Dr Lukas Krone has been sworn in as the new Staines Medical Research Fellow at Exeter College and welcomed by the Rector, Major General Dr. Andrew Roe, CB to the college’s governing body.
This Prize Fellowship, endowed by the Amelia Jackson Trust Fund, is awarded every three years to a world-leading early career researcher in the medical sciences. Over the past century, several recipients of this prestigious fellowship have made major contributions to medical research and society.
On his election, Lukas commented: 'I am deeply honoured to serve as the Staines Medical Research Fellow and immensely grateful to Exeter College for supporting my research, which aims to identify core principles of sleep regulation and enable sleep modulation in mammals. As a sleep medicine specialist, I am painfully aware of the urgent need for interventions that can ameliorate sleep in individuals with sleep disruptions.'
'Despite decades of research and billions spent on development and marketing of "sleeping pills" and "sleep aids", currently no treatment exits that can restore physiological sleep with its plethora of health benefits. The striking lack of safe and effective pharmacological treatments, particularly for insomnia, is due to a lack of key insights into the molecular principles and neural circuits of sleep regulation in the mammalian brain. Although 1 in 10 adults have a medically relevant sleep disorder and approximately half of the general population are unsatisfied with their sleep, no clinical specialty training exists and little research efforts are made into fundamental and translational sleep research compared to other health problems that cause a similar global burden of disease. I have dedicated my career to drive progress in this neglected field of medicine.'
About his new role in the college, Lukas stated: 'Amelia Jackson, born Amelia Staines, was beloved by the Exeter College community for encountering students and staff with the same curiosity, respect, and kindness as the many eminent guests she and her husband hosted at the college during his rectorship. I hope to contribute to the flourishing college community through mentorship, teaching, and public outreach as well as by inspiring our medical students to tread the long but rewarding path of a clinician-scientist.'
Dr Lukas Krone was a DPhil student in the Vyazovskiy and Molnár labs at DPAG between 2017 and 2021 and returned to the department in 2023 as a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow hosted by Professor Gero Miesenböck.