David J. Galton

David Jeremy Galton (2 May 1937 – 30 January 2024 ) was a British physician and researcher in molecular genetics and metabolic disease, primarily the hyperlipidemias and diabetes mellitus.

He is not related to Francis Galton the Victorian-era polymath and eugenicist.

Early life and education David Galton was educated at Highgate School London and graduated from University College London in 1957 with a BSc (first class honours) and MB.BS (with honours in medicine) in 1960. After house-staff training he went to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda Maryland, USA to study with Robert Scow and Martin Rodbell.

Research His laboratory's main contributions have been to reveal defects of metabolic regulatory elements in common metabolic disease (mainly diabetes mellitus, the lipemias and atherosclerosis) at both phenotype and genotype levels:

His group identified the earliest loss of an allosteric regulation of a rate-determining enzyme, phosphofructokinase by citrate in minimal deviation tumours, lipomata. Many more such defects have subsequently come to light particularly to deregulate pathways in early neoplasia.

Abnormalities in the covalent modification of peptide regulators were found to have effects on enzyme activity. Thus one extra sialyl residue on apolipoprotein C3 impairs its action on lipoprotein lipase. This can affect expression of the resulting phenotype of hypertriglyceridemia.

His laboratory was one of the first to use single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to reveal susceptibility genes that predispose individuals to develop metabolic disorders, such as hypertriglyceridemia and atherosclerosis. This led eventually to the development of Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) where more than 1400 susceptibility loci have now been identified using SNPs and some have led to useful therapeutic agents such as volanesorsen

Awards Travelling Research Fellowship from the Mental Health Research Fund 1960 Doctor of Medicine London University 1967. Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians, London 1975. Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmology UK 1976. Erasmus European Professorship 1991. Doctor of Science London University 1992. Jephcott Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine London UK 1994. Tempus Professorship of the European Union 1996 and 1997.