The Tricia Cohen Memorial Trust was recently established in memory of the late Professor Tricia Cohen, who carried out her research programme at the University of Dundee in the Department of Biochemistry and MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit for 48 years between 1971 and 2019. Tricia’s key research contributions were to determine the structures of genes coding for protein phosphatases, a family of enzymes essential for the survival and function of human cells. She also discovered several previously unknown protein phosphatases and defined their functional roles in cells. The first woman to lead a research team in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Dundee, her work had a significant impact globally.

Along with her husband and colleague Sir Philip Cohen, Tricia was appointed one of the two founding Principal Investigators of The Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation Unit (MRC-PPU) at the University of Dundee, where she was Head of Molecular Biology from 1990-2010.

The Tricia Cohen Memorial Trust was constituted by a Deed of Trust in November 2020 to fund biomedical research until Tricia Cohen’s 100th birthday in 2044.  The Trust was awarded charitable status by OSCR in March 2021 and registered with HMRC for gift aid in May 2021. Since May, the Trust has raised over £260,000 from 80 donors worldwide towards its £300,000 target to establish an endowment fund in Professor Tricia Cohen’s memory that will fund six PhD studentships to run consecutively from 2022 and 2044.

The Trust is working in close partnership with the University of Dundee, to appoint the inaugural Tricia Cohen postgraduate scholar who will begin their research project in 2022.

If you would like to donate to the Trust, please download the Donation Form below and contact the Trust’s Treasurer, Chris Sheasby.


email to: csheasby@bluejayadvisory.co.uk


Trustee Report and Financial Statements

Financial Statements 2024

Financial Statements 2023

Financial Statements 2022