Anne Dell (born 11 September 1950) is an Australian

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

specialising in the study of

glycomics Glycomics is the comprehensive study of glycomes (the entire complement of sugars, whether free or present in more complex molecules of an organism), including genetic, physiologic, pathologic, and other aspects. Glycomics "is the systematic study ...

and the

carbohydrate A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...

structures that modify

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

s. Anne's work could be used to figure out how pathogens such as

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

are able to evade termination by the immune system which could be applied toward understanding how this occurs in fetuses. Her research has also led to the development of higher sensitivity

mass spectroscopy Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used ...

techniques which have allowed for the better studying of the structure of

s. Anne also established GlycoTRIC at Imperial College London, a research center that allows for glycobiology to be better understood in biomedical applications. She is currently Professor of Carbohydrate Biochemistry and Head of the Department of Life Sciences at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. Dell's other contributions to the study of Glycobiology are the additions she has made to the textbook "Essentials of Glycobiology" Dell was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

Early life

Anne Dell was the youngest of seven children and grew up on a farm in the

Australian outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass ...

, where she was educated at home by her mother using Correspondence School lessons until the age of eleven. She earned a First Class Honors degree in

Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

from the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, and came to the UK to carry out her PhD at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, before joining Imperial College where she is currently employed. She also has a daughter, who was born in 1984.

Education and research

After gaining a First Class Honors degree (equivalent to B.S) in Organic Chemistry from the

, Dell was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship to study for a PhD at the

. After she was awarded her PhD in 1975 her doctoral supervisor, Howard R. Morris, moved to

as a lecturer in biochemistry and brought Dell with him. She would remain at Imperial for the rest of her career. Anne was elected to the Fellowship of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 2002 and was appointed a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in recognition of her services to science in 2009. Other honors include election to Fellowship of the

Academy of Medical Sciences The Academy of Medical Sciences is an organisation established in the UK in 1998. It is one of the four UK National Academy, National Academies, the others being the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. Its ...

and Membership of the European Academy of Science. She has Honorary Doctorates from the

and the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

in Canada. In 2017 Dell and her colleagues determined in their experiment that O-linked

glycosylation Glycosylation is the reaction in which a carbohydrate (or ' glycan'), i.e. a glycosyl donor, is attached to a hydroxyl or other functional group of another molecule (a glycosyl acceptor) in order to form a glycoconjugate. In biology (but not ...

is not necessary for the natural replication cycle of HIV. They also determined that the diversity of the many GalNAc transferase enzymes that initiate O-linked carbohydrate attachment and the theoretical possibility that natural target cells for HIV ''in vivo'' could potentially complete such O-linked carbohydrate attachment to increase infectivity further. Dell's other contributions to the study of

Glycobiology Defined in the narrowest sense, glycobiology is the study of the structure, biosynthesis, and biology of saccharides (sugar chains or glycans) that are widely distributed in nature. Sugars or saccharides are essential components of all living thin ...

are the additions she has made to chapter 50 of the textbook "Essentials of Glycobiology" this chapter gave methods for the characterization of

glycan The terms glycans and polysaccharides are defined by IUPAC as synonyms meaning "compounds consisting of a large number of monosaccharides linked glycosidically". However, in practice the term glycan may also be used to refer to the carbohydrate ...

structure, including residue composition, linkage types, and attachment to

aglycone An aglycone (aglycon or genin) is the chemical compound remaining after the glycosyl group on a glycoside is replaced by a hydrogen atom. For example, the aglycone of a cardiac glycoside would be a steroid A steroid is an organic compoun ...

s. It covered methods for detection of specific glycan sequences on

glycoprotein Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide (sugar) chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known a ...

s and it covers methods for characterizing structures in three dimensions. The methods varied widely and included nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques that allow more detailed structures to be observed in the study of

Honors and awards

* Tate and Lyle Medal,

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

(1986) * Whistler Award, International Carbohydrate Organisation (2000) * FRS (2002) * Haworth Memorial Lectureship,

(2003) * International

Glycoconjugate In molecular biology and biochemistry, glycoconjugates are the classification family for carbohydrates – referred to as glycans – which are covalently linked with chemical species such as proteins, peptides, lipids, and other compounds. Glyc ...

Organization Award (2005) *

Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) is an award for medical scientists who are judged by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences for the "excellence of their science, their contribution to medicine and society and the range of the ...

(2008) *

(2009)

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Dell's profile
on the Royal Society website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dell, Anne Female fellows of the Royal Society Living people 1950 births Place of birth missing (living people) Australian biochemists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British women scientists Women biochemists Australian women chemists Academics of Imperial College London Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) University of Western Australia alumni