Prestigious Royal Society Fellowship awarded to faculty member

8th May 2012

Dr Jamel Mankouri has received the fellowship for his work on how viruses interact with the body.

The scheme aims to provide outstanding scientists, who have the potential to become leaders in their chosen fields, with the opportunity to build an independent research career.

The methods that viruses use to change the cell's environment have not yet been fully identified, but one newly-identified way is by manipulating ion channels within the cell wall, which let specific particles, such as sodium, in and out of the cell. Dr Mankouri's research has a particular focus on the interaction between the host cell and ion channels and the effect on virus survival of restoring ion channel function using drugs. "By stopping viral proteins from manipulating the host cell, we can impede viral survival providing an avenue for development of anti-viral drugs," he says.