Sir Gregory Winter awarded the Royal Society’s Copley Medal

Nobel Laureate and former Master of Trinity Sir Gregory Winter, best known for his research and inventions relating to humanised and therapeutic antibodies, has been awarded the Royal Society’s Copley Medal.

Dating back to 1731, the Copley Medal is awarded for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science. Previous recipients have included Louis Pasteur, Dorothy Hodgkin, Albert Einstein, and Charles Darwin. Another former Master of Trinity College, the UK Astronomer Royal, Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at Cambridge, Lord Martin Rees, was last year’s recipient of the Copley Medal.

The Royal Society awarded Sir Gregory the Copley Medal in recognition of his pioneering protein engineering, especially antibody engineering for the successful production of therapeutic antibodies, which have created a new class of drug and changed the lives of millions.

Sir Gregory, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018, said:

It is such an honour to be awarded this ancient prize and find myself on the same scroll as the greatest scientists; such a delight to find myself in the same company as friends and former mentors; and such a relief not to be asked for a manuscript!

Sir Gregory was inspired to pursue a career in science aged seven when a scientist visited his primary school in Ghana with a Geiger counter, which fascinated him. After attending the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle, he was awarded a scholarship to study Natural Sciences at Trinity, graduating in 1973.

He went on to pursue a career at the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Centre for Protein Engineering where he specialised in protein and nucleic acid sequencing. He played an important role in sequencing the genome of influenza before inventing techniques for the industrial production of human antibodies for therapeutic purposes. Humanised monoclonal antibodies now make up most of the antibody-based drugs on the market today.

Sir Gregory, who was Master of Trinity from 2012 until 2019, has successfully spun out several companies including Cambridge Antibody Technology, Domantis and Bicycle Therapeutics. His research led to one of the world’s top-selling drugs, Humira.

He was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 1987, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2006 and received a Knighthood for services to molecular biology in 2004. In 2018 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Professor Frances Arnold and Professor George Smith.

Sir Gregory is among 25 Royal Society Medal and Award winners this year. Society President Sir Adrian Smith said:

The scope of scientific knowledge and experience in this year’s line-up is amazing. These outstanding researchers, individuals and teams have contributed to our collective scientific endeavour and helped further our understanding of the world around us.  I am proud to celebrate outstanding science and offer my congratulations to all the 2024 recipients of the Royal Society’s Medals and Awards.

Read more about Sir Gregory’s research.