MRC LMB scientist Kelly Nguyen earns Biochemical Society’s Colworth Medal 2024
A scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge has been awarded the prestigious Colworth Medal for 2024 by the Biochemical Society.
Kelly Nguyen, a group leader in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division, researches the mechanism by which telomeres – the protective nucleoproteins that cap the ends of chromosomes in eukaryotic cells – are maintained.
And her group investigates the molecular basis for how the enzyme telomerase rebuilds telomeres, which are lost during genome replication.
The work has resulted in the first ever atomic model of human telomerase.
This has revealed a hotspot for premature ageing disease mutations and identified a previously unknown histone dimer as novel telomerase subunits.
The medal, awarded annually since 1963, recognises outstanding research by a biochemist within 10 years of receiving their PhD, and the majority of that work must have been carried out in the UK or Ireland.
The winner is invited to present a lecture at a society event and submit an article to a society publication.
Kelly said: “I am very delighted to receive The Colworth Medal from the Biochemical Society. I would like to share the honour with all the past and present laboratory members, mentors, colleagues and collaborators, who have all made essential contributions every step of this journey.
“I would also want to highlight the stimulating and supportive environment at MRC LMB that has greatly shaped my scientific approaches. Being recognised in this way is very encouraging for my laboratory and will motivate us to continue tackling challenging problems and making exciting discoveries.”
Kelly received her Ph B (honours) degree in chemistry from the Australian National University before beginning PhD studies in Kiyoshi Nagai’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies division, where her research focused on understanding the spliceosome, a macromolecular machine involved in the maturation of messenger RNAs for protein synthesis.
She used electron cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to map a large part of the spliceosome, enabling her to identify how the protein and RNA components interact with each other to construct the molecular machine.
She moved in 2016 to the University of California in Berkeley to begin researching telomerase in the groups of Kathleen Collins and Eva Nogales, before starting her own research group at the LMB in 2019.
Her work has previously been recognised with the 2022 Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators, the 2020 Suffrage Science Award curated by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMB), and the 2017 Early Career Research Award from the Biochemical Society.
Among previous winners of the Colworth Medal are LMB group leaders Sarah Teichman, M Madan Babu and Tanmay Bharat and LMB alumni Stephen Wallace and Melina Schuh.
