Reginald John Ellis (born 12 February 1935) is a British scientist.

Early life and education

Ellis was educated at Highbury Grammar School, London. He studied at

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

and obtained a BSc degree in 1956 and PhD in 1960, for thesis research on the enzymology of

transamination Transamination is a chemical reaction that transfers an amino group to a ketoacid to form new amino acids.This pathway is responsible for the deamination of most amino acids. This is one of the major degradation pathways which convert essential a ...

. He was supervised by Professor D. D. Davies.

Career

Ellis became scientific officer in the ARC (Agriculture Research Council) Unit of Plant Physiology,

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, 1959–61 and an ARC Research Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, 1961–64, working on the regulation of bacterial sulphate reduction with Professor C. A. Pasternak. In 1964, Ellis joined the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

as a lecturer in the Department of Botany, and moved to its Department of Biochemistry in 1968, following a visiting professorship in the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

in 1967. In 1970, Ellis moved to the newly created Department of Biological Sciences,

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

, as senior lecturer and founding head of the

Chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle, organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant cell, plant and algae, algal cells. Chloroplasts have a high concentration of chlorophyll pigments which captur ...

Research Group. Ellis has remained at Warwick University as reader (1973), holder of a personal chair (1976), and emeritus professor (1996). He was a visiting professor at the Department of Chemistry,

from 1996 until 2000. From 1990 until 2009, he organised annual meetings of the UK Molecular Chaperone Club at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Bristol, Birmingham and Warwick. Ellis is the author of ''How Science Works: Evolution''.

Principal research achievements

* 1973: First identification of a product of

protein synthesis Protein biosynthesis, or protein synthesis, is a core biological process, occurring inside cells, balancing the loss of cellular proteins (via degradation or export) through the production of new proteins. Proteins perform a number of critica ...

by chloroplast

ribosomes Ribosomes () are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (messenger RNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA molecules to fo ...

. * 1978: First demonstration of in vitro post-translational protein transport. * 1980: First demonstration of the binding of a chaperone to a newly synthesised

polypeptide Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty ...

. * 1987: Formulation of the general concept of

molecular chaperone In molecular biology, molecular chaperones are proteins that assist the conformational folding or unfolding of large proteins or macromolecular protein complexes. There are a number of classes of molecular chaperones, all of which function to assi ...

function. * 1988: Discovery of the

chaperonin HSP60, also known as chaperonins (Cpn), is a family of heat shock proteins originally sorted by their 60kDa molecular mass. They prevent misfolding of proteins during stressful situations such as high heat, by assisting protein folding. HSP60 b ...

s. * 2000: First demonstration that

macromolecular crowding The phenomenon of macromolecular crowding alters the properties of molecules in a solution when high concentrations of macromolecules such as proteins are present. Such conditions occur routinely in living cells; for instance, the cytosol of ''Es ...

affects

protein folding Protein folding is the physical process by which a protein, after Protein biosynthesis, synthesis by a ribosome as a linear chain of Amino acid, amino acids, changes from an unstable random coil into a more ordered protein tertiary structure, t ...

and aggregation.

Awards

* 1980:

Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle Public Limited Company is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage products to food and industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s, it began to diversify, eventually dive ...

Award for contributions to plant biochemistry. * 1983: Elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

of London for contributions to chloroplast

biogenesis Spontaneous generation is a Superseded scientific theories, superseded scientific theory that held that living creatures could arise from abiotic component, non-living matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular. It was Hypoth ...

. * 1983: Five-year Senior Research Fellowship of the

Science and Engineering Research Council The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and its predecessor the Science Research Council (SRC) were the UK agencies in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities, including astronomy, biotechnology and bi ...

to work on chaperone-assisted protein assembly. * 1986: Elected Member of EMBO, the

European Molecular Biology Organisation The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

. * 1992: Senior Research Fellowship at St John's College, University of Oxford. * 1997: Appointed Academic Visitor for four years at

to work on protein folding with Professor Chris M. Dobson FRS in the Department of Chemistry. * 2004:

Gairdner Foundation International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a ...

for "fundamental discoveries in chaperone-assisted protein folding in the cell and its relevance to

neurodegeneration A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Neuronal damage may also ultimately result in their cell death, death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sc ...

". * 2007: Cell Stress Society International Medal for "pioneering research on the

s". * 2011: Croonian Prize Lecture of the Royal Society for "pioneering contributions to biochemistry, molecular biology, and also plant sciences". * 2018: The 2019 Centenary Award of the

Biochemical Society The Biochemical Society is a learned society in the United Kingdom in the field of biochemistry, including all the cellular and molecular biosciences. It was founded in 1911 and acquired the existing '' Biochemical Journal'' the following year. T ...

References

External links

Web page
at School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick. * R. John Ellis. ''How Science Works: Evolution'
Essay
* Lectures on how science works in the context of evolutio
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, R. John 1935 births Academics of the University of Warwick Alumni of King's College London British biochemists Fellows of the Royal Society Living people