Julian Charles Rayner is a New Zealand-British

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

researcher and academic. He is a Professor of Cell Biology and the Director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR), part of 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 ...

School of Clinical Medicine. He is also Director of Wellcome Connecting Science. He was previously a member of academic Faculty at the

Wellcome Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit organisation, non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is l ...

. Julian Rayner became Director of CIMR in 2019.

Education

Rayner was born in New Zealand, and completed his undergraduate studies at Lincoln University, before undertaking his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

. His doctoral research investigated the sorting of

membrane protein Membrane proteins are common proteins that are part of, or interact with, biological membranes. Membrane proteins fall into several broad categories depending on their location. Integral membrane proteins are a permanent part of a cell membrane ...

s in the yeast secretory pathway while based at the Medical Research Council (MRC)

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

(LMB) in Cambridge.

Career and research

Rayner's faculty position was at the University of Alabama Birmingham, where he was an Assistant Professor between 2002 and 2008. Rayner joined the Sanger Institute in 2008, and became a Senior Group Leader in 2013. In 2014 he was appointed as the Director of Connecting Science for the Wellcome Genome Campus. In 2019, he joined the University of Cambridge, as the Director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. He was also elected to the Chair of Cell Biology in the School of Clinical Medicine. Rayner's research interests encompass the origins of ''

Plasmodium ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a Hematophagy, blood-feeding insect host (biology), host which then inj ...

'' parasites, and how their invasion of red blood cells cause all the symptoms of malaria. Working with collaborators such as Beatrice Hahn, he has demonstrated that ''

Plasmodium falciparum ''Plasmodium falciparum'' is a Unicellular organism, unicellular protozoan parasite of humans and is the deadliest species of ''Plasmodium'' that causes malaria in humans. The parasite is transmitted through the bite of a female ''Anopheles'' mos ...

'' is likely to have originated in gorillas, rather than chimpanzees or ancient humans. Together with colleagues at the Sanger Institute, Rayner has identified a key ligand which is essential for erythrocyte invasion by ''P. falciparum'' and therefore has significant anti-malarial potential.

Public engagement

In March 2011, Rayner took part in the Argon Zone of the science engagement activity '' I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here!'', where he won £500 to put towards a science communication project. Rayner used the prize money to create

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

versions of the interactive game Malaria Challenge and distributed copies freely to schools in the UK.

Honours and awards

In 2015, he was awarded CA Wright Memorial medal by the

British Society for Parasitology The British Society for Parasitology is a UK-based organisation of British parasitologists. It was founded in April 1962 from the Parasitological Section of the Institute of Biology. The initial goals of the society were to hold two meetings yearly ...

. In 2022, Rayner was elected as a Fellow of EMBO, the

European Molecular Biology Organization 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 ...

. In 2023, Rayner was elected to the 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 ...

in the UK.

References

Living people 21st-century British biologists New Zealand biologists Year of birth missing (living people) Lincoln University (New Zealand) alumni {{UK-biologist-stub New Zealand parasitologists Biologists at the University of Cambridge British parasitologists New Zealand emigrants to England Alumni of the University of Cambridge