Cambridge genomics duo in the steps of Pasteur

Two Cambridge UK genomics scientists have been honoured with Fellowships by the Royal Society.Professor Julian Parkhill of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre and Dr Ewan Birney at the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute have been named Fellows for their contributions to genomics research, which has led to innovation in medical technology.

They are among eleven scientists and engineers from Cambridge named in the 50-strong roll call of new Fellows named today by the Royal Society. They include Autonomy founder Dr Mike Lynch who now heads up the Cambridge and London venture capital vehicle, Invoke Capital. Lynch is a distinguished leader in the application of non-linear adaptive signal processing and pattern recognition to unstructured information. Creator of the Bayesian framework and platform at the heart of Autonomy's products and CEO of the company for 15 years, Lynch is an inspiration and role model for entrepreneurs particularly in the engineering and technology sectors.

Professor Parkhill has been recognised for his work on infectious disease; he is a leading researcher in microbiology, using genomics to develop better understanding of bacterial evolution and improving healthcare as a direct result.

Thomson Reuters, which measures publication records of researchers, has placed Professor Parkhill in its most highly cited list of microbiologists on several occasions: Professor Parkhill has published more than 300 scientific research papers: his work has been cited by other researchers more than 26,000 times.

Prof Parkhill said: The Royal Society stands for all that is good about scientific research, but above all the need for evidence and objectivity. Its former members include Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, pioneers of microbiological research, who changed our understanding of infectious disease from a supposition about vapours and miasmas to a scientific study of organisms. It is humbling to be a small part of this legacy.

It's a huge honour and all who are familiar with my work will know it is completely dependent on collaboration with others: the esteem of this award is shared by all with whom I have worked in my career.

Professor Parkhill studies the genomes of microorganisms, particularly bacterial species that cause human disease. His work has included analysis of the global spread of cholera, studies that contributed to the ending of an MRSA outbreak in a neonatal hospital ward, research to understand the spread of antibiotic resistance in tuberculosis, the evasion of vaccines by whooping cough and other diseases. The bacterial species into which he has led research programmes cause meningitis, septicaemia, plague, cholera, whooping cough, tuberculosis, dystentery, diphtheria, leprosy, food poisoning, STDs, and many other diseases.

Professor Mike Stratton, director of the Wellcome trust Sanger Institute, added: Julian's 17-year career at the Sanger Institute epitomises many of the things we seek to achieve.

He has taken our Institute pathogen sequencing from the first steps of single genomes our work on the genome of the organism that causes

tuberculosis to our studies today in which we can use the tools we have developed to determine when and where outbreaks occur, how

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Cambridge genomics duo in the steps of Pasteur