David Stuart achieved early recognition for his X-ray crystallographic analyses of viral structures of critical importance to animal and human health. The structures of viruses, viral proteins and associated host proteins that he determined revealed how the body’s immune system responds to viruses and why it sometimes fails to eliminate them.

David obtained technically difficult high-resolution structures of the large and complex foot and mouth disease and bluetongue viruses. His work on the enzyme HIV-1 reverse transcriptase has led to the design of a number of inhibitors that could be used to treat HIV infection and AIDS.

Recently David headed the development of vaccine candidates for human and animal diseases based on synthetic virus shells. He is an influential leader of collaborative infrastructure projects, and his work was recognised in 2006 with the Gregori Aminoff Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and in 2007 with the Max Perutz Prize of the European Crystallographic Association.