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29-640: It currently has over 4,600 members, 80% of which are in the UK. It is affiliated with the European body, Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS). The president has been Julia Goodfellow since 2022. The Society's headquarters are in London. The society was founded in 1911, under the name of the Biochemical Club. An informal preliminary meeting on 21 January 1911 at University College, London

58-609: A PhD in 1967. Her thesis was on Hydroxyl-carbonyl interaction in cyclic peptides and depsipeptides . After her PhD in 1967, Thomas remained with Cambridge at Darwin College until 1969. During this time, she held a Beit Memorial Fellowship for Medical Research at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), a lab dedicated to understanding biological processes in order to solve major problems in human disease. She then served as

87-1047: A "renowned" booklet by V. Booth with advice on how to write a scientific paper. Federation of European Biochemical Societies The Federation of the European Biochemical Societies ( FEBS ) is an international scientific society promoting activities in biochemistry , molecular biology and related research areas in Europe and neighbouring regions. It was founded in 1964 and includes over 35,000 members across 39 Constituent Societies. FEBS activities include: publishing journals; providing grants for scientific meetings such as an annual Congress, Young Scientists' Forum and FEBS Advanced Courses; offering travel awards to early-stage scientists to participate in these events; offering research Fellowships for pre- and post-doctoral bioscientists; promoting molecular life science education; encouraging integration of scientists working in economically disadvantaged countries of

116-497: A member of the university academic staff as well as a Fellow of New Hall, now Murray Edwards College , where she acted as vice president from 1983 to 1987. In 1985, during her time as vice president of New Hall, she received her degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Cambridge . Thomas is a professor emerita of macromolecular biochemistry at Cambridge and has been a professor there since 1991. She acted as chairman of

145-850: A simpler, general mechanism of the self-inhibitive behavior of the DNA-binding regions of the HMG-boxes in HMGB1. She currently continues to lead a team of researchers in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. Outside of her direct involvement at Cambridge, Thomas has received numerous awards and honours throughout her career. In 1982, she was elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), and in 1986 she

174-475: Is a Welsh biochemist , former Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge , and Chancellor of Swansea University . Thomas was born in Treboeth, Swansea to John Robert and Lorna (née Harris) Thomas, and she attended Llwyn-y-Bryn High School for Girls. She continued her education at University College of Swansea where she received a first class Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1964 followed by

203-845: The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council , the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine , and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund . Starting in 1994, she served as a trustee of the British Museum for ten years. In October 2000, she became a governor of the Wellcome Trust , the world's largest biomedical research charity. In 2002 she

232-642: The Society for Experimental Biology , British Ecological Society and the Royal Society of Biology . The society's past presidents are Sir Hans Kornberg (1990–95), Sir Philip Randle (1996–2000), Dame Jean O. Thomas (2001–5), Sir Philip Cohen (2006–8), Sir Tom Blundell (2009–12), Ron Laskey (2012–14), Sir David Baulcombe (2015–17) and Sir Peter Downes (2018–21). The Society has given awards to acknowledge excellence and achievement in biochemistry or in particular subfields since 1958. The earliest

261-412: The University of Wales in 1992 and from the University of East Anglia in 2002. In 2009, she was made an honorary fellow of Aberystwyth University in recognition of her distinguished career as a Welsh scientist. Her career as a biochemist has been heavily focused on studying the structure and dynamics of chromatin and its role in the repression and activation of genes via regulatory proteins. She

290-466: The American science historian Pnina Abir-Am, the society had established itself as a "well-organized nationwide power base for biochemists", and a "powerful" body whose activities went beyond the usual ones of a learned society to encompass "guarding the professional status, even welfare, of its members". In 1969, a subcommittee of the society chaired by Hans Krebs published a well-received report about

319-480: The Cambridge Centre for Molecular Recognition between 1993 and 2003. In 2007, Thomas became a fellow of St. Catharine's College, and in 2016, she became an honorary fellow. She was elected as the 38th master of St. Catharine's College in 2007, making her the first female master since the college was founded in 1473. Elected by the president and fellows of the college, she remained master until 2016, when she

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348-660: The Datta medal and the Theodor Bücher medal. FEBS publishes four scientific journals: The FEBS Journal , FEBS Letters , Molecular Oncology and FEBS Open Bio . The FEBS Journal was previously entitled the European Journal of Biochemistry . Molecular Oncology and FEBS Open Bio are open-access journals . Jean Thomas (biochemist) Dame Jean Olwen Thomas , DBE FRS FMedSci MAE FLSW (born 1 October 1942)

377-739: The FEBS area; and awarding prizes and medals for research excellence. FEBS collaborates with related scientific societies such as its Constituent Societies, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Awards presented by FEBS include the Sir Hans Krebs Medal , the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award (presented jointly with EMBO),

406-523: The First World War. The three earliest women members, elected in 1913, were Ida Smedley , who became the first female chair of the society, Harriette Chick and Muriel Wheldale . In the early years eight annual meetings were generally held, predominantly in London, but also in Oxford, Cambridge, Rothamsted , Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere. Membership had risen to over a thousand by 1944. Plimmer

435-702: The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the New Year's Honours List for her services to biochemistry. "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .” -- Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11) [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text available under

464-591: The dynamic activity of the DNA-binding proteins. Thomas also found that HMGB1 plays a role as a chaperone in the binding of transcription factors like p53 to DNA. In 2012, again using NMR spectroscopy, her team solved the structure of the A-box/p53 complex formed by the interaction between the N-terminus of p53 and a single HMG-box of HMGB1. Recently, she studied proteins from Drosophila melanogaster and maize that are analogous to HMGB1 in order to describe

493-497: The end of 1911, there were 132 members. In 1912, it purchased the existing Biochemical Journal from Moore and Edward Whitley for £150, with the new editors being Bayliss and Harden. The name formally changed to the Biochemical Society in 1913, with Hopkins being appointed the first chair. Gardner took over as treasurer, remaining in the post until 1944, and was responsible for steering the society's finances through

522-478: The negative regulation of the HMGB1-DNA interaction that was suspected to be largely controlled by the acidic tail of HMGB1. They found that regardless of the length of the acidic tail, it makes extensive contacts with the DNA-binding regions of the two tandem HMG-boxes in HMGB1. A year later, she published a paper describing the opposing effects of H1 and HMGB1 on the nucleosome. Histone H1 was shown to stabilize

551-479: The relationship between biochemistry and the discipline of molecular biology , stating that all biology was in part molecular, in response to a 1968 report by the Working Group on Molecular Biology, chaired by John C. Kendrew . The report proposes using the term "biochemistry" as a shorthand to include molecular biology as well as biophysics. That year the society celebrated its 500th meeting, at which Kendrew

580-405: The structure by winding two turns of linker DNA around the octamer while HMGB1 destabilized the nucleosome by bending adjacent DNA. NMR spectroscopy was again used to show that H1 binds to the acidic tail of HMGB1 via its basic C-terminus, thus halting the HMGB1-DNA interaction. She later described the structure of these interactions as collapsed and sandwich-like, suggesting that it is important for

609-649: Was among the speakers. According to former CEO Chris Kirk (in 2011), membership peaked in the mid-1990s at around nine thousand, and had since fallen. The society's first permanent headquarters were at 7 Warwick Court in Holborn , purchased in 1966. In 1990, the headquarters of the society moved to Portland Place , and in 2005, to modern offices in Procter Street, Holborn. In 2009, the headquarters moved again to Charles Darwin House, Roger Street, sharing premises with

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638-678: Was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and she is also a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW). Between 2000 and 2005, she served as president of the Biochemical Society and was granted honorary membership of that body in 2008. The Wolfson Foundation , an independent charity that supports excellence in science and education, appointed her as a trustee in November 2013. In 2014, Thomas

667-555: Was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). She served as the biological secretary and vice-president of the Royal Society for five years beginning in 2008. She became a member of the Academia Europaea (MAE) in 1991, which aims to promote learning, education, and research. She was awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1993, and in 2005 she was awarded Dame Commander of

696-417: Was elected as the second President of the Royal Society of Biology , succeeding Nancy Rothwell of the University of Manchester . In 2018 she was appointed Chancellor of Swansea University. In addition to the many positions she has held, Thomas became an honorary fellow of the University of Wales Swansea in 1987 and of Cardiff University in 1998. She was also granted honorary doctorates in science from

725-566: Was organised by John Addyman Gardner and R. H. A. Plimmer and attended by 32 people. The first meeting was on 4 March 1911, with 38 members present; an initial decision to exclude women was rescinded the following year. The first committee consisted of Plimmer (honorary treasurer and secretary), Gardner, H. E. Armstrong , W. M. Bayliss , A. J. Brown , H. H. Dale , A. E. Garrod , W. D. Halliburton , Arthur Harden , F. G. Hopkins , F. Keeble , Benjamin Moore , Walter Ramsden and E. J. Russell . By

754-590: Was succeeded by Professor Sir Mark Welland. A scholarship fund called the Jean Thomas PhD Award was created in her honour by alumnus of St. Catharine's Peter Dawson. It grants one fully funded PhD studentship per year to a student at St. Catharine's. Her other contributions to external organizations include serving on the Science and Engineering Research Council , the Council of the Royal Society ,

783-897: Was the Hopkins Memorial Lecture, in memory of Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1958–2008). Later awards include the Colworth Medal (1963), the CIBA Medal/Novartis Medal (1965–2023) and the Morton Lecture, in honour of Richard Alan Morton (1978). The society's wholly owned publishing subsidiary, Portland Press (established in 1989), publishes a magazine, The Biochemist , and several academic journals: The society holds archives of material from some prominent biochemists, and had recorded oral history interviews on video with around twenty scientists in 1988. The society published several editions of

812-684: Was the first person to isolate and characterize the histone octamer, which ultimately and led to the universal nucleosome model for chromatin structure formulated by Roger D. Kornberg . Kornberg would eventually be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on gene transcription and translation . Thomas's recent work has focused on the in-depth understanding of chromatin proteins, such as high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) and histone H1, and their interactions with DNA. In 2007, her research team used NMR mapping to better define

841-416: Was the society's first historian; his 1949 history is described by the American science historian Robert E. Kohler as an "important primary document" for the early history of biochemistry in the UK, and in particular for why the society's founding members chose to separate from the older Physiological Society . An updated history was published in 1969 by Richard A. Morton . By the late 1960s, according to

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