Shropshire Star

British antibody pioneer reveals chemistry Nobel Prize ‘shock’

Professor Sir Gregory Winter’s work paved the way for a new generation of ‘smart’ medicines.

Published
Professor Sir Gregory Winter, who has won a share of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry

A British scientist whose work led to a new generation of advanced antibody drugs has told of his “shock” at hearing he had won a Nobel Prize.

Professor Sir Gregory Winter said he got the call “out of the blue” while feeling somewhat worse for wear after a celebration at his Cambridge University college.

Sir Gregory was awarded a quarter share of the coveted Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of his work harnessing viruses to make precision medicines.

He said: “When I got the call I was recovering from a college feast. I’d had an aspirin; I’d had a coffee.

“It came as a bit of a shock. I felt numb for a while, wondering if this was real. It’s like you’re in a different universe.”

He insisted: “I had absolutely no inkling that this was going to happen.”

Sir Gregory, who is Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, said at the time of the call he was sitting at his computer “looking balefully” at his work schedule for the day.

The surprise caller told him to expect a “very important announcement” before hanging up. Soon afterwards, the phone rang again and Sir Gregory learned he was a Nobel Laureate.

“This operator had a Swedish accent,” Sir Gregory recalled. “It reminded me of my bank ringing up and telling me I had some dodgy transaction on my account … I was feeling a bit rocky.”

But he said he intended to keep partying. Asked how he planned to spend his quarter share of the nine million Swedish krona (£770,000) prize, he said: “I shall start this afternoon by paying for a party at my laboratory.”

He had already been given a bill of more than £2,000 for champagne.

In the 1990s, Sir Gregory developed a new way of producing antibody proteins using a technique called “phage display” that makes use of genetically engineered viruses.

Today, so-called “monoclonal” antibodies are found in many of the most advanced targeted drugs. They are used in a host of ways to neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and tackle spreading cancer.

Sir Gregory’s American co-laureates are Professor Frances Arnold, from the California Institute of Technology, and Professor George Smith, from the University of Missouri.

Prof Arnold, who picks up half the award, conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes – proteins that catalyse chemical reactions.

US biochemical engineer Frances Arnold
US biochemical engineer Frances Arnold (Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva/AP)

Prof Smith first demonstrated the phage display technique later adopted by Sir Gregory in 1985.

The awards were announced at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

In its citation, the Nobel committee said: “The 2018 Nobel Laureates in chemistry have taken control of evolution and used it for purposes that bring the greatest benefit to humankind.”

Sir Gregory has followed a research career based almost entirely in Cambridge at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the Centre for Protein Engineering.

He also founded three Cambridge biotech companies based on his discoveries: Cambridge Antibody Technology, Domantis and Bicycle Therapeutics.

Immunologist Professor Dan Davies, from the University of Manchester, said: “This is thrilling. The use of phage display to create new antibodies has been exceptionally important in science and medicine.

“As one example, Humira, developed with this technology, is used by thousands of people for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.

“With this medicine, far fewer people with rheumatoid arthritis are forced to use a wheelchair.”

Sir Gregory, 67, said that early in his research he had no idea that antibodies would become so valuable to the pharmaceutical industry.

He said: “In the 1990s the pharmaceutical industry was run by chemists. As far as they were concerned a pharmaceutical drug was a chemical.

“People didn’t really believe antibodies would be therapeutic. These are great big proteins.

“It was the biotech companies who took it on board.”

He said that as a scientist he had already tried to keep his feet “on the ground”.

“It’s very easy to have vision. It’s very difficult to have visions that you can realise practically,” said Sir Gregory.

He admitted that his first wife “really had to suffer” because of his work, and admitted that for him science was “a bit like a drug addiction”.

Venki Ramakrishnan said: “Thanks to Greg Winter’s pioneering research into monoclonal antibodies at the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, people who have breast cancer, arthritis, asthma and leukaemia the world over are already benefiting from new drugs, with many more in development.

“UK companies developing antibody technologies based on Greg’s work have also been a startup success story, with these drugs being worth billions globally.

“I am delighted that his great achievement has been recognised with the Nobel.”

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.