Philip Cohen (British biochemist) facts for kids

Sir Philip Cohen (born 22 July 1945) is a famous scientist from England. He is a biochemist, which means he studies the chemistry of living things. Sir Philip is especially known for his important discoveries about how tiny changes in proteins help cells work and control many things in our bodies.

Early Life and School

Philip Cohen was born on July 22, 1945. He went to Hendon County Grammar School in North London from 1956 to 1963. After that, he studied Biochemistry at University College London. He graduated in 1966 with top honors.

Discoveries and Career

Sir Philip continued his studies at University College London and earned his PhD in Biochemistry in 1969. His research focused on how certain parts of a protein called Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase work.

After getting his PhD, he received a special scholarship that allowed him to work with Professor Edmond H. Fischer in Seattle, USA, from 1969 to 1971.

Working at the University of Dundee

In 1971, Sir Philip came back to the UK and started working at the University of Dundee in Scotland. He began as a lecturer and slowly moved up the ranks. By 1981, he became a Professor of Enzymology, which is the study of enzymes. Enzymes are special proteins that help speed up chemical reactions in our bodies.

From 1984 to 2010, he was a special research professor at the University of Dundee, appointed by the Royal Society. He also led several important research groups, including the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation Unit. This unit studied how adding or removing tiny phosphate groups to proteins helps control what cells do.

Sir Philip also helped create the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy in 1998. This group studied how cells communicate with each other. He worked there until 2022. Since 2013, he has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School in the USA.

In 2023, Sir Philip and his family started the Tricia Cohen Memorial Trust. This trust helps PhD students in memory of his wife and fellow scientist, Tricia Cohen, who he was married to for over 50 years.

Awards and Special Recognition

Sir Philip Cohen has received many awards for his amazing work.

• In 1982, he became a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.
• In 1984, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Societies of both London and Edinburgh. This is a very high honor for scientists.
• He won several important prizes in the 1990s, including the CIBA Medal, the Prix Van Gysel, and the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine.

Knighted by the Queen

In 1998, Queen Elizabeth II made him a Knight. This means he can use the title "Sir" before his name, and it was for his great "Services to Biochemistry."

He also received other honors, like the Sir Hans Krebs Medal and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2014. From 1992 to 2003, he was recognized as the world's second-most cited scientist in "Biology and Biochemistry." This means his research was used and referred to by many other scientists.

In 2008, he became a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. In 2009, he became a Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology. In 2023, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Scotland's Life Sciences Industry.

Key Discoveries

Sir Philip Cohen has helped us understand a lot about how proteins in our cells work.

• He showed how adding or removing phosphate groups from proteins helps control cell life.
• He helped explain how insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar, sends signals inside cells.
• He also helped classify different types of protein phosphatases, which are enzymes that remove phosphate groups from proteins.
• His research also looked at how protein kinases work. These are enzymes that add phosphate groups to proteins. He developed ways to study how different medicines might affect these kinases.
• Since 2008, his research has focused on how protein changes help our bodies fight off infections.
• Earlier in his career, he also studied how glycogen, a stored form of energy, is made and used in the body.

Here are some examples of his important research papers:

• How a specific enzyme, glycogen synthase kinase-3, works in muscles.
• How insulin affects the way glycogen synthase works in muscles.
• How insulin stops glycogen synthase kinase-3 from working.
• How protein kinase B is activated by insulin.
• Comparing how different protein kinases work.
• Finding a special protein kinase that activates protein kinase B.