John Sulston

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox scientist Sir John Edward Sulston Template:Post-nominals (27 March 1942 – 6 March 2018<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>) was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans in 2002 with his colleagues Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was a leader in human genome research and Chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Sulston was in favour of science in the public interest, such as free public access of scientific information and against the patenting of genes and the privatisation of genetic technologies.<ref name=lancet>Ivan Oransky, Adam Marcus John Sulston. obituary 7 April 2018, The Lancet</ref>

Early life and education

Sulston was born in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England<ref name="guardian_obit">Template:Cite news</ref> to Arthur Edward Aubrey Sulston and Josephine Muriel Frearson, née Blocksidge.<ref name="whoswho"/><ref name=nndb>Template:Cite web</ref> His father was an Anglican priest and administrator of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. His mother quit her job as an English teacher at Watford Grammar School, to care for him and his sister Madeleine.<ref name=achiev>Template:Cite web</ref> and home-tutored them until he was five. At age five he entered the local preparatory school, York House School, where he soon developed an aversion to games. He developed an early interest in science, having fun with dissecting animals and sectioning plants to observe their structure and function.<ref name=nobel>Template:Nobelprize</ref> Sulston won a scholarship to Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood<ref name="whoswho"/> and then to Pembroke College, Cambridge graduating in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts<ref name="whoswho"/> degree in Natural Sciences (Chemistry). He joined the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, after being interviewed by Alexander Todd<ref name=nobel/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and was awarded his PhD in 1966 for research in nucleotide chemistry.<ref name=sulstonphd>Template:Cite thesis Template:Free access</ref>

Career

Between 1966 and 1969 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.<ref name=nndb/> His academic advisor Colin Reese<ref name=sulstonphd/><ref name=nobel/> had arranged for him to work with Leslie Orgel, who would turn his scientific career onto a different pathway. Orgel introduced him to Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner, who worked in Cambridge. He became inclined to biological research.<ref name=achiev/>

Although Orgel wanted Sulston to remain with him, Sydney Brenner persuaded Sulston to return to CambridgeTemplate:When to work on the neurobiology of Caenorhabditis elegans at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB). Sulston soon produced the complete map of the worm's neurons.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He continued work on its DNA and subsequently the whole genome sequencing. In 1998, the whole genome sequence was published in collaboration with the Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis,<ref name="Wilson1999">Template:Cite journal</ref> <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> so that C. elegans became the first animal to have its complete genome sequenced.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sulston played a central role in both the C. elegans<ref name="celegans"/> and human genome<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> sequencing projects. He had argued successfully for the sequencing of C. elegans to show that large-scale genome sequencing projects were feasible. As sequencing of the worm genome proceeded, the Human Genome Project began. At this point he was made director of the newly established Sanger Centre (named after Fred Sanger<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>), located in Cambridgeshire, England.

In 2000, after the 'working draft' of the human genome sequence was completed, Sulston retired from directing the Sanger Centre. With Georgina Ferry, he narrated his research career leading to the human genome sequence in The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics, and the Human Genome (2002).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Awards and honours

Sulston was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1986.<ref name=frs>Template:Cite web --Template:Cite web</ref> His certificate of election reads: Template:Blockquote He was elected an EMBO Member in 1989<ref name=membo>Template:Cite web</ref> and awarded the George W. Beadle Award in 2000.<ref name="beadle">Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2001 Sulston gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on The Secrets of Life. In 2002, he won the Dan David Prize and the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. Later, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine<ref>John Sulston: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002</ref> with Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz, both of whom he had collaborated with at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'. One of Sulston's most important contributions during his research years at the LMB was to elucidate the precise order in which cells in C. elegans divide. In fact, he and his team succeeded in tracing the nematode's entire embryonic cell lineage.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2004, Sulston received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2006, he was awarded the George Dawson Prize in Genetics by Trinity College Dublin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2013, Sulston was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand's Rutherford Memorial Lecture, which he gave on the subject of population pressure.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to science and society.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

On 23 October 2017 he was awarded the Cambridge Chemistry Alumni Medal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sulston was a leading campaigner against the patenting of human genetic information.

Personal life

File:EBI and Sanger Center, Genome campus, Cambridgeshire.jpg

The Sulston Laboratories of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute are named in Sulston's honour.

John Sulston met Daphne Bate, a research assistant in Cambridge.<ref name="guardian_obit" /> They got married in 1966<ref name="guardian_obit" /> just before they left for US for postdoctoral research. Together they had two children. Their first child, Ingrid, was born in La Jolla in 1967, and their second, Adrian, later in England.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The couple lived in Stapleford, Cambridgeshire where they were active members of the local community:Template:Citation needed John regularly volunteered in the local library and in working parties at Magog Down; he was a Trustee of Cambridge Past, Present and Future.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Verify source

Although brought up in a Christian family, Sulston lost his faith during his student life at Cambridge, and remained an atheist.<ref name=nobel/><ref name=nndb/> He was a distinguished supporter of Humanists UK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sulston was in favour of free public access of scientific information. He wanted genome information freely available, and he described as "totally immoral and disgusting" the idea of profiteering from such research. He also wanted to change patent law, and argued that restrictions on drugs such as the anti-viral drug Tamiflu by Roche are a hindrance to patients whose lives are dependent on them.<ref name=nndb/>

In December 2010, Sulston backed Julian Assange by acting as a bail surety for him, according to Assange's attorney Mark Stephens.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sulston forfeited £15,000 of the £20,000 pledged in June 2012, as Assange had entered the embassy of Ecuador to escape the jurisdiction of the English courts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sulston died on 6 March 2018 of stomach cancer, aged 75 years.<ref name=lancet/>

External links

• Freeview Video of Fredrick Sanger in conversation with John Sulston by the Vega Science Trust
• John Sulston profile from the Medical Research Council lab for Molecular Biology
• John Sulston interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 16 September 2008 (video)
• Template:Nobelprize
• The public servant: John Sulston
• British Scientists share 2002 Nobel Prize
• John Sulston: One man and his worm from The Guardian

• John Sulston profile on the Stapleford Cambridge website where he lives