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Christopher Dobson elected new Master of St John's College

Professor Christopher Dobson, whose ground-breaking research has enhanced our fundamental understanding of disorders such as Alzheimer's and diabetes, has been elected the new Master of St John's College, Cambridge.

Professor Dobson, who is currently the University's John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology, will succeed Professor Richard Perham as the College's 44th master in October.

Before moving to Cambridge in 2001, he was Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Molecular Sciences at Oxford. He has also worked at Harvard University.

His research over the past 30 years has involved the application of strategies and techniques in the physical sciences to address problems in the biological and medical sciences. In particular he has studied how the molecular components of living systems are able to self-assemble to generate biological activity.

Much of his work in this field has been on proteins. Recently, he has focused on the failure of proteins to fold properly, or to remain in their correctly folded states under normal physiological conditions. Such cases of "misfolding" are increasingly recognised as a common feature underlying disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and adult-onset diabetes.

This research has led to the development of a new "generic" theory for the origin of such diseases which attributes them to failures of the biological mechanisms that normally ensure our proteins are correctly folded. These failures can be the consequences of genetic mutations in familial diseases, or more generally of increased risk factors, particularly those associated with old age or obesity. Such findings have not only improved our understanding of these increasingly common disorders, but also are leading to new strategies for their prevention and treatment.

Chris Dobson has been elected to Fellowships of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Recognition of the importance of his research work has also come through numerous awards including the Davy Medal of the Royal Society, the Stein and Moore Award of the Protein Society and honorary degrees in both science and medicine.

Professor Dobson said: "I am deeply honoured to have been elected to serve as the next Master of St John's. I am very much looking forward to working with the Fellows, staff and students of the College, and indeed Johnians all over the world, particularly as we approach the 500th Anniversary of our Foundation in 2011."