The 2024 Molecular and Cellular Proteomics (MCP) / American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Lectureship Award will be presented to Dr. Iain Wilson during this year’s Society for Glycobiology (SFG) Annual meeting on Amelia Island, Florida. The MCP journal was created in 2001 to address the growing needs of the proteomics community. The MCP/ASBMB award was established in 2013 and has been bestowed upon a single scientist each year who is at the forefront of the emerging fields of glycomics and glycoproteomics.

Dr. Wilson earned his Bachelor of Science degree with Honors from the University of Edinburgh in 1988, and his PhD degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford in 1992. Since 2002, he has been an Associate Professor at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU).

Dr. Wilson is an esteemed expert in glycomics, focusing particularly on non-vertebrate eukaryotes, such as invertebrates and protist species. He has successfully led twelve projects supported by the Austrian Science Fund, he has participated in two Marie Curie Initial Training Networks, and he serves as a faculty member in the BioTOP doctoral program.

Notably, Iain's research has focused on understanding the structure, biosynthesis, function, and medical repercussions of glycans. His ongoing projects cover the development of glycan arrays, comparative glycomics of various organisms, and correlating glycosylation with actual function. His team has also worked on glycosylation in model organisms and examined the enzymes responsible for glycan biosynthesis. They use a wide range of tools such as cDNA cloning, expressing glycosyltransferases, enzymatic characterization, RNAi in cell culture, and analysis of glycans from plants and invertebrates. He has also been involved in a translational research project focused on preparing recombinant glycosidases. At present, he is dedicated to developing a dipteran glycan array, as well as conducting comparative glycomics of bivalves, trichomonads, and flukes in his efforts to uncover correlations between glycosylation and function.

In addition to his research accomplishments, Dr. Wilson served as President of the International Glycoconjugate Organization from 2011 to 2013 and was a board member of the Austrian Science Fund for twelve years. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Glycobiology, and the Glycoconjugate Journal.

In recognition of his accomplishments, in particular his work in mass spectroscopy, Dr. Wilson was recommended by the SFG awards committee and chosen by the editorial leadership of the MCP to receive the 2024 MCP Lectureship Award.