Our Unit Director Prof Anne Willis has been awarded the prestigious John Barnes Prize Award from the British Toxicology Society. Prof Willis leads a research group investigating the role of post-transcriptional control in response to toxic injury with a focus on RNA-binding proteins, regulatory RNA motifs and tRNAs and how this impacts on therapeutic RNAs.

Prof Willis joins esteemed company with previous winners including Prof Bruce Ames, Sir Alec Jeffries and Prof Norman Aldridge amongst others.

The Barnes Prize was established in memory of the pioneering toxicologist Dr John Barnes, who was also the first Director of the MRC Toxicology Unit, and is awarded biennially to recognise individuals who have distinguished themselves in the profession of Toxicology and Safety Science, particularly with regard to their research achievements.

Prof Willis will give the Barnes Prize Award Lecture at the 2025 BTS Annual Congress which will be held in Liverpool from the 2nd to 4th April 2025.