Marc R. Wilkins is an Australian scientist who is credited with the concept of the proteome, and is a Professor in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
He coined the term proteome in 1994, whilst developing the concept as a PhD student at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; this being a generalisation of the concept of the genome to encompass the set of all proteins that can be produced through the genome, through alternative splicing and post-transcriptional modification of messenger RNA.
Dr Wilkins held a post-doctoral fellowship from 1995-1997 at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, working with Prof Denis Hochstrasser and Dr Amos Bairoch. He co-developed many of the protein analysis tools available on the ExPASy web server. He subsequently served as a senior post-doctoral fellow in the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility, which was established by the Australian Government in 1995 as the world’s first dedicated proteome research centre.
In 1997 he co-edited the first book on proteomics, Proteome Research: New Frontiers in Functional Genomics (Wilkins et al. (eds), Springer Verlag), which has sold more than 4,000 copies.
He was a co-founder of the proteomics company Proteome Systems Ltd. It was established in January 1999, and listed on the Australian Securites Exchange in 2004. Dr Wilkins worked in Proteome Systems full-time for 6 years as leader of its bioinformatics Research and Development team. It was awarded IBM's "Rookie of the Year Award" for companies in the Asia-Pacific region, in 2003. Proteome Systems Inc has since been renamed Tyrian Diagnostics,. In 2008, Dr Wilkins co-founded the regnerative medicine company, Regeneus. This company has established treatments for osteoarthritis using autologous adult stem cells.
Dr Wilkins is currently a Professor of Systems Biology at the University of New South Wales, and is the director of the Systems Biology Initiative and the Ramaciotti Centre for Gene Function Analysis. His latest research focus is protein interaction networks (the interactome) and Systems Biology,.
In 2012, Marc Wilkins is awarded the ASBMB Beckman Coulter Discovery Science Award for 2012. This prize is awarded to an ASBMB member for distinguished contributions to the field of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Famous quotes containing the words marc and/or wilkins:
“Let us be realistic and demand the impossible.
[Soyons réalistes, demandons l’impossible.]”
—Graffito. Paris ‘68, ch. 2, Marc Rohan (1988)
“... aside from the financial aspect, [there] is more: the life of my work. I feel that is all I came into the world for, and have failed dismally if it is not a success.”
—Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930)