David J. Galton

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David J. Galton
Born (1937-05-02) 2 May 1937 (age 87)
Alma materUniversity College London
Scientific career
Institutions

David Jeremy Galton (born 2 May 1937) is a British physician and researcher in molecular

diabetes mellitus.[1] He is an authority figure in his field.[2][3]

He is not related to

Early life and education

David Galton was educated at Highgate School London and graduated from University College London in 1957 with a BSc (first class honours) and MB.BS (with honours in medicine) in 1960. After house-staff training he went to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda Maryland, USA to study with Robert Scow and Martin Rodbell.[1]

Career

On returning to the UK he obtained a Fellowship at the Hammersmith Hospital to work with Russell Fraser and later elected to the consultant staff at St Bartholomew's Hospital London. He was then elected to a Professorship, Department of Medicine, London University and is now an Emeritus Professor at London University.[1]

Galton was elected Chairman of Clinical Science from 1978 to 1980. He served on the scientific grants committee of Diabetes UK from 1984 to 1987 and again from 1989 to 1991. He was elected secretary of the European Atherosclerosis Society from 1988 to 1993 and Chairman of HEART UK from 1999 to 2001. He has been a Consultant Physician to St. Bartholomew's and Moorfield's Eye Hospitals.[1]

He is currently serving as the librarian of the

Galton Institute (formerly the British Eugenics Society) having previously served as vice-president.[5]

Research

His laboratory's main contributions have been to reveal defects of metabolic regulatory elements in common metabolic disease (mainly diabetes mellitus, the

) at both phenotype and genotype levels:

His group identified the earliest loss of an allosteric regulation of a rate-determining enzyme, phosphofructokinase by citrate in minimal deviation tumours, lipomata.[6][7] Many more such defects have subsequently come to light particularly to deregulate pathways in early neoplasia.

Abnormalities in the covalent modification of peptide regulators were found to have effects on enzyme activity. Thus one extra sialyl residue on apolipoprotein C3 impairs its action on lipoprotein lipase.[8][9] This can affect expression of the resulting phenotype of hypertriglyceridemia.

His laboratory was one of the first to use

single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to reveal susceptibility genes that predispose individuals to develop metabolic disorders, such as hypertriglyceridemia and atherosclerosis.[10][11][12] This led eventually to the development of Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) where more than 1400 susceptibility loci have now been identified using SNPs and some have led to useful therapeutic agents such as volanesorsen[10]

Awards

  • Travelling Research Fellowship from the Mental Health Research Fund 1960
  • Doctor of Medicine London University 1967.
  • Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians, London 1975.
  • Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmology UK 1976.
  • Erasmus European Professorship 1991.
  • Doctor of Science London University 1992.
  • Jephcott Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine London UK 1994.
  • Tempus Professorship of the European Union 1996 and 1997.

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b c d "David J. Galton". galtoninstitute.org.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  2. ^ "David Galton". Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  3. ^ "Galton, David J." worldcat.org. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  4. ^ Galton, D. J., & Galton, C. J. (1998). Francis Galton: And Eugenics Today. Journal of Medical Ethics, 24(2), 99–105. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27718075
  5. ^ "Governance – The Galton Institute".
  6. PMID 4272315
    .
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  10. ^ .
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Further reading

  1. Galton David Jeremy in Debrett's – Distinguished People of Today ed. P Ellis, D Williamson Publ. Debrett's Peerage Ltd. 1990
  2. Governance – The Galton Institute Only Fellows of the Galton Institute may be elected to Council or hold offices within the institute. ... of Biology. Librarian: Professor David J Galton MD, FRCP, DSc...
  3. Galton, DJ (July 2010). "Kafka's trial revisited". QJM: Monthly Journal of the Association of Physicians. 103 (7): 541–2.
    PMID 20085995
    .
  4. Galton, DJ (February 2012). "Did Mendel falsify his data?". QJM: Monthly Journal of the Association of Physicians. 105 (2): 215–6.
    PMID 22006558
    .