David Meek PhD

David Meek obtained his PhD from the University of Glasgow in 1983 where he studied the regulation of gluconeogenesis by protein phosphorylation and by the novel metabolic regulator, fructose 2,6-bisphosphate, in Hugh Nimmo’s lab. He subsequently won an MRC Retraining Fellowship in Recombinant DNA Technology which he took up at the Department of Molecular Biology in the University of Edinburgh. Here he studied the regulation of expression of RNA polymerase in E. coli under the direction of Richard Hayward. David then carried out four years of post-doctoral study at the Salk Institute in San Diego, funded by a fellowship from the American Cancer Society. He worked under the direction of Walter Eckhart and pioneered our understanding of the regulation of the p53 tumour suppressor by post-translational modification. David returned to the UK in 1990 having obtained a prestigious MRC Senior Fellowship to work in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at Dundee. Here he developed his research programme as an independent researcher with the enthusiastic support of Prof Sir Philip Cohen and Prof Sir David Lane. During this time David made several key contributions to our understanding of p53 regulation and opened up an area of study that was subsequently to attract intensive international interest and effort. In 1993 he moved to the fledgeling Biomedical Research Centre at Ninewells Hospital where he continued to develop his interest in the p53 pathway and maintain his collaborative association with basic scientists and clinicians. He continued to be supported here by the MRC fellowship which he held until 2001. In 1996 he jointly organised and hosted the 8th International p53 workshop at Dundee, together with David Lane and Peter Hall. This event brought together the leading international pioneers of p53 research at what is now the major international p53 conference series: it also underpinned the collective focus, strength and success of p53 research across Dundee. At the beginning of the new millennium, David pioneered our understanding of the regulation of MDM2, the key regulator of p53, by post-translational modification. This gave rise to an international effort in this area and provided a major focus of his research activities for the next 6-7 years. Together with David Lane, he instituted the first International MDM2 Workshop at Dundee which was to become a major two-yearly international event held at various prestigious centres across the globe. David continues his interest in the p53 network where his efforts have focused on its role in human cancer and its potential for reactivation as a therapeutic strategy to combat cancer.