10 Facts About Julian Downward

Julian Downward was formerly head of the Signal transduction Laboratory at the London Research Institute.

Julian Downward is a member of the Editorial Board for Cell.

Julian Downward's PhD was supervised by Michael Waterfield at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund where he investigated Epidermal growth factor receptor, establishing in 1984 the close similarity between this cellular growth regulatory protein and the avian retroviral oncogene, v-erbB.

Julian Downward's work provided the first demonstration that Guanosine triphosphate-loading on Ras, which is commonly mutationally activated in human tumours, is normally regulated in response to extracellular factors; he went on to characterise growth factor receptor complexes mediating Ras nucleotide exchange, and to demonstrate that GTP-bound Ras binds to and activates the RAF kinase, which controls the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway.

Julian Downward was first to demonstrate that phosphoinositide 3-kinase is a Ras effector, important in regulation of apoptosis.

Julian Downward showed that transformation by Ras requires interaction with multiple effectors, which contribute differentially to cell cycle progression, cytoskeletal regulation and apoptosis.

Julian Downward was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005.

Julian Downward was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2009 and was a member of the Faculty of 1000 from 2001 to 2005.

Julian Downward is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation and an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Julian Downward is the son of Major General Sir Peter Aldcroft Julian Downward.