$1 million ‘Nobel of the East’ awarded to Sir Michael Berridge,
Emeritus Fellow at the Babraham Institute

19th July 2005

Professor Sir Michael Berridge, FRS, Emeritus Fellow at the Babraham Institute, has been awarded the prestigious Shaw Prize, for his pioneering work in the field of cell signalling. His discovery of the key role that calcium plays in regulating cellular activity and orchestrating the complexities of cellular communication has given insight into some of the physiological processes behind medical conditions like hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia and heart failure, cancer and bipolar disorders such as manic depressive illness.

Professor Berridge’s discovery of the molecule inositol trisphophate, better known as IP3, and its role in the calcium signalling pathway, was a major breakthrough in understanding how a cell translates chemical stimuli at its external surface into an intracellular chemical language that enables the cell to elicit a physiological response. These breakthroughs have had a profound influence on diverse areas of biomedical research such as cell proliferation, fertilisation, neural activity, memory and learning, metabolism and muscle contraction.

Hailed as the Nobel Prize of the East, following the first award of prizes in 2004, this international accolade consists of three annual prizes in the fields of life science and medicine, astronomy and mathematical sciences, each bearing a monetary award of $1 million US dollars. On 2 September 2005 the three prize winners will visit the University of Hong Kong to speak about their work and be presented with their award. Established in 2002 under the auspices of the now 97 year old Sir Run Run Shaw, a Hong Kong Martial Arts movie magnate and television producer, The Shaw Prize honours individuals who have achieved significant breakthroughs in academic and scientific research, and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind.

The Director of the Babraham Institute, Dr Richard Dyer, said, “We are delighted that the Shaw Foundation has honoured Professor Berridge with this valuable and prestigious prize. His elegant experiments elucidating the mechanisms controlling insect salivary secretion and insightful interpretation, pinpointed the pivotal role of second messengers like calcium and IP3 in cellular communication and function. He pioneered a field of research that has pervaded almost every area of cell biology. Today research in this field is bringing new understanding of a wide range of medical disorders and with it the potential to develop ever more sophisticated therapeutic strategies for the prevention and management of disease.”

Professor Berridge’s ground-breaking research and leadership in the field have earned him a plethora of prestigious international awards, including: the Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics; the Gairdner Foundation International Award for outstanding achievement in biomedical research; the King Faisal International Prize in Science; The Wolf Foundation Prize in Medicine; the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award; and the Louis Jeantet Prize in Medicine.

Further information

The Babraham Institute, located just south of Cambridge, UK, is an educational charity focussed on delivering science of the highest quality that will add significantly to knowledge and find applications in the biomedical, biotechnological and pharmaceutical sectors. The work described was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Cancer Research UK, and was carried out in conjunction with scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton.

Contact details:

Dr Claire Cockcroft
Head, External Relations
Contact by email

Tel: +44 (0)1223 496260
Fax: +44 (0)1223 496002
Mobile: +44 (0)7786 335978

Professor Sir Michael Berridge
Contact by email
Tel: +44 (0)1223 49662

The Babraham Institute
Babraham Research Campus
Cambridge
CB22 3AT
United Kingdom

Notes for Editors:

The Babraham Institute is a charitable organisation, which receives strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The Institute’s research focuses on the mechanisms of cell signalling and gene regulation, which underlie normal cellular processes and functions, and on how their failure or abnormality may lead to disease.  Institute scientists are striving to find cures for conditions where there is currently no treatment or where the existing treatment is not fully effective or causes serious side effects. The commercialisation of the Institute’s research is managed by its trading subsidiary, Babraham Bioscience Technologies Ltd. Babraham Research Campus is located six miles south-east of Cambridge.  http://www.babraham.ac.uk

Biographical Note of Shaw Laureate: Sir Michael Berridge, FRS, (b.1938) is an Emeritus Fellow at the Babraham Institute and Honorary Professor of Cell Signalling at the University of Cambridge. Graduating from the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia in 1960 with First Class Honours, he attained his PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1965. He then carried out post-doctoral research in the USA (University of Virginia and Case Western Reserve University) before returning to Cambridge in 1969 to take up a position with the Agricultural and Food Research Council’s (AFRC) Unit of Invertebrate Chemistry and Physiology, based in the University’s Zoology Department. After a long professional association with the Babraham Institute he formerly joined the Laboratory of Molecular Signalling at the Babraham Institute in 1990. He is a fellow of Trinity College and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1984. He is also a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1999).

Additional information: Cellular communication takes place through chemical signals such as hormones, neurotransmitters and nitric oxide, however these molecules do not pass through the cell’s plasma membrane. Professor Berridge’s discovery of the molecule inositol trisphophate, better known at IP3, and the role of the calcium signalling pathway in regulating a variety of cellular processes, was a major breakthrough in understanding how a cell translates chemical stimuli at the external surface of the cell into a chemical language that is understood by the cell. Receptor molecules on the surface of the cell’s plasma membrane act like molecular antennae seeking out chemical signals like hormones (the first messengers), which, on binding to the receptor, liberate two key messenger molecules from the membrane - IP3 and Diacylglycerol, known as ‘second messengers’. IP3 serves as the intracellular messenger linking events at the cell membrane with the release of another ‘second messenger’, calcium, from intracellular stores in order to elicit a physiological response to external stimulation.

The other recipients of the 2005 Shaw Prize are Professor Andrew John Wiles of Princeton University, who won the Mathematical Sciences Award for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, and Professor Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva and Professor Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California share the Astronomy Award for finding and characterising the orbits and masses of the first planets around other stars, revolutionising our understanding of the processes that form planets and planetary systems.

The Shaw Prize is an international award managed and administered by The Shaw Prize Foundation based in Hong Kong. Established under the auspices of Sir Run Run Shaw, the prize was created to honour individuals, regardless of race, nationality and religious belief, who have achieved significant breakthroughs in academic and scientific research or applications and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind. The award is dedicated to furthering societal progress, enhancing quality of life, and enriching humanity’s spiritual civilisation. Preference is given to individuals whose significant work was recently achieved, or whose works’ profound impact becomes increasingly apparent.

Shaw Prize Founder's Biographical Note: Sir Run Run Shaw, a film producer in Hong Kong, was born in China in 1907. A native of Ningbo County, Zhejiang Province, he joined his brother's film company in China in the 1920s.  In 1930 he and his brother founded the South Seas Film studio, which later became Shaw Studio. In the 1950s he founded the film company Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited and has been Executive Chairman of Television Broadcasts Limited in Hong Kong since the 1970s.  Mr. Shaw has also founded two charities, the Sir Run Run Shaw Charitable Trust and The Shaw Foundation Hong Kong Limited, both dedicated to the promotion of education, scientific and technological research, medical and welfare services, and culture and art. Over the years, he has donated billions of dollars to charity, schools and hospitals as well as the Chinese University of Hong Kong to establish its fourth constituent college.  The establishment of the Shaw Prize for scientists in 2002 is the most recent philanthropic gesture and the first prize was awarded in 2004.