Director, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge

Professor Sir Hugh Pelham FRS is the Director of the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in basic cell biology, particularly the organisation of the internal membranes in cells and the turnover of membrane proteins.

He has pioneered research into how proteins help to protect the body against the effects of extreme heat at the cellular level. He has worked on how proteins find their right places within cells and how misshapen proteins are broken down to be recycled. How these processes work in a normal cell can give clues to what is happening at a cellular level in many human diseases. Professor Pelham has been internationally recognized with numerous awards for his research and was made a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1988.

He joined the Laboratory in 1981 and became Director in 2006, having previously been Head of the Cell Biology Division. He studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and obtained a PhD in biochemistry there before completing his postdoctoral studies in Baltimore, USA.