Mary Lyon medal 2021 – Prof Julian Knight

Julian Knight is Professor of Genomic Medicine at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow and Tutor in Medicine at Merton College, Oxford.  His research investigates the genomics of immunity and how this can determine our individual response to infections such as sepsis and development of autoimmunity.

Julian trained as a clinician scientist, studying medicine at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh before completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in 1998 with Dominic Kwiatkowski.  He developed his research interest in the functional genomics of immunity working in Oxford and at Harvard University in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology with Tom Maniatis.

Since 2005 Julian has worked at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics as a Principal Investigator and where he is now Deputy Director, and as an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust in internal medicine where he contributes to the acute medical take and also chairs the Oxford Genomic Medicine Multi-Disciplinary Team.

Julian is Director of the Doctoral Training Programme in Genomic Medicine and Statistics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians who awarded him the Graham Bull Prize in Clinical Science (2011) and Linacre Medal (2008).