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John Sulston

John Sulston

Sir John Edward Sulston PhD,FRS (born March 27, 1942) was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge graduating in 1963. He joined the Chemistry Department in Cambridge, gained his PhD for research in nucleotide chemistry and devoted his scientific life to biological research, especially in the field of molecular biology. After working as a Postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute, USA for a while, he returned to Cambridge to work under Sydney Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He played a central role in both the Caenorhabditis elegans (worm) and human genome 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 project to sequence the human genome began. At this point John was made director of the newly established Sanger Centre (now the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), located in Cambridgeshire, UK. Following completion of the 'working draft' of the human genome sequence in 2000, John retired from his role as director at the Sanger Centre. In 2002 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sydney Brenner and H. Robert Horvitz, both of whom he had collaborated with at the Cambridge Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB). 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. John is now a leading campaigner against the patenting of human genetic information.

External links

Biographies and profiles

- [http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/geneticsandsociety/hg13f022.html John Sulston biography from the Wellcome Trust]
- [http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/2002/index.html John Sulston: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002]
- [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp59340 Portraits of John Sulston] from the National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom)
- [http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/G/genetics/lectures/about.html John Sulston profile from Channel4]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/profile/john-sulston.shtml John Sulston profile from BBC4]
- [http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/archive/Sulston02.html John Sulston profile from the Medical Research Council lab for Molecular Biology]
- [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?tip=1&id=3114 John Sulston FRS interview] from the Royal Society
- [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1560 Sir John Sulston FRS - Worm genomics]

Publications

- [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=search&term=Sulston+S John Sulston scientific publications] from PubMed

News and Press about John Sulston

- [http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Info/Press/2002/021007.shtml Sir John Sulston awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize (press release from the Sanger Centre)]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/human_genome/753685.stm The public servant: John Sulston]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2305733.stm British Scientists share 2002 Nobel Prize]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,807110,00.html John Sulston: One man and his worm] from The Guardian Sulston, John ms:John E. Sulston

PhD

Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph.D. (an abbreviation for the Latin "Philosophiæ Doctor"; or alternatively Doctor philosophiæ, D.Phil.), was originally a degree granted by a university to a learned individual who had achieved the approval of his peers and who had demonstrated a long and productive career in the field of philosophy. The appellation of "Doctor" (from Latin: teacher) was usually awarded only when the individual was in middle age. It indicated a life dedicated to learning, to knowledge, and to the spread of knowledge. The degree was popularised in the 19th century at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin as a degree to be granted to someone who had undertaken original research in the sciences or humanities. From here it spread to the U.S., arriving at Yale University in 1861, and then to the UK in 1921. This displaced the existing Doctor of Philosophy degree in some Universities; for instance, the D.Phil. (higher doctorate in the faculty of philosophy) at the University of St Andrews was discontinued and replaced with the Ph.D. (research doctorate). However some UK universities such as Oxford and Sussex retain the D.Phil. appellation for their research degrees. Some ability to carry out original research must be documented by producing a dissertation or thesis of book length. The degree is often a prerequisite for permanent employment as a university lecturer or as a researcher in some sciences, though this varies on a regional basis. In others such as engineering or geology, a doctoral degree is considered desirable but not essential for employment.

Time

The successful completion of a doctoral program typically takes 3 to 7.5 years depending upon the specific field of study, prior experience and/or training, and the progress made by the doctoral candidate in his or her studies. In some fields such as some specific branches of physics, a doctoral degree is practically essential for employment. In some sciences, a newly-graduated doctoral student is unlikely to find work as a tenure-track professor and must undertake one or a series of postdoctorate positions. The predicted age of the student upon graduation is also considered before admission to a PhD program in the US in many universities in conjunction with the assumption of the time needed to finish the PhD. It is rare for students to be admitted to a PhD program in engineering, mathematics, or in the sciences in the US, if they will be 42 years of age or older upon graduation. The average length of time needed by many engineering students is 6 to 7.5 years in many US colleges within major universities. The thought is that graduates older than 42 years upon graduation will not produce the body of work over their lifetime to be worth the time and effort within the university to justify the student's admission to the PhD program.

Assessment

The doctoral candidate's progress is usually overseen by a thesis advisor, or supervisor, who chairs a thesis committee which supervises the doctoral candidate. In the US, doctoral programs typically require a series of required and optional courses at the beginning of the program, but education in the latter portion of the program tends to consist of informal discussions with the thesis advisor and individual research by the student. Many US universities separate the program into two portions (doctoral student and doctoral candidate) with a required doctoral examination before allowing a student to be formally admitted to a doctoral program. Alternatively, a student may be admitted to the program, but is still required to complete a comprehensive examination on his or her field before progressing to the dissertation state (see the discussion of ABD, below).

Funding

The funding of students varies from field to field, and many graduate students in the sciences and engineering work as teaching assistants or research assistants while they are doctoral students. In Australia, PhD students are quite often offered a scholarship to study their PhD. The most common of these is the Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) scholarship, which provides a living stipend to students of approximately AUD$19,000 a year (tax free). Most universities also offer a similar scholarship that matches the APA amount, but is funded by the university. In recent years, with the tightening of research funding in Australia, these scholarships have become increasingly harder to obtain. In addition to the more common APA and University scholarships, Australian students also have other sources of funding in their PhD. These could include, but are not limited to, scholarships offered by schools, research centres and commercial enterprise. For the latter, the amount is determined between the university and the organisation, but is quite often set at the APA (Industry) rate, roughly AUD$10,000 more than the usual APA rate.

Oral defense

In some countries, a Ph.D. candidate is required to present an oral defense of his thesis, known in the UK as a viva (short for viva voce, Latin for "by live voice") before a committee. In France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, before a degree can be granted, the dissertation has to be defended in what is, using a medieval term, called a disputation: an expert in the field, often from another university, is appointed who will present the dissertation, subject it to a critical examination and discuss it with the author. In the context of the disputation, the critical examiner is termed the opponent, and the author of the dissertation the respondent. The dissertation has to be generally available in its final or at least in a preliminary published form a few weeks before the disputation, which is open to the public; after the opponent is finished, anyone present is allowed to ask critical questions (anyone who does is called an "opponent ex auditorio"—an opponent from the auditorium). The final grade is decided after the disputation in a meeting between the opponent and a grading committee of three or (sometimes) four people. In theory, also the points raised by oppenenti ex auditorio affect the grade. It has happened, that such opponent has caused the committee not to pass the respondent, although this would be extremely extraordinary nowadays. In the United States a final oral defense before one's dissertation committee is required although it is rare that at this stage the thesis is not accepted. Nonetheless, there are typically several candidates per decade in each college of each major US university who somehow do fail to defend successfully. Most who fail do not complete the process at a subsequent defense. It is a largely unwritten rule in the US that unqualified candidates are eliminated during the coursework or dissertation research phases, and are never permitted to defend, hence the rarity of failing to pass the final defense in most cases. Minor edits are often (most times) required during the defense by committee members, and must be made prior to the final signing of the committee's recommendation paperwork by all committee members. At the end of the defense, the candidate is excused from the room, and the committee votes in secret whether to grant the degree. Upon successfully voting in the affirmative unanimously, the committee then calls the candidate back in to the room by addressing him or her using the honorific Dr. (with their last name) if successful, or Mr. or Ms. (with their last name) if unsuccessful. Technically, the candidate becomes a Doctor of Philosophy at the instant that all committee members vote in the affirmative. The rare case of not successfully defending is also true in the Netherlands, where the oral defense ("promotie") typically happens after the thesis has already been approved by examiners. The oral defense is ended after a preset amount of time by the University-appointed 'pedel' or custos who is in charge of the protocol and will end the dissertation with the words "Hora est!" (latin for it is time or the hour has come). In contrast, viva voces in British universities are by no means a rubber stamp. Whilst many (perhaps most) theses are passed with some minor corrections or revisions required by the examiners, very few are passed with no corrections whatsoever, and indeed a pass-without-correction is considered a particular honour. Moreover, it is not uncommon for British theses to be failed, as well — in which case, either major re-writes are required, followed by a new viva, or else the thesis may be awarded the lesser degree of M.Phil (Master of Philosophy) instead.

Comparative value

A Ph.D. does not confer commensurate advantage in every sphere. For example, many commercial organizations regard a professional Master's degree, such as an MBA, or professional designation, such as CPA, as the highest level of education that is desirable. It is not uncommon in engineering fields in the US for individuals to omit any mention of an earned Ph.D. in their resume when job hunting, to avoid the stigma of being considered all book learning bound, and unable to accomplish practical engineering tasks successfully. Traditional views of the value of academic study in commerce are changing but scepticism about the commercial value of a Ph.D. prevails. Medical schools may offer research Ph.D. degrees as part of their M.D. programs, although an M.D. by itself is frequently enough to teach medicine.

Criticism

The Ph.D. is often the topic of scholarly debate and criticism, given its almost exclusive concern with research and publication to the alleged neglect of numerous other faculty responsibilities that include teaching, collegial evaluation, collective and individual curricular planning, etc. Solutions have met with varying degrees of success. In the 1960s, the prestigious Carnegie Foundation helped promote and establish the Doctor of Arts degree as an alternative to the Ph.D. The D.A. degree, with its focus on content specialty, curriculum design, and pedagogy, was designed to help prepare expert teachers in various fields. Its well-defined disciplinary focus makes it different from the Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) while still embracing the Ed.D.'s concern for issues in education. The D.A. continues to be offered in many universities across the United States and in other countries, though a few D.A. programs have since been converted to the Ph.D. model. Still, the D.A. has many steadfast supporters. Other solutions include a re-thinking of the Ph.D. in order to address its perceived shortcomings.

Etymology

There are many other doctoral degrees with different designations, e.g. D.A. (Doctor of Arts), D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts), Ed.D. (Doctor of Education), Th.D. (Doctor of Theology), etc. Johns Hopkins University was the first university in the United States to confer doctoral degrees. First Ph.D. in Business was granted by the University of Chicago in 1920s. In the United Kingdom, Ph.D.s are distinguishable from higher doctorates (such as D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters) or D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), which are issued by a committee on the basis of a long record of research and publication). In German speaking countries and most eastern European countries, the corresponding degree is simply called "Doctor" and is further distinguished by subject area with a Latin suffix (e.g. "Dr.med." - doctor medicinæ - which is not equal to a Ph.D., "Dr.rer.nat - doctor rerum naturalium (Doctor of Science), "Dr.phil." - doctor philosophiæ. For a full list of these titles, see the German entry for Doktor). While the Ph.D. is the most common doctoral degree, and even often (mis)understood to be synonymous with the term “doctorate,” the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recognize numerous doctoral degrees as equivalent, and do not discriminate between them. Sometimes a university grants an honorary Ph.D. or D.A., or other doctoral degree, with the added designation of honoris causa (Latin for for the sake of honor), or Dr.h.c. In recent years, the term Ph.D. (ABD), an abbreviation for "All But Dissertation", has also come into usage. Seen primarily in the US where significant prerequisite coursework is often a part of the doctoral program, the Ph.D. (ABD) is not an official degree. As an unofficial designation, however, it serves to note when a Ph.D. student has completed all graduate coursework for the doctorate, has passed the cumulative and/or qualifying examinations, has been formally advanced to final candidacy and may have conducted original research, but has not submitted a dissertation to satisfy the final requirement for formal conferral of the Ph.D. degree. In some schools a student can write an additional thesis at this point and receive a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree; in others, the MPhil (sometimes Candidate in Philosophy, CPhil) is conferred on an ABD student who has been advanced to candicacy for the Ph.D., having completed all requirements except the doctoral thesis or dissertation.

Bibliography

- Estelle M Phillips and Derek.S. Pugh How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors ISBN 033520550X,
- MacGillivray, Alex; Potts, Gareth; Raymond, Polly. Secrets of Their Success (London: New Economics Foundation, 2002) Philosophy, Doctor of ja:Ph.D.

Fellow of the Royal Society

The Fellowship of the Royal Society is composed of 1292 of the most distinguished scientists from the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland. Fellows of the Royal Society are elected for life and designate themselves through the use of the letters FRS after their names. The election process for Fellows and Foreign Members is extremely rigorous and is based upon the established practice of peer review. A qualification for membership consists of having made "a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science".

Famous Fellows

Many fellows are famous, some have won a Nobel Prize, see Famous members of the Royal Society and Presidents of the Royal Society (presidents are also fellows). Some well-known living fellows include:
- Michael Ashburner
- David Attenborough
- Richard Dawkins
- Stephen Hawking
- David King
- Robert May
- Roger Penrose
- Martin Rees
- Frederick Sanger
- Ian Stewart
- John E. Sulston
- Margaret Thatcher See the category for a more comprehensive list of Fellows of the Royal Society.

External links

- [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/fellowsindex2.cfm Directory of Fellows of the Royal Society and Foreign Members]
- [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1727 List of Royal Society Fellows 1660–2004]
- [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?tip=1&id=2211 Criteria for Membership of the Royal Society FRS]
- [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?tip=1&id=3269 Royal Society: Fellow of the Month] Category:Royal Society

March 27

March 27 is the 86th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (87th in Leap years). There are 279 days remaining.

Events

- 1306 - Robert I of Scotland and Elizabeth de Burgh are crowned king and Queen of the Scots.
- 1513 - (not 1512 as often cited) - Explorer Juan Ponce de León sights North America (specifically Florida) for the first time, mistaking it for another island.
- 1625 - Charles I becomes King of England and Scotland.
- 1782 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 1794 - The government of the United States establishes a permanent United States Navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
- 1794 - Denmark and Sweden form a neutrality compact.
- 1814 - War of 1812: In central Alabama, United States forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
- 1836 - Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre - Antonio López de Santa Anna orders the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texans at Goliad, Texas.
- 1846 - Mexican-American War: Siege of Fort Texas.
- 1851 - First reported case of Europeans seeing Yosemite Valley.
- 1871 - First international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
- 1890 - A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 and injuring 200.
- 1918 - Moldova and Bessarabia join Romania.
- 1923 - FART construction completed.
- 1938 - Battle of Tai er zhuang
- 1941 - Britain supports Peter II of Yugoslavia in a coup in Yugoslavia.
- 1942 - World War II: United Kingdom forces raid the U-boat base at St. Nazaire, France.
- 1945 - World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
- 1952 - Sun Records begins operations.
- 1958 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.
- 1963 - Dr Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the United Kingdom's rail network. See Beeching axe.
- 1964 - The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
- 1969 - Mariner 7 is launched.
- 1976 - The first 4.6 miles of the Washington, DC subway system is opened.
- 1977 - Tenerife disaster: Two jumbo jets collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583.
- 1980 - The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.
- 1986 - Car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer, Angela Taylor and injuring 21 people.
- 1988 - Moudud Ahmed becomes Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
- 1989 - Generations, the first American soap opera to have an entire black family in its original core cast, commences telecasts on NBC.
- 1990 - Propaganda: The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba.
- 1993 - Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People's Republic of China.
- 1993 - Albert Zafy becomes President of Madagascar.
- 1993 - Mahamane Ousmane becomes President of Niger.
- 1994 - One of the biggest tornado outbreaks in recent memory hits the Southeastern United States. One tornado slams into a church in Piedmont, Alabama during Palm Sunday services killing 20 and injuring 90.
- 2002 - Passover Massacre: A suicide bomber kills 29 people in Netanya, Israel.
- 2003 - An explosion in the Nitrochimie dynamite factory in Billy-Berclau, France kills 4 people. Somebody lit a match.
- 2004 - HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.

Births

- 972 - King Robert I of France (d. 1031)
- 1416 - Antonio Squarcialupi, Italian composer (d. 1480)
- 1627 - Stephen Fox, English politician (d. 1716)
- 1702 - Johann Ernst Eberlin, German composer (d. 1762)
- 1712 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon (d. 1779)
- 1714 - Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, Italian theologian and historian (d. 1795)
- 1730 - Thomas Tyrwhitt, English classical scholar (d. 1786)
- 1746 - Michael Bruce, Scottish poet (d. 1767)
- 1765 - Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (d. 1841)
- 1785 - King Louis XVII of France (d. 1795)
- 1797 - Alfred de Vigny, French author (d. 1863)
- 1809 - Baron Haussmann, French civic planner (d. 1891)
- 1810 - William Hepworth Thompson, English classical scholar (d. 1886)
- 1813 - Nathaniel Currier, American illustrator (d. 1888)
- 1817 - Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss biologist (d. 1891)
- 1845 - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)
- 1847 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
- 1851 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
- 1857 - Karl Pearson, English statistician (d. 1936)
- 1860 - Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (d. 1924)
- 1863 - Sir Henry Royce, English automobile pioneer (d. 1933)
- 1869 - James McNeill, Irish politician (d. 1938)
- 1871 - Heinrich Mann, German writer (d. 1950)
- 1882 - Ferde Grofé, American composer (d. 1972)
- 1883 - Marie Under, Estonian author and poet (d. 1980)
- 1886 - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect (d. 1969)
- 1893 - Karl Mannheim, Hungarian sociologist (d. 1947)
- 1899 - Gloria Swanson, American actress (d. 1983)
- 1901 - Carl Barks, American illustrator (d. 2000)
- 1901 - Sasaki Naojiro, Japanese author (d. 1943)
- 1901 - Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)
- 1901 - Eisaku Sato, Prime Minister of Japan, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1975)
- 1901 - Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (d. 1971)
- 1905 - Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer (d. 1980)
- 1906 - Pee Wee Russell, American musician (d. 1969)
- 1909 - Golo Mann, German historian (d. 1994)
- 1912 - James Callaghan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
- 1914 - Richard Denning, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1914 - Budd Schulberg, American screenwriter and novelist
- 1915 - Junior Lockwood, American musician
- 1917 - Cyrus Vance, American politician (d. 2002)
- 1921 - Harold Nicholas, American dancer (d. 2000)
- 1922 - Stefan Wul, French author (d. 2003)
- 1923 - Endo Shusaku, Japanese author (d. 1996)
- 1923 - Louis Simpson, Jamaican-born poet
- 1924 - Sarah Vaughan, American singer (d. 1990)
- 1927 - Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor
- 1931 - David Janssen, American actor (d. 1980)
- 1935 - Abelardo Castillo, Argentine writer
- 1935 - Julian Glover, British actor
- 1939 - Cale Yarborough, American race car driver
- 1941 - Ivan Gašparovič, President of Slovakia
- 1942 - John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1942 - Michael York, English actor
- 1947 - Brian Jones, British balloonist
- 1950 - Tony Banks, English musician (Genesis)
- 1952 - Maria Schneider, French actress
- 1956 - Leung Kwok Hung, Hong Kong political activist
- 1957 - Nick Hawkins, British politician
- 1961 - Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist (B'z)
- 1962 - Jann Arden, Canadian musician
- 1963 - Quentin Tarantino, American actor, director, writer, and producer
- 1963 - Xuxa, Brazilian television personality
- 1966 - Paula Trickey, American actress
- 1967 - Talisa Soto, American actress
- 1968 - Sadie Frost, British actress
- 1968 - Sandra Hess, Swiss-born actress and model
- 1969 - Keith Flint, Member of British group The Prodigy
- 1970 - Mariah Carey, American singer
- 1970 - Princess Leila of Iran (d. 2001)
- 1971 - David Coulthard, Scottish race car driver
- 1972 - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch football striker
- 1975 - Fergie, American musician (Black Eyed Peas)

Deaths

- 1191 - Pope Clement III
- 1350 - King Alfonso XI of Castile, (b. 1312)
- 1378 - Pope Gregory XI
- 1462 - Vasili II of Russia, Grand Prince of Moscow (b. 1415)
- 1482 - Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold and wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1457)
- 1555 - William Hunter, protestant martyr
- 1615 - Margaret of Valois, queen of Henry IV of France (b. 1553)
- 1625 - King James I of England and Ireland, James VI of Scotland (b. 1566)
- 1635 - Robert Naunton, English politician (b. 1563)
- 1697 - Simon Bradstreet, English colonial magistrate (b. 1603)
- 1757 - Johann Stamitz, Czech-born composer (b. 1717)
- 1770 - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian artist (b. 1696)
- 1809 - Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter (b. 1716)
- 1827 - François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, French social reformer (b. 1747)
- 1836 - James Fannin, Texas revolutionary (b. 1804)
- 1843 - Karl Salomo Zachariae von Lingenthal, German jurist (b. 1769)
- 1849 - Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford (b. 1776)
- 1850 - Wilhelm Beer, German astronomer (b. 1797)
- 1864 - Jean-Jacques Ampère, French scholar (b. 1800)
- 1865 - Petrus Hoffman Peerlkamp, Dutch scholar (b. 1786)
- 1873 - Amedée Simon Dominique Thierry, French journalist and historian (b. 1797)
- 1875 - Edgar Quinet, French historian (b. 1803)
- 1878 - Sir George Gilbert Scott, English architect (b. 1811)
- 1889 - John Bright, English statesman (b. 1811)
- 1910 - Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, American scientist and engineer (b. 1835)
- 1918 - Henry Adams, American historian (b. 1838)
- 1923 - Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist (b. 1842)
- 1924 - Walter Parratt, English composer (b. 1841)
- 1927 - Joe Start, baseball player (b. 1842)
- 1931 - Arnold Bennett, British novelist (b. 1867)
- 1940 - Michael Joseph Savage, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1872)
- 1967 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
- 1967 - Jim Thompson, American designer (disappeared) (b. 1906)
- 1968 - Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut (b. 1934)
- 1969 - B. Traven, German writer
- 1972 - Sharkey Bonano, American musician (b. 1904)
- 1972 - M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (b. 1898)
- 1977 - A. P. Hamann, American politician
- 1977 - Diana Hyland, American actress (b. 1936)
- 1981 - Mao Dun, Chinese writer (b. 1895)
- 1989 - Jack Starrett, American actor and director (b. 1936)
- 1991 - Ralph Bates, British actor (b. 1940)
- 1991 - Aldo Ray, American actor (b. 1926)
- 1992 - Easley Blackwood, American bridge player (b. 1903)
- 1993 - Paul Laszlo, Hungarian interior designer and architect (b. 1900)
- 1998 - David McClelland, psychological theorist (b. 1917)
- 1998 - Ferry Porsche, Austrian automobile manufacturer (b. 1909)
- 2000 - Ian Dury, English rock musician (b. 1942)
- 2002 - Milton Berle, American actor and comedian (b. 1908)
- 2002 - Dudley Moore, British actor, musician, and composer (b. 1935)
- 2002 - Billy Wilder, American director (b. 1906)
- 2003 - Ricardo Munguia, aid worker in Afghanistan
- 2003 - Paul Zindel, American writer (b. 1936)
- 2005 - Bob Casey, baseball announcer (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

- 2005, 2016: Easter
- Angolan Victory Day
- Feast day of Rupert of Salzburg in the Roman Catholic Church

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/27 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/3/27 Today in History: March 27] ---- March 26 - March 28 - February 27 - April 27 -- listing of all days ko:3월 27일 ms:27 Mac ja:3月27日 simple:March 27 th:27 มีนาคม

Pembroke College, Cambridge

Pembroke College is a college of the University of Cambridge, home to over 600 students and fellows, and is the third oldest of the existing colleges. It seeks to recruit enthusiastic and able students, no matter where they come from.

History

On Christmas Eve 1347, Edward III granted Marie de St Pol, widow of the Earl of Pembroke, the licence for the foundation of a new educational establishment in the young university at Cambridge. The Hall of Marie Valence, as it was originally known, was thus founded to house a body of students and fellows. The statutes were notable in that they both gave preference to students born in France who had already studied elsewhere in England, and that they required students to report fellow students if they indulged in excessive drinking or visited disreputable houses! The college was later renamed Pembroke House, and finally became Pembroke College in 1856. Notably, the women's college at Brown University in the United States was named after Pembroke College (Cambridge), before it was assimilated into the university in 1971.

Buildings

The first buildings were comprised of a single court (now called Old Court) containing all the component parts of a college - chapel, hall, kitchen and buttery, master's lodgings, students' rooms - and the statutes provided for a manciple, a cook, a barber and a laundress. Both the founding of the college and the building of the city's first college chapel (1355) required the grant of a papal bull. The original court was the university's smallest at only 95 feet by 55 feet, but was enlarged to its current size in the nineteenth century by demolishing the south range. The college's gatehouse, however, is original and is the oldest in Cambridge. The Hall was rebuilt in the nineteenth century by Alfred Waterhouse after he had declared the existing one unsafe. The original chapel now forms the Old Library and has a striking seventeenth century plaster ceiling, designed by Henry Doogood, showing birds flying overhead. Around the Civil War, one of Pembroke's fellows and Chaplain to the future Charles I, Mathew Wren, was imprisoned by Oliver Cromwell. On his release after eighteen years he fulfilled a promise by hiring his nephew Christopher Wren to build a great chapel in his former college. The resulting chapel was consecrated on St Mathew's Day, 1665, and the eastern end was extended by George Gilbert Scott in 1880. Pembroke's enclosed grounds also house some particularly well-kept gardens, sporting a huge array of carefully-selected vegetation. Highlights include "The Orchard" (a patch of semi-wild ground in the centre of the college), an impressive row of Plane Trees and an immaculately-kept bowling green which is reputed to be the oldest in continual use in Europe. Curiously, Pembroke has recently had a wildlife presence, with doubtlessly studious badgers seen on college grounds. bowling green

Famous alumni of Pembroke College

- William Eliot (Politician)
- Thomas Gray (Poet)
- Ted Hughes (Poet)
- Eric Idle (Entertainer)
- Clive James (Novelist, TV personality)
- William Pitt (Politician)
- Tom Sharpe (Novelist)
- Edmund Spenser (Poet)
- George Gabriel Stokes (Physicist)
- William Turner (Physician)
- Bill Oddie (Comedian and Bird-Watcher)
- Tim Brooke-Taylor (Comedian)
- Chris Smith (Politician)
- Clive Betts (Politician)
- Peter Cook (Comedian)
- Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth (Lord Chief Justice)
- Peter May (Cricketer)
- Martin Rowson (Cartoonist)
- Christopher Smart (Poet)
- Wavell Wakefield, 1st Baron Wakefield of Kendal (England rugby player)
- Nicholas Ridley (Martyr)
- "RAB" Butler (Politician)
- Abba Eban (Statesman)
- Stephen Greenblatt (literary critic and pioneer of New Historicism)
- Humphrey Jennings (Film-maker)
- Naomie Harris (Actor)
- Ray Dolby (Pioneering Inventor)
- Karan Thapar (Indian TV interviewer)
- Tom Hiddleston (Actor)

Pembroke Today

Pembroke College has both graduate and undergraduate students. The undergraduate student body is represented by the Junior Parlour Committee (JPC). The graduate community is represented by the Graduate Parlour Committee (GPC). Pembroke is unusual in having its recreational rooms named as "parlours" rather than the more standard "common room" . There are many clubs and societies organised by the students of the college.

External link

- [http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/virtual/index.html A virtual tour of the college]
- [http://www.pembrokeplayers.org The Pembroke Players dramatic club] Category:Colleges of the University of Cambridge Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge

Nucleotide

A nucleotide is a monomer or the structural unit of nucleotide chains forming such nucleic acids as RNA and DNA. A nucleotide consists of a heterocyclic nucleobase, a pentose sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), and a phosphate or polyphosphate group. Nucleotides also play important roles in cellular energy transport and transformations (notably ATP and NAD+/NADH), and in enzyme regulation (see for example, protein kinase). The nucleobase can be purines or pyrimidines, the sugar can be deoxyribose in DNA or ribose in RNA, and the phosphate chain can be a monophosphate, diphosphate, or triphosphate. A nucleotide that lacks the phosphate group is called nucleoside. nucleoside

Nomenclature

Nucleotide names are abbreviated into standard four-letter codes. The first letter is lower case and indicates whether the nucleotide in question is a ribonucleotide (r) or deoxyribonucleotide (d). The second letter indicates the nucleoside corresponding to the nucleobase: : G: Guanine : A: Adenine : T: Thymine : C: Cytosine : U: Uracil not usually present in DNA, but takes the place of Thymine in RNA The third and fourth letters indicate the length of the attached phosphate chain (Mono-, Di-, Tri-) and the presence of a phosphate (P). For example, deoxy-cytidine-triphosphate is abbreviated as dCTP.

Chemical structures

Nucleotides

Deoxynucleotides

Synthesis

Natural

Purine ribonucleotides

Uracil Uracil By using a variety of isotopically labeled compounds it was demonstrated that N1 of purines arises from the amine group of Asp; C2 and C8 originate from formate; N3 and N9 are contributed by the amide group of Gln; C4, C5 and N7 are derived from Gly; and C6 comes from HCO₃^{-^{(CO₂).

The de novo synthesis of purine nucleotides by which these precursors are incorporated into the purine ring, proceeds by a 10 step pathway to the branch point intermediate IMP, the nucleotide of the base hypoxanthine. AMP and GMP are subsequently synthesized from this intermediate via separate, two step each, pathways. Thus purine moieties are initially formed as part of the ribonucleotides rahter than as free bases. Six enzymes take part in IMP synthesis. Three of them are multifunctional - GART (reactions 2, 3, and 5), PAICS (reactions 6, and 7) and ATIC (reactions 9, and 10).

Reaction 1. The pathway starts with the formation of PRPP. PRPS1 is the enzyme that activates R5P, which is primarily formed by the pentose phosphate pathway, to PRPP by reacting it with ATP. The reaction is unusual in that a pyrophosphoryl group is directly transferred from ATP to C1 of R5P and that the product has the α configuration about C1. This reaction is also shared with the pathways for the synthesis of the pyrimidine nucleotides, Trp, and His. As a result of being on (a) such (a) major metabolic crossroad and the use of energy, this reaction is highly regulated.

Reaction 2. In the first reaction unique to purine nucleotide biosynthesis, PPAT catalyzes the displacement of PRPP's pyrophosphate group (PP_i) by Gln's amide nitrogen. The reaction occurs with the inversion of configuration about ribose C1, thereby forming β-5-phosphorybosylamine (5-PRA) and establishsing the anomeric form of the future nucleotide. This reaction which is driven to completion by the subsequent hydrolysis of the released PP_i, is the pathway's flux generating step and is therefore regulated too.

Reaction 3.}}

Pyrimidine ribonucleotides

His

External links

- [http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/misc/naabb.html Abbreviations and Symbols for Nucleic Acids, Polynucleotides and their Constituents] (IUPAC)
- [http://www.iupac.org/reports/provisional/abstract04/BB-prs310305/Chapter10.pdf Provisional Recommendations 2004] (IUPAC) Category:Nucleic acids Category:Nucleotides ko:뉴클레오티드 ja:ヌクレオチド

Molecular biology

Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry. Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the interrelationship of DNA, RNA and protein synthesis and learning how these interactions are regulated. Writing in Nature, William Astbury described molecular biology as:

"... not so much a technique as an approach, an approach from the viewpoint of the so-called basic sciences with the leading idea of searching below the large-scale manifestations of classical biology for the corresponding molecular plan. It is concerned particularly with the forms of biological molecules and ..... is predominantly three-dimensional and structural - which does not mean, however, that it is merely a refinement of morphology - it must at the same time inquire into genesis and function"

Relationship to other "molecular-scale" biological sciences

William Astbury Researchers in molecular biology use specific techniques native to molecular biology (see Techniques section later in article), but increasingly combine these with techniques and ideas from genetics, biochemistry and biophysics. There is not a hard-line between these disciplines as there once was. The following figure is a schematic that depicts one possible view of the relationship between the fields:
- Biochemistry is the study of the chemical substances and vital processes occurring in living organisms.
- Genetics is the study of the effect of genetic differences on organisms. Often this can be inferred by the absence of a normal component (e.g. one gene). The study of "mutants" – organisms which lack one or more functional components with respect to the so-called "wild type" or normal phenotype. Genetic interactions such as epistasis can often confound simple interpretations of such "knock-out" studies.
- Molecular biology is the study of molecular underpinnings of the process of replication, transcription and translation of the genetic material. The central dogma of molecular biology where genetic material is transcribed into RNA and then translated into protein, despite being an oversimplified picture of molecular biology, still provides a good starting point for understanding the field. This picture, however, is undergoing revision in light of emerging novel roles for RNA. Much of the work in molecular biology is quantitative, and recently much work has been done at the interface of molecular biology and computer science in bioinformatics and computational biology. As of the early 2000s, the study of gene structure and function, molecular genetics, has been amongst the most prominent sub-field of molecular biology. Increasingly many other fields of biology focus on molecules, either directly studying their interactions in their own right such as in cell biology and developmental biology, or indirectly, where the techniques of molecular biology are used to infer historical attributes of populations or species, as in fields in evolutionary biology such as population genetics and phylogenetics. There is also a long tradition of studying biomolecules "from the ground up" in biophysics.

Techniques of molecular biology

Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, molecular biologists have learned to characterise, isolate, and manipulate the molecular components of cells and organisms. These components include DNA, the repository of genetic information; RNA, a close relative of DNA whose functions range from serving as a temporary working copy of DNA to actual structural and enzymatic functions as well as a functional and structural part of the translational apparatus; and proteins, the major structural and enzymatic type of molecule in cells.

Expression cloning

One of the most basic techniques of molecular biology to study protein function is expression cloning. In this technique, DNA coding for a protein of interest is cloned (using PCR and/or restriction enzymes) into a plasmid (known as an expression vector). This plasmid may have special promoter elements to drive production of the protein of interest, and may also have antibiotic resistance markers to help follow the plasmid. This plasmid can be inserted into either bacterial or animal cells. Introducing DNA into bacterial cells is called transformation, and can be completed with several methods, including electroporation, microinjection, passive uptake and conjugation. Introducing DNA into eukaryotic cells, such as animal cells, is called transfection. Several different transfection techniques are available, including calcium phosphate transfection, liposome transfection, and proprietary transfection reagents such as Fugene. DNA can also be introduced into cells using viruses or pathenogenic bacteria as carriers. In such cases, the technique is called viral/bacterial transduction, and the cells are said to be transduced. In either case, DNA coding for a protein of interest is now inside a cell, and the protein can now be expressed. A variety of systems, such as inducible promoters and specific cell-signaling factors, are available to help express the protein of interest at high levels. Large quantities of a protein can then be extracted from the bacterial or eukaryotic cell. The protein can be tested for enzymatic activity under a variety of situations, the protein may be crystallized so its tertiary structure can be studied, or, in the pharmaceutical industry, the activity of new drugs against the protein can be studied.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Main article: Polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction is an extremely versatile technique for copying DNA. In brief, PCR allows a single DNA sequence to be copied (millions of times), or altered in predetermined ways. For example, PCR can be used to introduce restriction enzyme sites, or to mutate (change) particular bases of DNA. PCR can also be used to determine whether a particular DNA fragment is found in a cDNA library.

Gel electrophoresis

Main article: Gel electrophoresis Gel electrophoresis is one of the principal tools of molecular biology. The basic principle is that DNA, RNA, and proteins can all be separated using an electric field. In agarose gel electrophoresis, DNA and RNA can be separated based on size by running the DNA through an agarose gel. Proteins can be separated based on size using an SDS-PAGE gel. Proteins can also be separated based on their electric charge, using what is known as an isoelectric gel...

Southern blotting

Main article: Southern blot The Southern blot is a technique employed to ascertain information about the molecular weight and relative amount of a DNA sequence of interest. The assay was first developed by Edwin Southern and is a combination of gel electrophoresis of DNA (often first fragmented by restriction_enzyme digestion), transfer of the same to a charged membrane, and hybridization of a labeled DNA probe. Following hybridization, the membrane is washed to remove unbound probe, and an image obtained via autoradiography or using equipment such as a phosphoimager. The image will indicate the location(s) to which the probe hybridized, with the intensity of the signal observed serving as a measure of relative abundance.

Northern blotting

Main article: Northern blot The Northern blot is used to study the expression patterns a specific type of RNA molecule as relative comparison among of a set of different samples of RNA. It is essentially a combination of denaturing RNA gel electrophoresis, and a blot. In this process RNA is separated based on size and is then transferred to a membrane that is then probed with a labeled complement of a sequence of interest. The results may be visualized through a variety of ways depending on the label used, however, most result in the revelation of bands representing the sized of the RNA detected in sample. The intensity of these bands is related to the amount of the target RNA in the samples analyzed. The procedure is commonly used to study when and how much gene expressing is occurring by measuring how much of that RNA is present in different samples. It is one of the most basic tools for determing at what time certain genes are expressed in living tissues.

Western blotting and immunochemistry

Main article: Western blot Antibodies to most proteins can be created by injecting small amounts of the protein into an animal such as a mouse, rabbit, sheep, or donkey. These antibodies can be used for a variety of analytical and preprative techniques. In Western blotting, proteins are first separated by size, in a thin gel sandwiched between two glass plates. This technique is called SDS-PAGE (for Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Poly-Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis). The proteins in the gel are then transferred to a PVDF, nitrocellulose, nylon or other support membrane. This membrane can then be probed with solutions of antibodies. Antibodies that specifically bind to the protein of interest can then be visualized by a variety of techniques, including chemoluminescence or radioactivity. Antibodies can also be used to purify proteins. Antibodies to a protein are generated and are often then coupled to "beads". After the antibody has bound to the protein of interest, this antibody-protein complex can be separated from all other proteins by centrifugation. During centrifugation, the beads, to which the antibody is coupled, will pellet (bringing the protein of interest down with it) whereas all other proteins will remain in the solution. Alternatively, antibodies coupled to a solid support matrix like Sephadex or Sepharose beads, for example, can be used to remove a protein of interest from a complex solution. After washing unbound and non-specifically bound materials away from the "beads", the protein of interest is then eluted from the matrix, usually by adding a solution with a high salt concentration, or by varying the pH of the solution in which the matrix is contained. The beads can either be suspended in solution (batch processing) or packed into a tube (column processing).

History

Molecular biology was established in the 1930s, the term was first coined by Warren Weaver in 1938 however. Warren was director of Natural Sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation at the time and believed that biology was about to undergo a period of significant change given recent advances in fields such as X-ray crystallography. He therefore channeled significant amounts of (Rockefeller Institute) money into biological fields.

References

- Cohen, S.N., Chang, A.C.Y., Boyer, H. & Heling, R.B. Construction of biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 70, 3240 – 3244 (1973).
- Rodgers, M. The Pandora's box congress. Rolling Stone 189, 37 – 77 (1975).
- ko:분자생물학 ms:Biologi skala molekul ja:分子生物学 th:อณูชีววิทยา

Salk Institute

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is an independent non-profit educational research organization in La Jolla, California. It was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, M.D., the developer of the polio vaccine. Among the founding consultants were Jacob Bronowski and Francis Crick. The institute has 56 labs and focuses its research in three areas: Molecular Biology and Genetics; Neurosciences; and Plant Biology. Research topics include cancer, diabetes, birth defects, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, AIDS, and plant biology. The March of Dimes provided the initial funding and continues to support the institute to this day. The campus was designed by the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Salk had sought to make a beautiful campus in order to draw the best researchers in the world. The original buildings of the Salk Institute were designated as a historical landmark in 1991. The Salk Institute currently employs more than 1200 preeminient faculty, researchers and staff.

History

Salk and Kahn approached the city of San Diego in March of 1960 about a gift of land on the Torrey Pines Mesa and were granted their request after a referendum passed in June 1960. Construction began in 1962 and a handful of researchers moved into the first laboratory in 1963. Jonas Salk died in 1995. A memorial lies at the entrance to the Institute and captures his vision: "Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality."

Notable faculty

Salk faculty have received a total of five Nobel Prizes. Three of the institute's resident faculty members are Nobel laureates.
- Renato Dulbecco
- Sydney Brenner
- Roger Guillemin As of 2003, 13 of the Salk's faculty were members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Architecture

The Salk Institute's campus represents a blend of form and function. Each of the laboratories is built to be spacious, open to ambient lighting, and is completely reconfigurable to meet the changing needs of science. In 1992, the Salk received a 25 Year Award from the American Institute of Architects, and is recognized as the single most significant architectural site in San Diego.

External link

- [http://www.salk.edu Salk Institute for Biological Studies] Category:Medical research institutes Category:American architecture

Caenorhabditis elegans

Caenorhabditis elegans (pronounced see-no-rab-DYE-tis) is a free-living nematode (a roundworm), about 1 mm in length, which lives in a temperate soil environment. Research into the molecular and developmental biology of C. elegans began in 1965 by Sydney Brenner. C. elegans is vermiform, bilateral in symmetry, with a cuticle integument, no segmentations, with four main epidermal cords and a fluid-filled pseudocoelomate cavity. Members of the species have many of the same organ systems as other animals. They feed on microorganisms such as Escherichia coli bacteria. C. elegans has a male and hermaphrodite sex. The basic anatomy of C. elegans includues a mouth, pharynx, intestine, gonad, and collagenous cuticle. Males have a single-lobed gonad, vas deferens, and a tail specialized for mating. Hermaphrodites have two ovaries, oviducts, spermatheca, and a single uterus. A basic description of the organisms’ life cycle is that C. elegans eggs are laid by the hermaphrodite. After hatching, they pass through four larval stages (L1-L4). When crowded or in the absence of food, C. elegans can enter an alternative third larval stage called the dauer larva. Dauers are stress-resistant and do not age. Hermaphrodites produce sperm during the L4 stage, and lay eggs as adults. The male can inseminate the hermaphrodite, which will use male sperm preferentially. The average life span of the laboratory strain of C. elegans at 20 °C is about 2-3 weeks, and the generation time is only a few days. C. elegans is used as a model organism. Specimens are cheap and easy to maintain in the laboratory. C. elegans has been especially useful for studying cellular differentiation, and was the first multicellular organism to have its genome completely sequenced. The finished genome sequence was published in 1998 although a number of small gaps were present (the last gap was finished by October 2002). The C. elegans genome sequence is approximately 100 million base pairs long and contains more than 19,000 genes. Scientific curators continue to appraise the set of known genes, such that new gene predictions continue to be added and incorrect ones removed. In 2003, the genome sequence of the related nematode C. briggsae was also determined, allowing researchers to study the comparative genomics of these two organisms. From a research perspective, C. elegans has the advantage of being a multicellular eukaryotic organism which is simple enough to be studied in great detail. The developmental fate of all of its 959 somatic cells has been mapped out (there are originally 1090 cells but 131, of which most are neurons, are eliminated by apoptosis). apoptosis In addition, C. elegans is one of the simplest organisms with a nervous system. It comprises 302 neurons and has been completely mapped out. Research has explored the neural mechanisms responsible for two of C. elegans more interesting behaviors: chemotaxis and thermotaxis. In 2002, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston for their work on the genetics of organ development and programmed cell death (PCD) in C. elegans. C. elegans made news when it was discovered that specimens had survived the Space Shuttle Columbia's disintegration in February, 2003.
References
#(2005) [http://www.plosbiology.org/plosonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0030030 The Evolution of Self-Fertile Hermaphroditism: The Fog Is Clearing.] PLoS Biol. 3(1): e30. #Riddle, D.L., Blumenthal, T, Meyer, R. J., and Priess, J.R., 1997. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=ce2.TOC C. elegans II.] Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York, pp 1-4, 679-683. #Hope, I.A. 1999. C. elegans: A practical approach. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 1-6. #Bird, A.F, and Bird, J., 1991. The Structure of Nematodes. Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, pp 1, 69-70, 152-153, 165, 224-225. #Avery, Leon. September 19, 2003. [http://elegans.swmed.edu/ Caenorhabditis elegans WWW Server] #The C. elegans Sequencing Consortium, 1998. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9851916 Genome sequence of the nematode C. elegans: a platform for investigating biology.] Science 282: 2012-2018. #Stein, L.D. et al., 2003. [http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0000045 The Genome Sequence of Caenorhabditis briggsae: A Platform for Comparative Genomics.] PLoS Biol. 1: 166-192. #Brenner, S., 1974. [http://dev.wormbase.org/papers/31_Brenner74.pdf The Genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans.] Genetics 77: 71-94.

External links

- [http://www.wormbook.org/ WormBook]
- [http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/goldstein/lab/movies.html C. elegans movies]
- [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=ce2.TOC C. elegans II book]
- [http://www.wormbase.org WormBase - an online database for C. elegans genes and proteins]
- [http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Projects/C_elegans Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute C. elegans page]
- [http://www.wormatlas.org Wormatlas, an online database for behavioral and structural anatomy of C. elegans]
- [http://www.wormclassroom.org Worm Classroom Education Portal]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2992123.stm BBC news item about C. elegans specimens surviving the Columbia space shuttle's disintegration]. Category:Model organisms Category:Roundworms ja:C. elegans simple:Caenorhabditis elegans

Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project (HGP) endeavored to map the human genome down to the nucleotide (or base pair) level and to identify all the genes present in it.

History

The Project was launched in 1986 by Charles DeLisi, who was then Director of the US Department of Energy's Health and Environmental Research Programs. The goals and general strategy of the Project were outlined in a two-page memo to the Assistant Secretary in April 1986, which helped garner support from the DOE, the OMB and Congress, especially Senator Pete Domenici. A series of Scientific Advisory meetings, and complex negotiations with senior Federal officials resulted in a line item for the Project in the 1987 Presidential budget submission to the Congress. Initiation of the Project was the culmination of several years of work supported by the US Department of Energy, in particular a feasibility workshop in 1986 and a subsequent [http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/herac2.shtml detailed description of the Human Genome Initiative] in a report that led to the formal sanctioning of the initiative by the Department of Energy. This 1987 report stated boldly, "The ultimate goal of this initiative is to understand the human genome" and "Knowledge of the human genome is as necessary to the continuing progress of medicine and other health sciences as knowledge of human anatomy has been for the present state of medicine". Candidate technologies were already being considered for the proposed undertaking at least as early as 1985. The $3 billion project was formally founded in 1990 by the United States Department of Energy and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and was expected to take 15 years. In addition to the United States, the international consortium comprised geneticists in China, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Due to widespread international cooperation and advances in the field of genomics (especially in sequence analysis), as well as huge advances in computing technology, a rough draft of the genome was finished in 2000 (announced jointly by US president Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on June 26, 2000), two years earlier than planned. President Clinton had already awarded the Citizen's medal to DeLisi for his seminal role in the Project, in January 2000, before the completion of the Project was announced.

The Role of Celera Genomics

In 1998, an identical, privately funded quest was launched by researcher Craig Venter and his firm Celera Genomics. The $300 million Celera effort was intended to proceed at a faster pace and at a fraction of the cost of the roughly $3 billion taxpayer-funded project. Celera used a newer, riskier technique called whole genome shotgun sequencing, which had been used to sequence bacterial genomes. Celera initially announced that it would seek patent protection on "only 200-300" genes, but later amended this to seeking "intellectual property protection" on "fully characterized important structures" amounting to 100-300 targets. The firm eventually filed [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/487773.stm patent applications on 6,500 whole or partial genes]. Celera also promised to publish their findings in accordance with the terms of the 1996 "Bermuda Statement", by releasing new data quarterly (the HGP released its new data daily), although, unlike the publicly-funded project, they would not permit free redistribution or commercial use of the data. In March 2000, President Clinton announced that the genome sequence could not be patented, and should be made freely available to all researchers. The statement sent Celera's stock plummeting and dragged down the biotech-heavy Nasdaq. The biotech sector lost about $50 billion in market capitalization in two days. Although the working draft was announced in June 2000, it was not until February 2001 that Celera and the HGP scientists published details of their drafts. Special issues of Nature (which published the publicly-funded project's scientific paper) and Science (which published Celera's paper) described the methods used to produce the draft sequence and offered analysis of the sequence. These drafts are hoped to comprise a 'scaffold' of 90 percent of the genome, with gaps to be filled later. The competition proved to be very good for the project. The rivals agreed to pool their data, but the agreement fell apart when Celera refused to deposit its data in the unrestricted public database Genbank. Celera had incorporated the public data into their genome, but forbade the public effort to use Celera data. On 14 April 2003, a joint [http://www.genoscope.cns.fr/externe/CHODE/English/Actualites/Presse/HGP/HGP_press_release-140403.pdf press release] announced that the project had been completed by both groups, with 99 percent of the genome sequenced with 99.99 percent accuracy. Each draft sequence has been checked at least four to five times to increase 'depth of coverage' or accuracy. About 47 percent of the draft were high-quality sequences. The final version will have been checked eight to nine times giving an error rate of 1 in 10,000 bases. HGP is one of several international genome projects aimed at sequencing the DNA of a specific organism. While the human DNA sequence offers the most tangible benefits, important developments in biology and medicine are predicted as a result of the sequencing of model organisms, including mice, fruitflies, zebrafish, yeast, nematodes and many microbial organisms and parasites. In October 2004, researchers of the HGP announced a new estimate of 20,000 to 25,000 genes in the human genome. Previously 30,000 to 40,000 had been predicted, while estimates at the start of the project reached up to as high as 100,000.

Goals

The goals of the original HGP were not only to determine all 3 billion base pairs in the human genome with a minimal error rate, but also to identify all the genes in this vast amount of data. This part of the project is still ongoing although a preliminary count indicates about 30,000 genes in the human genome, which is far fewer than predicted by most scientists. Another goal of the HGP was to develop faster, more efficient methods for DNA sequencing and sequence analysis and the transfer of these technologies to industry. The sequence of the human DNA is stored in databases available to anyone on the Internet. The U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (and sister organizations in Europe and Japan) house the gene sequence in a database known as Genbank, along with sequences of known and hypothetical genes and proteins. Other organizations such as the University of California, Santa Cruz, and [http://www.ensembl.org ENSEMBL] present additional data and annotation and powerful tools for visualizing and searching it. Computer programs have been developed to analyse the data, because the data itself is difficult to interpret without them. The process of identifying the boundaries between genes and other features in raw DNA sequence is called genome annotation and is the domain of bioinformatics. While expert biologists make the best annotators, their work proceeds slowly, and computer programs are increasingly used to meet the high-throughput demands of genome sequencing projects. The best current technologies for annotation make use of statistical models that take advantage of parallels between DNA sequences and human language, using concepts from computer science such as formal grammars. All humans have unique gene sequences, therefore the data published by the HGP does not represent the exact sequence of each and every individual's genome. It is the combined genome of a small number of anonymous donors. The HGP genome is a scaffold for future work in identifying differences between individuals. Most of the current effort in identifying differences between individuals involves single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Benefits

Clear practical results of the project emerged even before the work was finished. For example, a number of companies, such as Myriad Genetics started offering inexpensive and easy to administer genetic tests that can show predisposition to a variety of illnesses, including breast cancer, blood clotting, cystic fibrosis, liver diseases and many others. There are also many tangible benefits for biological scientists. For example, a researcher investigating a certain form of cancer may have narrowed down his search to a particular gene. By visiting the human genome database on the world-wide web, this researcher can examine what other scientists have written about this gene, including (potentially) its three-dimensional structure, its function(s), its evolutionary relationships to other human genes, or to genes in mice or yeast or fruitflies, possible detrimental mutations, interactions with other genes, body tissues in which this gene is activated, diseases associated with this gene... the list of datatypes is long, one reason why bioinformatics is so challenging. The work on interpretation of genome data is still in its initial stages. In the future the knowledge gained by the understanding of the genome will boost the fields of medicine and biotechnology, eventually leading to cures for cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other diseases. On a more philosophical level, the analysis of similarities between DNA sequences from different organisms is opening new avenues in the study of the theory of evolution. In many cases, evolutionary questions can now be framed in terms of molecular biology; indeed, many major evolutionary milestones (the emergence of the ribosome and organelles, the development of embryos with body plans, the vertebrate immune system) can be related to the molecular level. Many questions about the similarities and differences between humans and our closest relatives (the primates, and indeed the other mammals) are expected to be illuminated by the data from this project. See also: genetics, bioinformatics

References

# . Retrieved 2005-02-03. # Retrieved 2005-02-03.
- [http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66822,00.html DNA Testing Goes DIY], Associated Press via Wired News, March 07, 2005.

External links

- [http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/publicat/hgn/hgn.shtml Human Genome News]. Published from 1989 to 2002 by the US Department of Energy, this newsletter was a major communications method for coordination of the Human Genome Project. Complete online archives are available.
- Project Gutenberg hosts e-texts for Human Genome Project, titled Human Genome Project, Chromosome Number # (# denotes 01-22, X and Y). This information is raw sequence, released in November 2002; access to entry pages with download links is available through http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3501 for Chromosome 1 sequentially to http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3524 for the Y Chromosome. Note that this sequence might not be considered definitive due to ongoing revisions and refinements. In addition to the chromosome files, there is a [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11799 supplementary information file] dated March 2004 which contains additional sequence information.
- [http://www.doegenomes.org/ The HGP information pages]
- [http://www.ensembl.org/ Ensembl project], an automated annotation system and browser for the human genome
- [http://genome.ucsc.edu UCSC genome browser]
- [http://www.nature.com/genomics/human/ Nature magazine's human genome gateway], including the HGP's paper on the draft genome sequence
- [http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/ Wellcome charitable trust description of HGP] "Your Genes, your health, your future".
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-2/genome.html Learning about the Human Genome. Part 1: Challenge to Science Educators. ERIC Digest.]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-2/genome2.html Learning about the Human Genome. Part 2: Resources for Science Educators. ERIC Digest.]
- [http://www.prospect.org/print/V11/26/goozner-m.html Patenting Life by Merrill Goozner]
- [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment062700a.html Genome Breakthrough by Ronald Bailey]
- [http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/00626_4.html Prepared Statement of Craig Venter of Celera] Venter discusses Celera's progress in deciphering the human genome sequence and its relationship to healthcare and to the federally funded Human Genome Project.
- [http://www.objectivescience.com/articles/genes_holcberg.htm Clinton Tries To Take Credit For Celera's Achievement by David Holcberg]
- Category:Big Science Category:Genome projects Category:U.S._sponsored_enterprises ja:ヒトゲノム計画 th:โครงการจ

John Sulston

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PhD

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March 27

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Pembroke College, Cambridge

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Nucleotide

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Salk Institute

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Caenorhabditis elegans

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Human Genome Project

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