Sir Peter Ratcliffe Oxford

Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe

Subject: Medicine and Biomedical Science

Department: Nuffield Department of Medicine

College appointment: Fellow by Special Election

Contact

Background

Sir Peter Ratcliffe grew up in north Lancashire and won an open scholarship to study medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He undertook clinical training at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and after series of posts at the London postgraduate hospitals, moved to Oxford to train in nephrology. In 1990 he obtained a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship to work on cellular responses to hypoxia, retrained in molecular biology and founded a new laboratory working on hypoxia biology in cancer and circulatory diseases. He was appointed Nuffield Professor and Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine in 2003, a position he held until 2016. He is currently Director of the Target Discovery Institute, and a Distinguished Scholar of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences and is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the 2014 New Year’s Honours List, he was knighted for services to clinical medicine. His work was recognised by the award of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2019.

Research Interests

Professor Ratcliffe has led the hypoxia biology laboratory at Oxford for more than 20 years. The laboratory discovered the widespread operation of a system of direct oxygen sensing that is conserved throughout the animal kingdom and operates through a novel form of cell signalling involving post-translational hydroxylation of specific amino acids. Catalysis of these hydroxylations requires molecular oxygen and this generates the oxygen-sensitive signal. The laboratory now works extensively with Professor Chris Schofield in Chemistry to define the extent of biological operation and the therapeutic tractability of drug-based manipulation of the system in human disease.

Key Previous Publications

Selected Recent publications

Department Staff

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Professor Richard Cornall

Department: Medicine

Appointment: Professorial Fellow

Academic position: Nuffield Professor of Medicine, Head of Department

Email: richard.cornall@ndm.ox.ac.uk

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The Revd Professor Robert Gilbert

Department: Biochemistry and Medicine

Appointment: Tutorial Fellow, Vice President

Email: robert.gilbert@magd.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 01865 276070

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Professor Gero Miesenböck

Department: Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics

Appointment: Professorial Fellow

Email: gero.miesenboeck@cncb.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 01865 282261

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Professor Peter Sullivan

Department: Paediatrics

Email: peter.sullivan@paediatrics.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 07825 335477

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Professor Quentin Sattentau

Department: Pathology

Appointment: Emeritus Fellow

Email: quentin.sattentau@magd.ox.ac.uk

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Chris Garland

Professor Chris Garland

Department: Pharmacology

Appointment: Tutorial Fellow

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Professor Michael Goldacre

Department: Population Health

Email: michael.goldacre@dph.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 01865 289377

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Professor Stephen Goodwin

Department: Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics

Appointment: Tutorial Fellow

Email: stephen.goodwin@cncb.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 01865 272454

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Dr Lauren Phillips

Department: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Academic position: Fellow by Examination

Email: lauren.phillips@pharm.ox.ac.uk

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Professor John Stein

Appointment: Emeritus Fellow

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Dr Rebecca Shakir

Department: Medicine

Academic position: Sherrington Lecturer

Email: rebecca.shakir@ndph.ox.ac.uk

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Professor Adrian Hill, Kt.

Department: Medicine

Email: adrian.hill@ndm.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 01865 617611

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Dr Maheshi Ramasamy

Department: Paediatrics

Appointment: Florey Lecturer and Fellow by Special Election

Academic position: Associate Professor

Email: maheshi.ramasamy@magd.ox.ac.uk

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Dr Rachel Wheatley

Department: Biological Sciences

Academic position: George Grosvenor Freeman Fellow by Examination

Email: rachel.wheatley@biology.ox.ac.uk

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Dr Dominic Alonzi

Department: Biochemistry

Email: dominic.alonzi@bioch.ox.ac.uk