David Klenerman | |
---|---|
Born | September 1959 (age 64) [1] |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge (MA, PhD) |
Known for | Illumina dye sequencing Scanning ion-conductance microscopy Super-resolution microscopy Solexa |
Children | 2 (Laura & Anna) |
Awards |
|
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biophysical chemistry |
Institutions | University of Cambridge Stanford University |
Thesis | Infrared chemiluminescence using a SISAM spectrometer (1985) |
Doctoral advisor | Ian William Murison Smith |
Other academic advisors | Richard Zare |
Website | klenermangroup |
Sir David Klenerman FRS FMedSci [3] [4] (born 1959) is a British biophysical chemist and a professor of biophysical chemistry at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge [5] and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. [6]
He is best known for his contribution in the field of next-generation sequencing of DNA (that subsequently resulted in Solexa, a high-speed DNA sequencing company that he co-founded), [1] [7] [8] [9] [10] nanopipette-based scanning ion-conductance microscopy, [11] [12] and super-resolution microscopy. [13]
Klenerman is the son of two South African-born Jews. [14] He was educated at the University of Cambridge where he was an undergraduate student of Christ's College, Cambridge and received his BA degree in 1982. [15] He earned his PhD degree in chemistry in 1986 as a postgraduate student of Churchill College, Cambridge and was supervised by Ian William Murison Smith. [16] [2] [15]
After his doctorate, Klenerman went to Stanford University as a Fulbright scholar to work on high-overtone chemistry, with Richard Zare. After his postdoctoral research at Stanford, he returned to United Kingdom to work in BP Research for seven years. Then, in 1994, he joined the University of Cambridge, as a faculty member of the Department of Chemistry and a fellow of Christ's College. [2] [15] [17]
Klenerman, along with Shankar Balasubramanian, invented a method of next-generation DNA sequencing which is commonly known today as the Solexa sequencing or Illumina dye sequencing. [7] [9] The method is based on the detection of fluorophore labelled nucleotides as they get incorporated in the DNA strands. [18] This sequencing by synthesis method gained popularity, [19] [20] and is currently regarded as the most widely used platform to replace conventional Sanger sequencing technique, despite its comparatively low multiplexing capability of samples, as it offers several key advantages: it is automated, quick, highly accurate, capable of sequencing multiple strands simultaneously via massive parallel sequencing, and economically cheaper in case of whole genome sequencing. [21] [22] [23]
He is also known for exploring nanopipette-based (instead of conventional micropipette-based) scanning ion-conductance microscopy methods. [11] [24] His research group was successful in achieving very high resolution topographic images of live-cells, in hopping mode imaging, in precise delivery of small molecules to cell, and in studying real time detailed cell-functioning. [12] [25] [26]
Most recently, his group is focusing on 3D super-resolution microscopy to develop new insights on protein misfolding and neurodegenerative diseases. [13]
Klenerman and Shankar Balasubramanian commercialised their invention on the single-molecule-fluorescence based high-speed DNA sequencing and jointly founded Solexa in 1998. Later, in 2007, this company was acquired by Illumina for $600 million. [7] [27] [28] [29] [30]
In 2004, Klenerman co-founded another spin-out company, Ionscope, to supply assembled scanning ion-conductance microscopes to the research community that looks for high-resolution 3D images of live cells. As per the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, as of February 2014, Ionscope sold 35 SICM units worldwide. [31]
The major awards and honours that Klenerman received in recognition of his research work:
A DNA sequencer is a scientific instrument used to automate the DNA sequencing process. Given a sample of DNA, a DNA sequencer is used to determine the order of the four bases: G (guanine), C (cytosine), A (adenine) and T (thymine). This is then reported as a text string, called a read. Some DNA sequencers can be also considered optical instruments as they analyze light signals originating from fluorochromes attached to nucleotides.
DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. The advent of rapid DNA sequencing methods has greatly accelerated biological and medical research and discovery.
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Scanning ion-conductance microscopy (SICM) is a scanning probe microscopy technique that uses an electrode as the probe tip. SICM allows for the determination of the surface topography of micrometer and even nanometer-range structures in aqueous media conducting electrolytes. The samples can be hard or soft, are generally non-conducting, and the non-destructive nature of the measurement allows for the observation of living tissues and cells, and biological samples in general.
Illumina, Inc. is an American biotechnology company, headquartered in San Diego, California, and it serves more than 155 countries. Incorporated on April 1, 1998, Illumina develops, manufactures, and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. The company provides a line of products and services that serves the sequencing, genotyping and gene expression, and proteomics markets.
SOLiD (Sequencing by Oligonucleotide Ligation and Detection) is a next-generation DNA sequencing technology developed by Life Technologies and has been commercially available since 2006. This next generation technology generates 108 - 109 small sequence reads at one time. It uses 2 base encoding to decode the raw data generated by the sequencing platform into sequence data.
Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time. This entails sequencing all of an organism's chromosomal DNA as well as DNA contained in the mitochondria and, for plants, in the chloroplast.
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Transmission electron microscopy DNA sequencing is a single-molecule sequencing technology that uses transmission electron microscopy techniques. The method was conceived and developed in the 1960s and 70s, but lost favor when the extent of damage to the sample was recognized.
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Massive parallel sequencing or massively parallel sequencing is any of several high-throughput approaches to DNA sequencing using the concept of massively parallel processing; it is also called next-generation sequencing (NGS) or second-generation sequencing. Some of these technologies emerged between 1993 and 1998 and have been commercially available since 2005. These technologies use miniaturized and parallelized platforms for sequencing of 1 million to 43 billion short reads per instrument run.
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Illumina dye sequencing is a technique used to determine the series of base pairs in DNA, also known as DNA sequencing. The reversible terminated chemistry concept was invented by Bruno Canard and Simon Sarfati at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. It was developed by Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman of Cambridge University, who subsequently founded Solexa, a company later acquired by Illumina. This sequencing method is based on reversible dye-terminators that enable the identification of single nucleotides as they are washed over DNA strands. It can also be used for whole-genome and region sequencing, transcriptome analysis, metagenomics, small RNA discovery, methylation profiling, and genome-wide protein-nucleic acid interaction analysis.
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