Ten Feizi

Early life and education Born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1937 to a Turkish Cypriot family, She studied medicine at the Royal Free Medical School, and graduated with distinction in 1961. During her placement at the Hammersmith, Feizi became interested in atypical pneumonia. Almost one third of patients who suffer from atypical pneumonia develop cold agglutinins in their blood, which are misdirected antibodies that bind to red blood cells. As an early career researcher, Feizi joined the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons as a College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia Fellow, where she worked with Elvin A. Kabat on glycans. Feizi considered the relationship between the I antigen and mycoplasma, and showed that a sialic-capped form of poly-N-acetyllactosamine acts as a mycoplasma receptor.

Feizi showed that during both cellular differentiation and the transformation of normal cells to tumorous cells, anti-li blood group antibodies could be used to track changes in glycosylation. She studied the ability of animal lectins to bind to oligosaccharides. In 2002 her system was the first to encompass entire glycomes. Her glycoarray system, which is supported by the Wellcome Trust, is one of the world's most diverse, which allows better understanding of host–pathogen interactions and the interactions between glycans and proteins in disease processes. The system was used to assign the host-cell receptors in SV40 and Influenza A virus subtype H1N1.

Awards 1994 American Society for Clinical Pathology Outstanding Research Award 2014 Society for Glycobiology Rosalind Kornfeld Lifetime Achievement Award

She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists. In May 2021 she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

Selected publications