Michael Berridge

Sir Michael John Berridge, FRS FMedSci (born 22 October 1938) is a Rhodesian-born British physiologist and biochemist. He is best known for his work on cellular transmembrane signalling, in particular the discovery that inositol trisphosphate acts as a second messenger, linking events at the plasma membrane with the release of Ca²⁺ within the cell.^[1]

As of 2009, he is the Emeritus Babraham Fellow in the Signalling Programme Department of the Babraham Institute, Cambridge, and honorary professor of cell signalling at the University of Cambridge.^[2]

Education and career

Born in Gatooma in Southern Rhodesia, Berridge gained a BSc in zoology and chemistry at the University of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Salisbury (1960), where his interest in insect physiology was stimulated by Eina Bursell. He came to the UK to study with insect physiologist Sir Vincent Wigglesworth at the Department of Zoology of the University of Cambridge, gaining his PhD on the topic of nitrogen excretion in the African cotton stainer (Dysdercus fasciatus) in 1965.^[1][2] Berridge moved to the USA for his early postdoctoral positions, which were in the Department of Biology of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, with Dietrich Bodenstein (1965–6); in the Developmental Biology Center of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, with Michael Locke (1966–7); and in the Department of Biology of Case Western Reserve University with Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen (1967–9).^[1][2]

He returned to Cambridge in 1969 to become senior and later principal scientific officer of the Agricultural and Food Research Council Unit of Invertebrate Chemistry and Physiology at the Department of Zoology of the University of Cambridge. He served as senior principal scientific officer of the Unit of Insect Neurophysiology and Pharmacology from 1978 until 1990.^[1] He then joined the Laboratory of Molecular Signalling of the Babraham Institute as deputy chief scientist, becoming head of that laboratory in 1994, a position he held until his retirement in 2004, when he was appointed the first Emeritus Babraham Fellow.^[1] In 1994, he was appointed honorary professor of cell signalling at the University of Cambridge.^[1] He is a fellow of Trinity College.^[3]

Awards and honours

Berridge was awarded the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1989^[4] and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1991.^[5] He received the Wolf Prize in Medicine of 1994/5, jointly with Yasutomi Nishizuka,^[6] and the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine in 2005.^[7] His many other awards include the Feldberg Prize (1984), King Faisal International Prize for Science (1986), Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1986),^[8] Gairdner Foundation International Award (1988),^[9] Ciba–Geigy/Drew Award in biomedical research (1991), Dr H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics (1994)^[10] and the Ernst Schering Prize (1999).^[1] He was knighted for services to science in the New Year's Honours List of 1997.^[1]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984^[11] and became one of the founding members of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998.^[12] In 1999, he was elected a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences^[13] and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[14] He is a member of Academia Europaea and the European Molecular Biology Organization.^[1] He is also an honorary fellow of the Society of Biology, Biochemical Society,^[15] Society for Experimental Biology, Japanese Biochemical Society and the American Physiological Society.^[1]

Key papers

Reviews

• Berridge MJ. (1984) Inositol trisphosphate and diacylglycerol as second messengers. Biochemical Journal 220: 345–360 (pdf)
• Berridge MJ, Irvine RF. (1984) Inositol trisphosphate, a novel second messenger in cellular signal transduction. Nature 312: 315–321 (abstract)

Research papers

• Berridge MJ. (1983) Rapid accumulation of inositol trisphosphate reveals that agonists hydrolyse polyphosphoinositides instead of phosphatidylinositol. Biochemical Journal 212: 849–858 (abstract) (pdf)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Lagnado J. New honorary members for the Biochemical Society. The Biochemist (December 2004) (accessed 7 January 2009)
2. ^ ^{a b c} Babraham Institute: Michael Berridge - Emeritus Babraham Fellow (accessed 6 January 2009)
3. ^ Trinity College, Cambridge: The Fellowship (accessed 7 January 2009)
4. ^ Lasker Foundation: Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award: 1989 winners (accessed 7 January 2009)
5. ^ Royal Society: Medals: Royal recent winners (accessed 7 January 2009)
6. ^ Wolf Foundation: The 1994/5 Wolf Foundation Prize in Medicine(accessed 7 January 2009)
7. ^ The Shaw Prize: Announcement & Citation: The Shaw Laureate in Life Science and Medicine 2005 (accessed 7 January 2009)
8. ^ Fondation Louis-Jeantet: The winners of the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (accessed 7 January 2009)
9. ^ The Gairdner Foundation: International Awardees: 1997 - 1988 (accessed 7 January 2009)
10. ^ Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences: Science Awards: Laureates (accessed 7 January 2009)
11. ^ Royal Society: Fellows of the Royal Society (accessed 7 January 2009)
12. ^ Academy of Medical Sciences: Fellows: Sir Michael Berridge (accessed 6 January 2009)
13. ^ National Academy of Sciences: Berridge, Michael J. (accessed 7 January 2009)
14. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 
15. ^ Biochemical Society: Honorary Fellows (accessed 7 January 2009)

External links

• Babraham Institute: Michael Berridge - Emeritus Babraham Fellow
• Berridge, Michael J. at ISIHighlyCited.com

Persondata
Name	Berridge, Michael John
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Date of birth	22 October 1938
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