochemical Society. It is amazing recognition for the tremendous rigorous work that he has undertaken to understand disease relevant signalling pathways, and develop unique technologies such as AdPROM, to help researchers better interrogate biological systems. Gopal has also devoted so much time and energy to foster long-term productive collaborations with pharmaceutical companies to help accelerate drug discovery and translate his research as well as to provide his trainees with exceptional experience of working with industry.”