The Sir David Cooksey Prize in Translation has this year been jointly awarded to Jean Langhorne and Robert Wilkinson, for their work developing the Crick Africa Network, and Mohammed (Soly) Ismail for the development of a high throughput system which could revolutionise drug screening. 

The Sir David Cooksey Prize in Translation highlights the contributions of Crick scientists who are driving innovation, improving healthcare and inspiring a new generation of translational researchers. It is named in honour of the late Sir David Cooksey who was a key figure in UK medical research and former Chair of the Crick’s Board of Trustees. 

Supporting impactful discoveries by prioritising African scientists working in Africa 

Jean Langhorne, Director of the Crick Africa Network and Robert Wilkinson, Principal Group Leader of the Tuberculosis Laboratory, established the Crick Africa Network (CAN) in 2017 with funding from UKRI. The network is a partnership between the Crick and institutions in The Gambia, Ghana, South Africa and Uganda, with the aim to shift the potential for impactful discoveries in favour of African scientists working in Africa. 

The first CAN cohort supported 18 Fellows through a two-year training programme at one of the network’s five African partner institutions and the Crick.

CAN has now secured funding from LifeArc to support eight new four-year African Career Acceleration Fellowships in areas like HIV therapeutics, tuberculosis, sleeping sickness, vaccine efficacy and medical microbiology. 

The new funding also supports five one-year technology development fellowships to support partner institutes to build up specialised technical teams similar to the Crick’s Science and Technology Platforms. 

Since the network began, translation has been at the core, with significant advancements including identifying new drug targets for malaria, developing new anti-retroviral strategies and founding Yemaachi Biotech, a biomarker discovery spinout based in Ghana. 

I’m really thrilled that we have been awarded the Sir David Cooksey prize for the Crick Africa network. CAN is a truly inspiring programme. This equitable partnership with five African institutions has been great experience for me. Our outstanding CAN fellows and LifeArc-CAN fellows are really the ones who have made the programme so successful. Jean Langhorne

The structure of Crick Africa Fellowships was conceived, and remains, distinct from some mechanisms in being Southern-led and Northern-facilitated. Thus the ideas, design and execution of projects are African investigator-led with the Crick acting as a facilitator. In this way, sustainable career development and capacity is fostered in the home institution. Whilst it is clearly gratifying to be acknowledged by the Sir David Cooksey prize in translational medicine, I think it is important to note emphasis, like the Crick’s, was on discovery: in this case without borders. Several of the first cohort have made notable and important discoveries and been awarded additional funding. The facilitating response, particularly of colleagues in our Science Technology Platforms, deserves special acknowledgement. Like Jean, I am proud to have been associated with this concept and I think the broader Crick can also take pride in a distinct and forward thinking contribution to equality, diversity and inclusion in Science globally. Robert Wilkinson

Scaling up tests to detect interactions between proteins for drug discovery 

Soly Ismail, a postdoctoral fellow in the Oncogene Biology Laboratory, worked with Promega and AstraZeneca to increase the potential of a platform to detect complex protein interactions.

The NanoBiT Biochemical Assay was created to investigate protein-protein interactions in live mammalian cells, and Soly further developed the assay so it only needed to use parts of a cell rather than live cells themselves, allowing it to be scaled up to undertake many tests at once. 

These protein-protein interactions are often difficult to visualise but could be potential new drug targets. Soly used the assay to detect and block weak interactions between a cancer-causing protein called RAS and an enzyme called PI3K. 

Now that the platform has been validated, Soly is working to fully industrially scale it with AstraZeneca, ultimately screening over 700,000 molecules to identify what protein-protein interactions they target. This could be transformative for identifying new drugs for cancer and beyond. 

I am deeply honoured to receive the Sir David Cooksey Prize in Translation 2024, and extend my thanks to the Crick Translation Committee for this recognition. This award belongs to the entire team: Julian Downward’s lab, the Crick Translation Team, Crick STPs, AstraZeneca and Promega, whose collaboration and dedication were essential at every stage of the project. Thank you all for an exciting journey and for making me a part of this remarkable team effort. Soly Ismail

Early Career Translation Fellows

Early Career Translation Fellow positions were awarded to Jessica Corry, a key member of the Crick Science Entrepreneurial Network (CSEN), and Oscar Wilkins, Max Chien and Lea Knez, in recognition of their development of a technology to precisely express gene therapies in neurodegenerative disease. 

The panel also wanted to recognise the achievements of CSEN, which is dedicated to promotion entrepreneurship within the Crick community through holding events such as the Crick Innovation Challenge. 

Article orginally on CrickNet - writen by Clare Green