Dr Chris Proud

Personal Biography

Dr Chris Proud obtained his BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol (UK), where he developed a strong interest in cell signaling and the mechanisms that control cell functions. To pursue these interests further, he carried out his PhD studies in the laboratory of Professor Sir Philip Cohen, FRS, at the University of Dundee (UK), where he studied the control of glycogen synthase by phosphorylation. Glycogen synthase, the rate-controlling enzyme of glycogen storage in mammals, was one of the first examples of a protein that is controlled by phosphorylation at multiple sites.

As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sussex (UK), Dr Proud's research turned towards understanding how protein synthesis is controlled in mammalian cells. This has remained the major theme of his research for more than 20 years. This has involved studies on the function and control of a number of mRNA translation factors and in particular, their regulation by phosphorylation. This has taken him into investigations of the upstream signaling pathways and protein kinases that regulate these protein factors, and their control by hormones and growth factors, as well as by nutrients and by cellular energy status. One of the major signaling pathways that controls the translational machinery involves the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which is the subject of this review issue of Oncogene. Dr Proud has made contributions to understanding how mTOR regulates the initiation and elongation stages of mRNA translation, and to the upstream control of mTOR by amino acids and extracellular stimuli.

After 10 years at the University of Bristol, Dr Proud moved first to the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK) and then, as Professor of Biochemical Physiology, to the University of Dundee (UK) where he subsequently became Head of the Division of Molecular Physiology within the School of Life Sciences. In 2005, he moved to the University of British Columbia (in Vancouver, Canada) to become Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He and his team continue to study the signaling mechanisms that regulate protein synthesis. They have a strong interest in the links between the dysregulation of protein synthesis and human diseases such as cardiac hypertrophy, cancer, inflammatory diseases and neurodegeneration.