Robert E. W. Hancock

Robert Ernest William Hancock OC OBC FRSC (born March 23, 1949) is a Canadian microbiologist and University of British Columbia Killam Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, an Associate Faculty Member of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and a Canada Research Chair in Health and Genomics.

Robert E. W. Hancock
Hancock in 2016
Born (1949-03-23) March 23, 1949
NationalityCanadian
OccupationProfessor
AwardsOfficer of the Order of Canada, ICAAC Antimicrobial Research Award, Prix Galien, Order of British Columbia
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
Academic work
DisciplineMicrobiology and Immunology
InstitutionsUniversity of British Columbia
Notable ideasSelf-promoted uptake theory, Cationic peptides as immune modulators
WebsiteHancock Lab Website

Over his career he has published more than 800 papers and reviews, has 72 patents awarded, and is an ISI highly cited author in Microbiology with more than 113,000 citations and an h-index of 168. He has won several awards and is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is a co-founder of Migenix, Inimex Pharmaceuticals, ABT Innovations, Sepset Biotherapeutics, and the Centre for Drug Research and Development. He serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Qu Biologics.[1]

Education

Hancock received his BSc (First Class Honors) (1971) and PhD (1975) in Microbiology from the University of Adelaide, where he studied bacteriophage receptors.[2] He did his post-doctoral work at the University of Tübingen in Germany (1975-1977), where he studied the E. coli outer membrane, followed by a research year at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, he began his work on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and porins proteins that form channels in membranes. While at UBC he came up with the self-promoted uptake theory,[3] the idea that antibiotics promote their own uptake across the cell membrane.

Research

Hancock began studying antibiotic resistance mechanisms in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which eventually led to his involvement in sequencing the genome of Pseudomonas, only the 4th bacterial genome to be sequenced.[4] Hancock's research identified new mechanisms of antibiotic resistance especially dependent on lifestyle adaptations in Pseudomonas,[5] and found new therapeutics for treating antibiotic resistant pathogens.[6][7] This then led to investigating small cationic peptides from nature, originally termed cationic antimicrobial peptides,[5] but eventually "host defence peptides". Hancock became one of the first and most prominent advocates that the major function of these peptides was as modulators of the immune system.[7][8] To understand the role of these peptides as modulators of the immune system he developed InnateDB, NetworkAnalyst and MetaBridge as tools to enable systems/network biology studies and insights.[9]

Currently Hancock and his lab’s research interests include small cationic peptides as novel antimicrobials, broad-spectrum anti-biofilm agents, and modulators of innate immunity, the development of novel treatments for antibiotic resistant infections and inflammation, the systems biology of innate immunity, inflammatory diseases and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and antibiotic uptake and resistance.

Other work

Canadian Anti-infective Innovation Network (CAIN)

Hancock and Gerry Wright formed the Canadian Anti-infective Innovation Network (CAIN) in 2017. CAIN was formed with the purpose of leveraging innovative approaches and expertise to solve the expanding health crisis caused by Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) infections. In less than a year CAIN grew to over 90 members from across Canada.

Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research (CMDR)

Hancock is the director of the Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research (CMDR) a multi-faculty, multi-department consortium of world class microbial diseases and immunology researchers located at the University of British Columbia.

Awards and honours

Ventures

Hancock co-founded the following companies:

  • ABT Innovations[20]
  • Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD)[1]
  • Inimex Pharmaceuticals[21]
  • Migenix[1]
  • Sepset Biotherapeutics[1]

References
  1. "Scientific Advisory Board". Qu Biologics Inc. 2018-05-07. Archived from the original on 2023-05-07. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
  2. Hancock, Robert Ernest William (1974). Cross resistance amongst coliphages (PhD thesis). University of Adelaide. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  3. Hancock, R.E.W. (2001). "Cationic peptides: effectors in innate immunity and novel antimicrobials". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 1 (3): 156–164. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(01)00092-5. PMID 11871492.
  4. Stover KC, Pham XQ, Erwin AL, Mizoguchi SD, Warrener P, Hickey MJ, Brinkman FSL, Hufnagle WO, Kowalik DJ, Lagrou M, Garber RL, Goltry L, Tolentino E, Westbrock-Wadman S, Yuan Y, Brody LL, Coulter SN, Folger KR, Kas A, Lim R, Smith K, Spencer D, Wong GK-S, Wu Z, Paulsen I, Reizer J, Saier MH, Hancock REW, Lory S, Olson MV (2000). "Complete genome sequence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: an opportunistic pathogen". Nature. 406 (6799): 956–964. doi:10.1038/35023079. PMID 10984043.
  5. Fjell CD, Hiss JA, Hancock REW, Schneider G (2012). "Designing antimicrobial peptides: Form follows function". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 11 (1): 37–51. doi:10.1038/nrd3591. PMID 22173434. S2CID 24213234.
  6. Hilpert K, Volkmer-Engert R, Walter T, Hancock REW (August 2005). "High-throughput generation of small antibacterial peptides with improved activity". Nature Biotechnology. 23 (8): 1008–12. doi:10.1038/nbt1113. PMID 16041366. S2CID 25692464.
  7. Scott MG, Dullaghan E, Mookherjee N, Glavas N, Waldbrook M, Thompson A, Wang A, Lee K, Doria S, Hamill P, Yu JJ, Li Y, Donini O, Guarna MM, Finlay BB, North JR, Hancock REW (March 2007). "An anti-infective peptide that selectively modulates the innate immune response". Nature Biotechnology. 25 (4): 465–472. doi:10.1038/nbt1288. PMID 17384586. S2CID 6127218.
  8. Hancock REW, Haney EF, Gill EE (2016). "The immunology of host defence peptides: Beyond antimicrobial activity". Nat Rev Immunol. 16 (5): 321–334. doi:10.1038/nri.2016.29. PMID 27087664. S2CID 12975620.
  9. Yeung ATY, Hale C, Lee AH, Gill EE, Bushell W, Parry-Smith D, Goulding D, Pickard D, Roumeliotis T, Choudhary J, Thomson N, Skarnes WC, Dougan G, Hancock REW (2017). "Exploiting induced pluripotent stem cell-derived macrophages to unravel key host factors influencing Chlamydia trachomatis pathogenesis". Nature Communications. 8: 15013. Bibcode:2017NatCo...815013Y. doi:10.1038/ncomms15013. PMC 5414054. PMID 28440293.
  10. "Prix Galien Canada 2012 Research". Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  11. "Find a Recipient". The Governor General of Canada. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  12. "CAHS Fellows". Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  13. "2009 Recipient". Order of British Columbia. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  14. "Inimex Co-Founder Bob Hancock Receives 2006 Michael Smith Prize". T-Net. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  15. "Past Award Winners". Royal Society of Canada. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  16. "Antimicrobial Research Award (Formerly Cubist-ICAAC Award)". American Society for Microbiology. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  17. "Find a Recipient". The Governor General of Canada. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  18. "Canada Research Chairs". Government of Canada. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  19. "Fellows". Royal Society of Canada. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  20. Lindsay, Bethany (September 27, 2016). "UBC professor working on new tool to fight painful, dangerous infections". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  21. "Inimex Raises US $22 Million in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance". Newswire. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
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