Phillip Thomas Hawkins
Phillip Thomas Hawkins FRS is a molecular biologist, senior group leader at the Babraham Institute.
Phill Hawkins has contributed much to the understanding of inositol lipids functions in eukaryotic cells. Together with his long-time collaborator Leonard R Stephens, he established that PtdInsP2 is the main substrate of receptor-controlled Type 1 phosphoinositide 3-kinases, thus identifying PtdInsP3 as the key output signal produced by this enzyme.
They identified and isolated the GPCR-activated Type 1B PI3K and, in a sustained body of work, defined its structure, explained its complex pattern of regulation by GβΥ and Ras, and proved its role in inflammatory events in vivo. They - in parallel with Dario Alessi - identified phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 as the PtdInsP3-activated link between PI3K-1 activation and protein kinase B activation, a key pathway through which PtdInsP3 formation regulates cell proliferation and survival.Life
Phill Hawkins received a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham. After a post-doctoral training in S.K. & F. Research Ltd, he joined the Molecular Neurobiology unit of the MRC in Cambridge. He joined the AFRC IAPGR in 1990 and became a group leader in 2003.Phill Hawkins has received several awards, including:
