We are delighted to learn that Dr Kirby Swatek from the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU) at the University of Dundee has been awarded a highly prestigious Lister Research Prize Fellowship.

These are awarded by the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine to support UK based scientists in recognition of their excellence as early-career biomedical scientists and the future potential of their cutting-edge work. These are highly competitive awards. Kirby will receive £250,000 to be spent over a five-year period.

Kirby plans to use this support to investigate the intrinsic biology of an unusual class of deubiquitylase termed ‘clippases’ that he uncovered during his postdoctoral work.

These enzymes possess a completely different cleavage specificity from all previous deubiquitylases analysed, as they cleave before the C-terminal ubiquitin Gly-Gly motif, leaving a Gly-Gly dipeptide cap attached to the substrate.

This prevents the substrate Lys residue and the ubiquitin or ubiquitin-like molecule from becoming reconjugated. Kirby plans to use the Lister Fellowship to understand the biological roles of these enzymes and their link to better diagnosing, understanding, and treating disease.

Kirby said, “It is a tremendous honour to receive a Lister Prize, and I look forward to becoming a part of the Lister community. This award will enable my laboratory to build an exciting and thought-provoking new line of research with significant potential to impact multiple disease-relevant areas of biology.”

Dario Alessi, Director of MRC-PPU said, “It is fantastic news that Kirby who only opened his laboratory less than 2 years ago, has hit the ground running. A Lister Prize award is highly sought after, and only one MRC-PPU PI namely Yogesh Kulathu, has previously received this award. This is a huge recognition for the vital and original research that Kirby is undertaking.”