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Alec Jeffreys

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Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys
Born (1950-01-09) 9 January 1950 (age 74)
Oxford, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Alma materMerton College, Oxford
Known forInventor of genetic fingerprinting
SpouseSusan (née Miles) m. 1971
AwardsBicentenary Medal (1987)
Albert Einstein World Award of Science (1996)
Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research (2005),
Royal Medal awarded by the Royal Society (2004),
Greatest Briton of 2006
EMBO member[1]
Copley Medal[2] (2014)
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics
InstitutionsUniversity of Amsterdam, University of Leicester
Alec Jeffreys' voice
Recorded December 2007 from the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs

Professor Sir Alec John Jeffreys, FRS (born 9 January 1950 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) is a British geneticist, who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used worldwide in forensic science to assist police detective work and to resolve paternity and immigration disputes.[3][4] He is a professor of genetics at the University of Leicester,[5][6] and he became an honorary freeman of the City of Leicester on 26 November 1992.[7] In 1994, he was knighted for services to science and technology.

Early life

Jeffreys was born into a middle-class family in Oxford, where he spent the first six years of his life until 1956, when the family moved to Luton. He attributes his curiosity and inventiveness to having been gained from his father, as well as his paternal grandfather, who held a number of patents.[4] When he was eight, his father gave him a chemistry set, which he enhanced over the next few years with extra chemicals, even including a small bottle of sulphuric acid.[4] He says he liked making small explosions, but an accidental splash of the sulphuric acid caused a burn, which left a permanent scar on his chin (now under his beard).[4] His father also bought him a Victorian-era brass microscope,[8] which he used to examine biological specimens.[4] At about 12, he made a small dissecting kit (including a scalpel, crafted from a flattened pin) which he used to dissect a bumblebee, but he got into trouble with his parents when he progressed to dissecting a larger specimen. One Sunday morning he found a dead cat on the road while doing his paper round and took it home in his bag. He relates that he started to dissect it on the dining room table before Sunday lunch, causing a foul smell throughout the house after he ruptured its intestines.[4]

Jeffreys was a pupil at Luton Grammar School and then Luton Sixth Form College.[9] He won a scholarship to study at Merton College, Oxford on a four-year course, where he graduated in 1972 with first-class honours in biochemistry.[10]

Career

Alec Jeffreys

Jeffreys prepared his thesis, "Studies on the mitochondria of cultured mammalian cells", as a postgraduate student at the Genetics Laboratory, University of Oxford. After finishing his PhD, he moved to the University of Amsterdam, where he worked on mammalian genes as a research fellow,[9] and then to the University of Leicester in 1977, where in 1984 he discovered a method of showing variations between individuals' DNA, inventing and developing genetic fingerprinting.[4][11]

Genetic fingerprinting

Jeffreys says he had a "eureka moment" in his lab in Leicester after looking at the X-ray film image of a DNA experiment on 10 September 1984, which unexpectedly showed both similarities and differences between the DNA of different members of his technician's family.[3][11] Within about half an hour, he continued, he realized the possible scope of DNA fingerprinting, which uses variations in the genetic code to identify individuals. The method has become important in forensic science to assist police detective work, and it has also proved useful in resolving paternity and immigration disputes.[4] The method can also be applied to non-human species, for example in wildlife population genetics studies. Before his methods were commercialised in 1987, his laboratory was the only centre in the world that carried out DNA fingerprinting, and was consequently very busy, receiving inquiries from all over the globe.[4][11]

Jeffreys' DNA method was first put to use in 1985 when he was asked to help in a disputed immigration case to confirm the identity of a British boy whose family was originally from Ghana.[4] The case was resolved when the DNA results proved that the boy was closely related to the other members of the family, and Jeffreys saw the relief in the mother's face when she heard the results.[4] DNA fingerprinting was first used in a police forensic test to identify the killer of two teenagers, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, who had been raped and murdered in Narborough, Leicestershire, in 1983 and 1986 respectively. Colin Pitchfork was identified and convicted of their murders after samples taken from him matched semen samples taken from the two dead girls.[4] This turned out to be a specifically important identification; British authorities believe that without it an innocent man would have inevitably been convicted. Not only did Jeffreys' work in this case prove who the real killer was, but it exonerated Richard Buckland, initially a prime suspect, who likely would have spent his life in prison otherwise. In 1992, Jeffreys' methods were used to confirm the identity for German prosecutors of the Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele, who had died in 1979, by comparing DNA obtained from a femur bone of his exhumed skeleton,[8] with DNA from his widow and son, in a similar way to paternity testing.[4]

DNA profiling

DNA profiling, based on typing individual highly variable minisatellites in the human genome, was also developed by Alec Jeffreys and his team in 1985,[12][13] with the term DNA fingerprinting being retained for the initial test that types many minisatellites simultaneously. By focusing on just a few of these highly variable minisatellites, DNA profiling made the system more sensitive, more reproducible and amenable to computer databases. It soon became the standard forensic DNA system used in criminal case work and paternity testing worldwide.

The development of DNA amplification by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) opened up new approaches to forensic DNA testing, allowing automation, greatly increased sensitivity and a move to alternative marker systems. The most commonly used markers are now variable microsatellites, also known as short tandem repeats (STRs), which Jeffreys first exploited in 1990 in the Mengele case.[14] STR profiling was further refined by a team of scientists led by Peter Gill at the Forensic Science Service in the 1990s, allowing the launch of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD) in 1995. With highly automated and sophisticated equipment, modern-day DNA profiling can process hundreds of samples each day. Ten micro satellites, plus a marker for sex determination, are used with the current system developed for the NDNAD, giving a discrimination power of one in over a billion. Under British law, anyone arrested in England, Wales or Northern Ireland has their DNA profile taken and stored on the database whether or not they are convicted (different rules apply in Scotland).[15] The national database now contains the DNA information of nearly five million people. Jeffreys has opposed the current use of DNA profiling, where the government has access to that database,[16] and has instead proposed a database of all people's DNA, access to which would be controlled by an independent third party.[17]

Personal life

Jeffreys met his future wife, Sue Miles, in a youth club in the centre of Luton, Bedfordshire, before he became a university student,[4][9] and married her on 28 August 1971.[18] Jeffreys has one brother and one sister; he and his wife have two daughters, born in 1979 and 1983.[18]

Awards and recognition

References

  1. ^ Find an EMBO member
  2. ^ a b "Leicester University Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys wins science's oldest prize". Leicester Mercury. 5 August 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  3. ^ a b DNA pioneer's 'eureka' moment BBC. Retrieved 14 October 2011
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Desert Island Discs with Alec Jeffreys". Desert Island Discs. 9 December 2007. BBC. Radio 4. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 16754883, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=16754883 instead.
  6. ^ "Staff pages: Professor Sir Alec J. Jeffreys FRS". University of Leicester. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b "List of persons upon whom the honorary freedom of the city has been conferred". Leicester City Council. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/nbt0306-270, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/nbt0306-270 instead.
  9. ^ a b c "The Gene Genius". University of Leicester. September 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "CV – Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys". Technology Academy Foundation, Finland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b c Newton, Giles (4 February 2004). "Discovering DNA fingerprinting: Sir Alec Jeffreys describes its development". Wellcome Trust. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 3856104, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=3856104 instead.
  13. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 2989708, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=2989708 instead.
  14. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 1398379, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=1398379 instead.
  15. ^ Johnson, Paul; Williams, Robin (22 March 2006). "DNA and Crime Investigation: Scotland and the 'UK National DNA Database'". The Scottish journal of criminal justice studies : the journal of the Scottish Association for the Study of Delinquency. 10. UKPMC: nihms6806. PMC 1408072. PMID 16557290.
  16. ^ Matthews, Robert (2 November 2006). "The informer in your blood". The First Post. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "Privacy fears over DNA database". BBC. 12 September 2002. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ a b Debrett's People of Today 2005 (18th ed.). Debrett's. p. 857. ISBN 1-870520-10-6.
  19. ^ "List of Fellows of the Royal Society: 1660–2007: A – J". The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 9 October 2007.
  20. ^ "Sir Alec Jeffreys FRS – DNA fingerprinting". The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ "Albert Einstein World Award of Science 1996". World Cultural Council. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  22. ^ "Response by Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys". University of Leicester. July 2004. Retrieved 15 December 2007. [dead link]
  23. ^ "Royal recent winners". The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ The Pride of Britain Awards – Lifetime Achievement, Sir Alec Jeffreys Retrieved 14 October 2011
  25. ^ "The winners of the Louis-Jeantet Prize for medicine". Louis-Jeantet Foundation. Archived from the original on 18 November 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ "2005 Albert Lasker Award – Acceptance remarks by Alec Jeffreys". Lasker Foundation. Archived from the original on 15 December 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
  27. ^ "2005 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research". Lasker Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
  28. ^ "Alec Jeffreys NAS biography". NAS website. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  29. ^ "Laureates: Alec J. Jeffreys". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ "King's first Honorary Degree Ceremony". King's College London. 8 March 2007. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 15 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ "Lecture Abstract: Prof Sir Alec Jeffreys 'DNA Fingerprinting and beyond'". Glasgow Philosophical Society. 23 January 2008. [dead link]
  32. ^ "The University of Huddersfield's 2009 Honorary Award recipients". University of Huddersfield. 9 December 2009. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ "Edinburgh Medal". Edinburgh Science Festival. 14 April 2010. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  34. ^ "ABRF Annual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Biomolecular Technologies".
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