Sir Christopher M. Dobson was a distinguished British structural biologist who served as the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology at the University of Cambridge. Educated at Oxford University, he earned his BA, BSc, MA, and DPhil in 1976, establishing the foundation for his groundbreaking career in protein science. Following his doctoral studies, he held research fellowships at Merton College and Linacre College, Oxford, before serving as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University from 1977 to 1980. He returned to Oxford in 1980 as a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and University Lecturer in Chemistry, subsequently rising to Professor of Chemistry in 1996, before moving to Cambridge in 2001 where he also became Master of St John's College in 2007, a position he held until his passing.
Dobson's pioneering research fundamentally transformed understanding of protein folding and misfolding mechanisms and their critical relationship to neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. He gained international recognition for his serendipitous discovery that ordinary proteins can misfold and aggregate to form amyloid structures, previously thought to be exclusively associated with disease pathology. His extensive scholarly output included over 800 publications, with 38 appearing in Nature, Science, and Cell, accumulating more than 100,000 citations and an H-index of 153 as of 2019. In 2012, he established the Cambridge Centre for Misfolding Diseases, creating a dedicated interdisciplinary hub that advanced research into protein misfolding disorders using chemical and biophysical approaches.
Dobson cultivated an exceptional research environment characterized by intellectual openness, creativity, and collaboration, attracting nearly 50 talented PhD students and postdocs from diverse scientific backgrounds worldwide. His translational impact extended beyond academia when he co-founded Wren Therapeutics in 2016, a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease. He received numerous prestigious accolades including the Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 2009, the Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2014, and was knighted in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours for his exceptional contributions to science and higher education. Though he passed away in 2019 after a courageous battle with cancer, his scientific legacy endures through the Cambridge Centre for Misfolding Diseases and the ongoing work of his former students and collaborators advancing therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative conditions globally.
