The Sainsbury Laboratory (SL), Norwich*, has announced today that Professor David Baulcombe FRS (photo), one of its senior scientists, has been awarded the prestigious international MW Beijerinck Virology Prize**.

“I am very pleased that the work of my group has been recognised by this award”, said Professor David Baulcombe. “I am also delighted to see that research into plants has been acknowledged. It is often forgotten that plants are excellent models for many types of genetic and biochemical research. Beijerincks discovery of viruses in infected tobacco plants, for example, is one of many fundamental discoveries that have been made in plants. It is a particular honour to receive a virology award that is named after the discoverer of viruses and from the country in which he worked”.

Professor Baulcombe was awarded the prize for his outstanding achievements in the field of virology, especially his work on a gene silencing*** mechanism (that is a defence system against viruses) and the discovery of small inhibitory RNA molecules. These small RNAs are important regulatory molecules in plants and animals and have provided the basis for a wide range of therapeutic and experimental gene silencing strategies.

The M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize is awarded by the M.W. Beijerinck Virology Fund. The €34,000 prize and a medal bearing the portrait of M.W. Beijerinck are awarded every three years to an international researcher for outstanding achievement in the field of virology.

M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize Laureates are selected by a panel from candidates nominated by scientists or scientific institutions.

Professor Baulcombe has been invited to the Netherlands to receive the award and also to lecture at a Special Meeting of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences on the 29 November 2004.

BACKGROUND

*The Sainsbury Laboratory

The Sainsbury Laboratory has a worldwide reputation for research on molecular plant-microbe interactions. The major aim of the Laboratory is to pursue the fundamental processes involved in the interactions of plants and their microbial pathogens and symbionts. Funding for the Laboratory is primarily through grants from a charitable foundation. In addition grants are obtained from research councils, the European Union and other organizations.  The laboratory is located at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, which is an independent, world-leading research centre in plant and microbial science.

** M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize

The Beijerinck Virology Fund was founded in 1965 by Mr. and Mrs. L.E. den Dooren de Jong in honour of the virologist Martinus Willem Beijerinck. Management of the fund was entrusted to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Until 1998, the Academy awarded the M.W. Beijerinck Virology Medal every three years to an outstanding virologist. A legacy left by one of the founders of the Fund in 2000 made it possible to award a new prize in the field of virology. The M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize consists of a cash award of €34,000 and a gold medal bearing the portrait of M.W. Beijerinck. The prize is awarded to a scientist active in the field in recognition of outstanding international achievement in virology, including the biochemical and biophysical aspects. Candidates are nominated by other scientists or scientific institutions. An individual cannot nominate him/herself. Any scientist working in this field is eligible, irrespective of nationality or age.

Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851-1931) was the first Professor of Microbiology in Delft (The Netherlands). In 1898 he published his finding that an agent smaller than bacteria could cause diseases. He called this agent a virus (the Latin word for poison) and so was the first person to use the term "virus".

Beijerinck studied the disease that stunts the growth of tobacco plants and mottles their leaves (now called the tobacco mosaic virus disease). He discovered that the juice of infected tobacco leaves was able to infect healthy plants, even after it had been filtered to remove bacteria. He could infect a healthy plant and from that plant infect another healthy plant, continuing the process indefinitely and demonstrating that the infective agent was self-replicating.

He also originated the selective culture technique, also known as enrichment culturing, and was the first to isolate a wide range of microorganisms.

***Gene silencing

Is a biological process that has been discovered only recently but occurs in a wide range of organisms. It is a mechanism that enables organisms to detect the presence of specific fragments of RNA and to selectively destroy them. As RNA is essential in translating genes into proteins the destruction of the RNA molecules produced by a particular gene ‘silences’ that gene, by preventing it from producing protein. Gene silencing is of particular interest in plants as it is the key defence mechanism that plants us to stop viruses from replicating themselves. Plants that are resistant to particular viruses are able to recognise and destroy the RNA produced by that virus and so silence them.