PROFESSOR Gopal Sapkota, from the University of Dundee, has been awarded the annual Industry and Academic Collaboration Award from the Biochemical Society.
This award is presented 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”.
Professor Sapkota works in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC PPU) in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee.
Speaking today, Professor Sapkota 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.”
Born and raised in a remote part of Nepal, Professor Sapkota won a British Council Scholarship to study biochemistry at the University of Bath and from there he undertook his PhD research in Dundee.
He then completed his postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and was awarded the Damon Munyon Cancer Research Fellowship to investigate the regulation of TGF signalling pathway.
He then joined the MRC PPU at the University of Dundee as programme leader in November 2008, before being appointed to Professor of Disease Signalling in 2020.
Professor Sapkota has been an integral part of the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy, which is a long-running flagship collaboration between Dundee researchers and leading commerical pharamaceutical companies.
He also has ongoing collaborative drug disovery projects with GSK, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Amgen Inc.
Director of the MRC PPU, Professor Dario Alessi, comment: “This prestigious award is great recognition for the tremendous work Gopal has undertaken to understand disease-relevant signalling pathways and develop unique technologies to help researchers better interrogate biological systems.
“He 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.”
Professor Sapkota is one of 15 bioscientists, educators and early career researchers acknowledged in the annual Biochemical Society Awards.
