Endocrine Abstracts

Iain CAF Robinson, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, UK Abstract

Iain Robinson was born in 1949 and educated at the King Edward VII Grammar School in Sheffield before going to Worcester College, Oxford, to study physiology and medicine. Awarded first class honours in physiology and with medical studies deferred, Iain received an MRC studentship Award for studies on endocrine physiology in the Department of Pharmacology, Oxford. The title of his D. Phil. Thesis was `An assay of neurohypophysial hormones' and this was the beginning of many years of work studying vasopressin.

A prize fellowship in Physiology at Magdalen College, Oxford, followed by a year working with Professor Niels Thorn in Copenhagen studying neurhypophysial peptide secretion led to Iain's first post at the Laboratory of Endocrine Physiology, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill as an MRC post-doctoral scientist in 1977. By 1986 he had become head of the neuroendocrine group within the Division of Neurophysiology, NIMR, Mill Hill which he still leads. Just prior to this, in 1985, Iain spent a sabbatical year working as pre-clinical research director for Ferring in Malmö, Sweden. Since then he has been a consultant for many major pharmaceutical companies including MKS and Ferring and is a founding director of a new company Anacrine. Iain has also been an editor for many endocrinological journals including the Journal of Endocrinology from 1982-1986 and the Journal of Neuroendocrinology from 1988-1998.

Iain Robinson is an outstanding researcher with an international reputation. His principal contribution has been in the field of endocrine factors and the control of growth. His achievements include the development of an automative continuous sampling technique, which he has used to great effect in order to study the release pattern of growth hormone in male and female rats and factors that influence it. More recently he has been in the forefront of developmental work involved in establishing specific transgenic rat models with growth retardation, studying the importance of feedback regulation between pituitary and hypothalamus, the role of growth hormone-related peptide, and the regulation of the growth hormone gene. One measure of his international repute is the large number of invited plenary and symposium lectures he has been invited to give, in Europe, Japan and the USA. In addition, he has made many presentations in the UK which include talks to the Society for Endocrinology and The Physiological Society (Geoffrey Harris Prize Lecture).

Additional strengths include the large number of PhD students who have been trained in his laboratory. His excellence in teaching is indicated by his post of Visiting Professor in Medicine (University College & Middlesex Hospital Medical School), and the BSc Seminars he gives annually at Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School (now part of Imperial College School of Medicine). For many years he has also acted as external examiner for BSc projects. His organisational skills are clearly demonstrated by the success of his Neuroendocrine Group at the NIMR, Mill Hill. Iain is also currently Head of the Division of Molecular Neuroendocrinology - one of its three Neuroscience Divisions.