Heptares’ Fiona Marshall receives 2017 John Daly Lecture Award

Heptares Therapeutics ("Heptares") is proud to announce its Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Fiona Marshall, has received the 2017 John Daly Lecture Award for her outstanding contribution to GPCR drug discovery.

In receiving the prestigious award, Dr Marshall was invited to give the 9th Annual John Daly Memorial Lecture, which took place at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, USA. During the lecture, Dr Marshall described how the unique GPCR stabilisation technologies developed at Heptares have generated valuable insights to GPCR structure and function, and are yielding novel molecules for development as drugs in many disease areas.

The Award is bestowed annually by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in memory of John Daly, a former NIH scientist and pioneer in pharmacological research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Dr Daly introduced many essential tools for pharmacological research and made a significant contribution to the field of GPCRs. After his death in 2008, the NIDDK Intramural Research Program instituted an annual lecture, held in his memory.

Previous John Daly Lecturers include Brian Kobilka of Stanford University and Robert J. Lefkowitz of Duke University, who jointly won the Nobel Prize in 2012 for Chemistry in recognition of their pioneering research studying GPCRs at the molecular and structural level.

Malcolm Weir, Chief Executive Officer of Heptares and Chief R&D Officer at Sosei, said: "Since co-founding Heptares in 2007, Fiona has been instrumental in building the Company’s world-leading reputation for GPCR-focused drug discovery. She has led a team that has made many breakthroughs in GPCR structure elucidation that are now being applied to develop new medicines for many diseases. Fiona’s nomination to give the John Daly Memorial Lecture is an incredibly well-deserved and timely recognition of her work in the field and all that she has achieved so far."

Fiona Marshall added: "I am delighted and honoured to be recognised personally through this Award. I’ve had the great fortune to work with some extremely talented people during my career, whose guidance and contributions have been crucial to the direction my research has taken. The success that Heptares has achieved over the past decade is testament to that influence and this award is further recognition of the team’s excellent work."