2012 – Prof Sir Mark Pepys

Prof Sir Mark Pepys Kt MA MD PhD FRCP FRCPath FRS FMedSci

Prof Sir Mark Pepys headed the Division of Medicine at the Royal Free Campus of University College London from 1999-2011.  After studying at Trinity College Cambridge, UCHMS, Harvard and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, he was elected Fellow of Trinity (1973) and then directed the RPMS Immunological Medicine Unit from 1977-1999.  In 1999 he established the UK NHS National Amyloidosis Centre and in 2011 founded the UCL Wolfson Drug Discovery Unit.

His work on blood proteins has had far reaching scientific and clinical impacts, identifying novel therapeutic targets and designing drugs with potential applications in amyloidosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.  Two projects are currently in development with GlaxoSmithKline, another is supported by the first MRC Developmental Clinical Studies award.

Recognition includes the Royal College of Physicians Goulstonian (1982) and Lumleian (1998) Lectureships, the Moxon Trust Medal for Clinical Research (1999), and Harveian Oratorship (2007); Royal College of Surgeons Sims Professorship (1991) and Royal College of Pathologists Kohn Lecturership (1991).  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and was lately a Council member of both academies.  He received the Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Prize for biomedicine in 2007 and the Ernst Chain Prize for medical discovery in 2008.  He has won £12 million of new research funding from the UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust since 2007.

In 2008 he raised £6.5 million to renovate the extended Royal Free Division of Medicine, opened in 2011 by HRH The Princess Royal.  He was made Knight Bachelor for services to biomedicine in the 2012 New Year Honours.