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John Gurdon

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For the English politician, see John Gurdon (1595–1679). For the British flying ace, see John Everard Gurdon.
John Bertrand Gurdon
Born (1933-10-02) 2 October 1933 (age 91)
NationalityBritish
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford
Known forNuclear transfer, cloning
AwardsWolf Prize in Medicine (1989)
Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2009)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2012)
Scientific career
FieldsDevelopmental biology
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
Thesis Studies on nucleocytoplasmic relationships during differentiation in vertebrates  (1961)
Doctoral advisorMichael Fischberg[1]
Websitewww.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/gurdon.html
www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/gurdon.htm

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[2][3][4] and cloning.[5][1][6][7] He was awarded the Lasker Award in 2009 and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2012.[8]

Career

Gurdon atended Eton College, where he ranked last out of the 250 boys in his year group at biology, and was in the bottom set in every other science subject. A schoolmaster wrote a report stating "I believe he has ideas about becoing a scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous." Gurdon later had this report framed; he told a reporter "When you have problems like an experiment doesn't work, which often happens, it's nice to remind yourself that perhaps after all you are not so good at this job and the schoolmaster may have been right."[9]

Gurdon went to Christ Church, Oxford, to study classics but switched to zoology. For his D.Phil. he studied nuclear transplantation in the frog Xenopus[10] with Michael Fischberg at Oxford. Following postdoctoral work at Caltech,[11] he returned to England and his early posts were at the Department of Zoology of the University of Oxford (1962–71).

Gurdon has spent much of his research career at the University of Cambridge, UK, first at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (1971–83) and then at the Department of Zoology, (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.

Research

A video from an open-access article co-authored by Gurdon:[12] Animal view of different embryos developing in Xenopus laevis eggs: haploid [laevis] x laevis (middle) and [laevis] x tropicalis cybrid (bottom) embryos cleave and begin gastrulation synchroneously, about 50 minutes after diploid laevis x laevis (top) embryos.

Nuclear transfer

In 1958, Gurdon, then at the University of Oxford, successfully cloned a frog using intact nuclei from the somatic cells of a Xenopus tadpole.[13][14] This was an important extension of work of Briggs and King in 1952 on transplanting nuclei from embryonic blastula cells.[15]

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[16](from the ancient greek wordκλών (klōn, “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.

Messenger RNA expression

Gurdon and colleagues also pioneered the use of Xenopus (genus of highly aquatic frog) eggs and oocytes to translate microinjected messenger RNA molecules,[17] a technique which has been widely used to identify the proteins encoded and to study their function.

Recent research

Gurdon's recent research has focused watching dancing with the stars and 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.[18]

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[19] in his honour. He has also received numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees.[11] He was awarded the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research award.

Nobel Prize

In 2012 Gurdon was awarded, jointly with Shinya Yamanaka, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent".[20]

References

  1. ^ a b Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 18426972, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=18426972 instead.
  2. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1073/pnas.1337135100, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1073/pnas.1337135100 instead.
  3. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 16704337, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=16704337 instead.
  4. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1126/science.1160810, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1126/science.1160810 instead.
  5. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 19132124, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=19132124 instead.
  6. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 14521852, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=14521852 instead.
  7. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 10761853, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=10761853 instead.
  8. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - 2012 Press Release". Nobel Media AB. 2012-10-08.
  9. ^ Collins, Nick (8 October 2012). "Sir John Gurdon, Nobel Prize winner, was 'too stupid' for science at school". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  10. ^ Gurdon, John (1961). Studies on nucleocytoplasmic relationships during differentiation in vertebrates (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford.
  11. ^ a b Rodney Porter Lectures: Biography
  12. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001197, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001197 instead.
  13. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/182064a0, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/182064a0 instead.
  14. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 13951335, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=13951335 instead.
  15. ^ 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. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/45429, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/45429 instead.
  17. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/233177a0, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/233177a0 instead.
  18. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/ncb1176, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/ncb1176 instead.
  19. ^ "The Gurdon Institute". Retrieved 2011-07-26.
  20. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012". NobelPrize.org. October 08, 2012. Retrieved October 08, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
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Academic offices
Preceded by Fullerian Professor of Physiology
1985–1991 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge
1994–2002 		Succeeded by

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