St Catharine’s College ,Professors Barnes, Davenport have been elected Honorary Fellows of the British Pharmacological Society

 The British Pharmacological Society has elected 12 Honorary Fellows in 2020, two of whom are senior members of St Catharine’s College. Each year, the Society awards only a very small number of Honorary Fellowships in recognition of sustained excellence and leadership in science, healthcare, and public service.

The Society recognized Professor Peter Barnes (1966, Medical Sciences), who has been an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s since 2011. He is Margaret Turner-Warwick Professor of Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute and Honorary Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital, London. His research interests include cellular and molecular mechanisms of asthma and COPD, understanding and developing therapies, and research into biomarkers for these diseases.

Professor Barnes commented, “I am greatly honored to be elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the British Pharmacological Society, particularly as this is the first society where I presented my research over 40 years ago! Pharmacology is now more relevant than ever in the quest for safer and more effective treatments, especially for chronic diseases and for infections, such as COVID-19.”

Pictured: Professors Barnes (left) and Davenport (right) have been elected Honorary Fellows of the British Pharmacological Society.

 

The British Pharmacological Society also awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Professor Anthony Davenport, who was admitted as a Fellow of St Catharine’s in 1995. He is a Professor of Cardiovascular Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge and the College’s Director of Studies in 1B Preclinical Medicine and Director of Studies in Pharmacology. His research has focused on the function of G-protein coupled receptors in the human cardiovascular system in health and disease, and, more recently, repurposing existing medicines and discovery of novel compound blocking the entry of SARS-CoV-2 via the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) pathway.

Professor Davenport said, “I am surprised and delighted to be awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the British Pharmacological Society, for my contribution to leadership in the discipline through research, to social life and support for Members at earlier stages of their career. My network of collaborators, established through the Society and the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, has enabled my laboratory to respond rapidly to the current pandemic with research to identify new targets for medicines blocking the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into host cells.”