Imperial College professor honored with Helmholtz International Fellow Award

The British cell biologist Professor Amanda Gay Fisher of Imperial College London (ICL) has been honored with the Helmholtz International Fellow Award for her excellent research. Fisher is one of seven outstanding researchers from abroad who received the award, each of which is endowed with 20,000 euros. According to the Helmholtz Association, Germany's largest scientific organization, the award also includes an invitation to visit one or several Helmholtz research centers. Professor Fisher wishes in particular to strengthen her existing collaborations with the Berlin Institute of Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch.

In her research, Professor Fisher focuses on gene regulation, a fundamental process of life which controls every biological function, including cell division, cell differentiation and regeneration. Professor Fisher, who started her research career in the 1980s, has earned an international reputation in this field. She is known for her pioneering work on HIV, the AIDS virus, describing the function of several of its genes. She also is an expert in epigenetic gene regulation - a process in which molecular biological information not contained in the DNA regulates which genes are turned on and which genes are kept silent. She also has an expertise in T lymphocyte development (immune cells) and in embryonic stem cells.

Professor Fisher is director of the MRC (Medical Research Council) Clinical Sciences Centre (CSC), which forms part of the Institute for Clinical Sciences (ICS) at Imperial College London. In addition, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), which was founded by the MDC and the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin in 2013. All these institutions have a strong interest in "bench-to-bedside" research employing translational and systems biological approaches.

In 2014 Professor Fisher was elected Fellow of the Royal Society for her outstanding achievements in biomedical research. In 2010 she received the Women of Outstanding Achievement in SET (Science, Engineering & Technology) Award, and in 2003 she became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in Britain. In 2002 she was honored with the EMBO Gold Medal for her AIDS research.

Since 2012 a total of 43 Fellows including the seven scientists of this selection round have received the Helmholtz International Fellow Award.