Ronald Alfred Laskey FLSW (born 26 January 1945) is a British cell biologist and

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

researcher.

Career and research

Laskey was the Charles Darwin Professor of Embryology 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 ...

. In 1991, he co-founded the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

/Cancer Research Campaign Institute (now known as the Wellcome Trust/

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

Gurdon Institute), along with five other senior scientists including Professor Sir John Gurdon. In 2001, he founded the Medical Research Council Cancer Cell Unit in 2001, and was Director of the Unit until 2010. Laskey is also a Fellow of

Darwin College, Cambridge Darwin College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded on 28 July 1964, Darwin was Cambridge University's first graduate-only college, and also the first to admit both men and wo ...

Awards and honours

Laskey was appointed

Commander 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

2011 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2011 were announced on 31 December 2010 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: New Zealand,New Zealand"New Year Honours 2011"(14 January 2011) 2 '' New Zealand Gazette'' 55. The Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands: Grenada,Grenada: ...

. Other significant honours include 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 ...

Royal Medal, for his "pivotal contributions to our understanding of the control of DNA replication and nuclear protein transport, which has led to a novel screening method for cancer diagnosis", and the

Lifetime Achievement Prize. * 1984: Elected Fellow of the

. * 1998:

Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine Established in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prizes are funded by the Louis-Jeantet Foundation, ''Fondation Louis-Jeantet'' and awarded each year to experienced researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of biomedical research in one ...

. * 2000: ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First broadcast on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorrow's World' ...

'' award for health innovation. * 2001:

Croonian Lecture The Croonian Medal and Lecture is a prestigious award, a medal, and lecture given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians. Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow a singl ...

. * 2009: Royal Society Royal Medal. * 2011: Received an

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 the

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

list for services to Science. * 2013: Elected

Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the Welsh nation. The Learned ...

. * 2014:

Lifetime Achievement In Cancer Research Prize

Personal life

Laskey married Margaret Ann Page in 1971. Laskey is an author, composer and singer of (mostly) science-based humorous songs, in the tradition of

Tom Lehrer Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy and humorous, often Music and politics, political songs that ...

. Various combinations of these songs were published by the Cold Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press in three records: "Songs for Cynical Scientists" (audio cassette), ''More Songs for Cynical Scientists'' and ''Selected Songs for Cynical Scientists'' (CDs). Only the last-mentioned record is still available.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laskey, Ronald Alfred 1945 births Living people People educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford Royal Medal winners Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) 20th-century British biologists 21st-century British biologists British cancer researchers Fellows of Darwin College, Cambridge Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales