Prof. Dario Alessi University of Dundee, UK

Dario Alessi was born in France, attended high school in Brussels and obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK in 1988. He received a Ph.D. in 1991 for work on the synthesis and use of spin-labelled ATP analogues to study muscle contraction under the joint supervision... read moreof Ian Trayer (University of Birmingham) and David Trentham FRS (National Institute of Medical Research, Mill Hill, London). He then carried out postdoctoral research with Sir Philip Cohen FRS in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at Dundee from 1991 to 1997, where he became fascinated by protein kinases and how they are regulated by insulin, growth factors and other extracellular signals that control almost all aspects of cell biology. In 1998 Dario became a Programme Leader in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, where he has worked ever since. A key focus of his current research is to understand the regulation and physiological roles of key protein kinases that implicated in human disease and to exploit findings emerging from these studies to develop novel treatments for disease.