Prof. Adrian Bird Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK

Following his PhD at Edinburgh University in 1970, Dr. Bird undertook postdoctoral research at the Universities of Yale and Zurich. In 1975 he returned to the MRC Mammalian Genome Unit in Edinburgh, where his research focused on DNA methylation and the existence of CpG islands as markers for mammalian genes.... read moreFollowing 3 years at the Institute for Molecular Pathology in Vienna, he moved back to Edinburgh as Buchanan Professor of Genetics in 1990. During this period he established a mechanistic connection between DNA methylation and chromatin via methyl-CpG binding proteins. His laboratory discovered the first such protein, MeCP2, and generated a mouse model for Rett Syndrome. Since 1995 Dr. Bird has been Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology.