Professor Radford joins one of the UK's most prestigious medical academies for her work on protein folding. Her research involves 'stretching out' the molecules making up proteins using various means, combined with intricate experiments to find out what leads proteins to fold or to mis-fold, and its implications in health and disease.

The Academy of Medical Sciences is the independent body representing the whole spectrum of medical science, and was established in 1998. Its mission is to ensure better healthcare through the rapid application of research to the practice of medicine.

Professor Radford was admitted to the Academy at a ceremony on 22 June 2010.

Radford is Deputy Director of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology and is based in the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds.

She said: "Being made a fellow of the Academy is a tremendous honour for me personally, for the Astbury Centre, the Faculty of Biological Sciences and the University of Leeds. It's great that our fundamental scientific research has been recognised in this way.

"Being a scientist is demanding - there can be a lot of hard work and many set-backs - so an award like this is a massive pat on the back from my peers, for myself, my collaborators and my research team past and present."

Radford obtained her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham in 1984 and her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1987. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford, she became a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Oxford Centre for Molecular Sciences where she commenced her work on protein folding. She joined the academic staff of the University of Leeds in 1995, became a Reader in 1998, was appointed as Professor in Structural Molecular Biology in August 2000.

Colin Robinson, Emeritus Professor of the Dental Institute at the University of Leeds and Founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "This is an extraordinary personal accolade for Sheena and for the University of Leeds. The Academy's stringent election procedure admits only the foremost biomedical scientists in the UK. Sheena's fellowship is therefore an important recognition of her internationally acknowledged work on fundamental aspects of protein folding in relation to a wide range of medical problems."

Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Arthur, Professor Tim Bishop, Professor Malcolm Levene, Sir Alexander Markham, Professor Pamela Rabbits and Professor Peter Selby of the University of Leeds are also fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.