Dr. Lawrence Williams is an Adjunct Professor in the College of Health Sciences, University of Technology, Jamaica and his research has focused on the production of anti-cancer treatments from natural products in particular Jamaican Guinea-hen weed (Petivera alliacea). Dr. Williams was born in 1963 in St. Elizabeth and went to Calabar High School where his interest in biology started. He graduated from The University of the West Indies with a B.Sc. degree in zoology and chemistry in 1987 and started to work at the Scientific Research Council on natural product pesticides. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation in 1991 at the University of the West Indies on ‘Biological Activity in Leaf Extracts from the Artocarpus altilis [the Breadfruit]’ and was later employed in the Faculty of Medical Sciences. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humbolt Scholarship to do postdoctoral studies on the guinea hen weed (Petivera allliacea) at the Hohenheim University in Germany. The investigations yielded the compound dibenzyl trisulphide, which has been shown to cure cancer cells inside a laboratory. The compound has been found to cure cells that affect the brain, bladder, breast, skin and lungs. In 2010, Dr. Williams and colleague, Dr. H.G. Levy, a Jamaican-born medical doctor based in the USA, were awarded an international patent on a protein complex of dibenzyl trisulphide, isolated from the guinea hen weed. In 2011, for his contribution to science, Dr. Williams was awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica. In 2017, Dr. Williams and co-researcher Dr. George Levy obtained a further patent with the US for the discovery of anti-cancer activity in the plant.
Professor Lawrence Williams
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Biotechnology
Professor, UTech
Jamaica
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