Welcome to Whitley Chair and Fellow in Biochemistry Professor Dame Amanda Fisher

Trinity College is delighted to welcome Professor Dame Amanda Fisher as Professorial Fellow in Biochemistry. Professor Fisher is also the new Whitley Professor in the Oxford University Department of Biochemistry, and the first woman to hold the post. 

Professor Fisher joins the University from Imperial College London, where she led the Institute of Clinical Sciences and was Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) at the Hammersmith Hospital campus for more than 10 years. She is a cell and molecular biologist with a long-standing interest in understanding the establishment and maintenance of cell fate. As a post-doc at the NIH she obtained the first biologically active isolates of HIV early on in the AIDS pandemic. She returned to the UK to start her own laboratory at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, the forerunner of the LMS, focusing initially on lymphocyte development, and subsequently broadening out to other classical cell fate models, including embryonic stem cells.  Her more recent research investigates the transmission of epigenetic information through mitosis and the effect of the maternal environment on epigenetic gene regulation.  

In addition to her major research contributions Professor Fisher has pioneered highly impactful schemes to support the careers of scientists and to promote public understanding of science, including the Suffrage Science Award, celebrating and inspiring the careers of women in science.

 

In recognition of her many achievements, she was elected a member of EMBO (the European Molecular Biology Organisation) in 2001 and awarded the EMBO Gold Medal in 2002. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2003, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014. She was appointed a DBE (Dame) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to medical research and the public understanding of science.

 

The Whitley Professorship was established in 1920 and was the first statutory chair in the field of Biochemistry. Since its inception the post has been held by distinguished colleagues including Sir Hans Krebs, Rodney Porter, Sir Edwin Southern and most recently Kim Nasmyth.