John Gurdon
| John Bertrand Gurdon | |
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| Born | 2 October 1933 |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Developmental biology |
| Institutions | University of Oxford University of Cambridge California Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Nuclear transfer, cloning |
| Notable awards | Wolf Prize in Medicine (1989) Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2009) |
Sir John Bertrand Gurdon (JBG), FRS (born 2 October 1933) is a British developmental biologist. He is best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation[1][2][3] and cloning. [4][5][6][7] He was recently awarded the Lasker Award.
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[edit] Career
After attending Eton College, Gurdon went up to Christ Church, Oxford, to study classics but switched to zoology. For his PhD he studied nuclear transplantation in the frog Xenopus with Michael Fischberg at Oxford, and then did postdoctoral work at Caltech.[8] His early posts were at the Department of Zoology of the University of Oxford (1962–71).
Gurdon has spent much of his research career in Cambridge, UK, first at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (1971–83) and then at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge (1983–date). In 1989, he was a founding member of the Wellcome/CRC Institute for Cell Biology and Cancer (later Wellcome/CR UK) in Cambridge, and was its Chair until 2001. He was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics 1991-1995, and Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1995 to 2002.
[edit] Research
[edit] Nuclear transfer
In 1958, Gurdon, then at Oxford University, successfully cloned a frog using intact nuclei from the somatic cells of a Xenopus tadpole.[9][10] This was an important extension of work of Briggs and King in 1952 on transplanting nuclei from embryonic blastula cells [11]
Gurdon’s experiments captured the attention of the scientific community and the tools and techniques he developed for nuclear transfer are still used today. The term clone[12] (from the Greek word klōn, meaning “twig”) had already been in use since the beginning of the 20th century in reference to plants. In 1963 the British biologist J. B. S. Haldane, in describing Gurdon’s results, became one of the first to use the word clone in reference to animals.
[edit] Messenger RNA expression
Gurdon and colleagues also pioneered the use of Xenopus eggs and oocytes to translate microinjected messenger RNA molecules,[13] a technique which has been widely used to identify the proteins encoded and to study their function.
[edit] Recent research
Gurdon's recent research has focused on analysing intercellular signalling factors involved in cell differentiation, and on elucidating the mechanisms involved in reprogramming the nucleus in transplantation experiments, including demethylation of the transplanted DNA.[14]
[edit] Honours and awards
Gurdon was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1971, and was knighted in 1995. In 2004, the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Institute for Cell Biology and Cancer was renamed the Gurdon Institute[15] in his honour. He has also received numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees.[8] He has been awarded the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research award.
[edit] References
- ^ Gurdon, J. B.; Byrne, J. A. (2003). "The first half-century of nuclear transplantation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 (14): 8048. doi:10.1073/pnas.1337135100.
- ^ Gurdon, J. B. (2006). "From Nuclear Transfer to Nuclear Reprogramming: The Reversal of Cell Differentiation". Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology 22: 1–22. doi:10.1146/annurev.cellbio.22.090805.140144. PMID 16704337.
- ^ Gurdon, J. B.; Melton, D. A. (2008). "Nuclear Reprogramming in Cells". Science 322 (5909): 1811–1815. doi:10.1126/science.1160810. PMID 19095934.
- ^ Kain, K. (2009). "The birth of cloning: An interview with John Gurdon". Disease Models and Mechanisms 2 (1–2): 9–10. doi:10.1242/dmm.002014. PMC 2615171. PMID 19132124. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2615171.
- ^ Williams, R. (2008). "Sir John Gurdon: Godfather of cloning". The Journal of Cell Biology 181 (2): 178–179. doi:10.1083/jcb.1812pi. PMC 2315664. PMID 18426972. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2315664.
- ^ Gurdon, J. (2003). "John Gurdon". Current biology : CB 13 (19): R759–R760. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2003.09.015. PMID 14521852.
- ^ Gurdon, J. (2000). "Not a total waste of time. An interview with John Gurdon. Interview by James C Smith". The International journal of developmental biology 44 (1): 93–99. PMID 10761853.
- ^ a b Rodney Porter Lectures: Biography
- ^ Gurdon, J. B.; Elsdale, T. R.; Fischberg, M. (1958). "Sexually Mature Individuals of Xenopus laevis from the Transplantation of Single Somatic Nuclei". Nature 182 (4627): 64–65. doi:10.1038/182064a0. PMID 13566187.
- ^ Gurdon, J. B. (1962). "The developmental capacity of nuclei taken from intestinal epithelium cells of feeding tadpoles". Journal of embryology and experimental morphology 10: 622–640. PMID 13951335.
- ^ Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King (1952 May). "Transplantation of Living Nuclei From Blastula Cells into Enucleated Frogs' Eggs". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 38 (5): 455–463. doi:10.1073/pnas.38.5.455. PMC 1063586. PMID 16589125. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1063586.
- ^ Gurdon, J. B.; Colman, A. (1999). "The future of cloning". Nature 402 (6763): 743–746. doi:10.1038/45429. PMID 10617195.
- ^ Gurdon, J. B.; Lane, C. D.; Woodland, H. R.; Marbaix, G. (1971). "Use of Frog Eggs and Oocytes for the Study of Messenger RNA and its Translation in Living Cells". Nature 233 (5316): 177–182. doi:10.1038/233177a0. PMID 4939175.
- ^ Simonsson, S.; Gurdon, J. (2004). "DNA demethylation is necessary for the epigenetic reprogramming of somatic cell nuclei". Nature Cell Biology 6 (10): 984–990. doi:10.1038/ncb1176. PMID 15448701.
- ^ "The Gurdon Institute". http://www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/. Retrieved 2011-07-26.
[edit] External links
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by David Chilton Phillips |
Fullerian Professor of Physiology 1985–1991 |
Succeeded by Anne McLaren |
| Preceded by Sir David Calcutt |
Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge 1994–2002 |
Succeeded by Duncan Robinson |
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- 1933 births
- Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
- British biologists
- Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Fullerian Professors of Physiology
- British agnostics
- Knights Bachelor
- Living people
- Masters of Magdalene College, Cambridge
- Members of the French Academy of Sciences
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- Recipients of the Copley Medal
- Royal Medal winners
- Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates
