John Gurdon

Last updated

Sir
John Gurdon
FRS
John Gurdon Cambridge 2012.JPG
Sir John Gurdon in 2012
Born
John Bertrand Gurdon

(1933-10-02) 2 October 1933 (age 91)
Dippenhall, Surrey, England
CitizenshipBritish
Alma mater Eton College
Christ Church, Oxford
Known for Nuclear transfer, cloning
Awards Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (1977)
William Bate Hardy Prize (1984)
Royal Medal (1985)
International Prize for Biology (1987)
Wolf Prize in Medicine (1989)
Edwin Grant Conklin Medal (2001)
Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2009)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2012)
Scientific career
Fields Biology and Developmental Biology
Institutions University of Oxford
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
University of Cambridge
California Institute of Technology
Thesis Nuclear transplantation in Xenopus  (1960)
Doctoral advisor Michail Fischberg [1]
Doctoral students Douglas A. Melton
Edward M. De Robertis
Website www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/directory/john-gurdon

Sir John Bertrand Gurdon FRS (born 2 October 1933) is a British developmental biologist, best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation [2] [3] [4] and cloning. [1] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Awarded the Lasker Award in 2009, in 2012, he and Shinya Yamanaka were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. [8]

Career

Gurdon attended Edgeborough prep school before Eton College, where he ranked last out of the 250 boys in his year group at biology, and was in the bottom set in every other science subject. [9] A schoolmaster wrote a report stating, "I believe he has ideas about becoming a scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous." [10] [11] [12] Gurdon explains it is the only document he ever framed; he also told a reporter: "When you have problems like an experiment doesn't work, which often happens, it's nice to remind yourself that perhaps after all you are not so good at this job and the schoolmaster may have been right!" [13]

Gurdon went up to Christ Church, Oxford, to read classics then switched to zoology, graduating as MA. For his DPhil degree he studied nuclear transplantation in a frog species of the genus Xenopus , [14] [15] supervised by Dr Michail Fischberg at Oxford University. [16] After pursuing further postdoctoral work at Caltech, [17] he returned to England where his early posts were in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford (1962–71). [18]

Gurdon spent much of his research career at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (1971–83) and then in the Department of Zoology (1983–present). In 1989, he became a founding member of the Wellcome/CRC Institute for Cell Biology and Cancer (later Wellcome/CR UK) at Cambridge, becoming its chairman until 2001. He served as a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics 1991–1995, then Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, from 1995 to 2002.

Gurdon married Jean Elizabeth Margaret Curtis, by whom he has a son and a daughter. [19]

Research

A video from an open-access article co-authored by Gurdon: [20] Animal view of different embryos developing in Xenopus laevis eggs: a diploid laevis x laevis is shown on the top, cleaving and entering gastrulation about 50 min earlier than haploid [laevis] x laevis (middle) and [laevis] x tropicalis cybrid (bottom) embryos.

Nuclear transfer

In 1958, Gurdon, then at the University of Oxford, successfully cloned a frog using intact nuclei from the somatic cells of a Xenopus tadpole. [21] [22] This work was an important extension of work of Briggs and King in 1952 on transplanting nuclei from embryonic blastula cells [23] and the successful induction of polyploidy in the stickleback, Gasterosteus aculatus, in 1956 by Har Swarup reported in Nature . [24] At that time he could not conclusively show that the transplanted nuclei derived from a fully differentiated cell. This was finally shown in 1975 by a group working at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland. [25] They transplanted a nucleus from an antibody-producing lymphocyte (proof that it was fully differentiated) into an enucleated egg and obtained living tadpoles.

Gurdon's experiments captured the attention of the scientific community as it altered the notion of development and the tools and techniques he developed for nuclear transfer are still used today. The term clone [26] (from the ancient Greek word κλών (klōn, "twig")) had already been in use since the beginning of the 20th century in reference to plants. In 1963 the British biologist J. B. S. Haldane, in describing Gurdon's results, became one of the first to use the word "clone" in reference to animals.

Messenger RNA expression

Gurdon and colleagues also pioneered the use of Xenopus (genus of highly aquatic frog) eggs and oocytes to translate microinjected messenger RNA molecules, [27] a technique which has been widely used to identify the proteins encoded and to study their function.

Recent research

Gurdon's recent research has focused on analysing intercellular signalling factors involved in cell differentiation, and on elucidating the mechanisms involved in reprogramming the nucleus in transplantation experiments, including the role of histone variants, [28] [29] and demethylation of the transplanted DNA. [30]

Politics and religion

Gurdon has stated that he is politically "middle of the road", and religiously agnostic because "there is no scientific proof either way". During his time as Master of Magdalene, Gurdon caused some controversy by suggesting that Fellows might occasionally be allowed to deliver "an address on anything they would like to talk about" in college chapel services. [31] In an interview with EWTN.com, Gurdon declared "I'm what you might call liberal-minded. I'm not a Roman Catholic. I'm a Christian, of the Church of England." [32]

Honours and awards

Gurdon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1971, before appointment as Knight Bachelor in 1995.

Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978, [33] the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1980, [34] and the American Philosophical Society in 1983, since 2005 he has been an Honorary Member of the American Association of Anatomists. [35]

In 2004, the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Institute for Cell Biology and Cancer was renamed the Gurdon Institute [36] in his honour. He was awarded the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award and in 2014 delivered the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians. [37] In 2017, Gurdon received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. [38] A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and Fellow of the Zoological Society (FZS), he has received honorary doctorates including Hon DSc (Oxon) and Hon ScD (Cantab) as well as many other awards and medals. [17]

Nobel Prize

In 2012, Gurdon was awarded, jointly with Shinya Yamanaka, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent". [39] His Nobel Lecture was called "The Egg and the Nucleus: A Battle for Supremacy".

Insignia of a Knight Bachelor Knights Bachelor Insignia.png
Insignia of a Knight Bachelor

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dolly (sheep)</span> First cloned mammal (1996–2003)

Dolly was a female Finn-Dorset sheep and the first mammal that was cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a cell taken from a mammary gland. Her cloning proved that a cloned organism could be produced from a mature cell from a specific body part. Contrary to popular belief, she was not the first animal to be cloned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human cloning</span> Creation of a genetically identical copy of a human

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning, which is the reproduction of human cells and tissue. It does not refer to the natural conception and delivery of identical twins. The possibilities of human cloning have raised controversies. These ethical concerns have prompted several nations to pass laws regarding human cloning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African clawed frog</span> Species of amphibian

The African clawed frog, also known as simply xenopus, African clawed toad, African claw-toed frog or the platanna) is a species of African aquatic frog of the family Pipidae. Its name is derived from the short black claws on its feet. The word Xenopus means 'strange foot' and laevis means 'smooth'.

<i>Xenopus</i> Genus of amphibians

Xenopus is a genus of highly aquatic frogs native to sub-Saharan Africa. Twenty species are currently described within it. The two best-known species of this genus are Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis, which are commonly studied as model organisms for developmental biology, cell biology, toxicology, neuroscience and for modelling human disease and birth defects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somatic cell nuclear transfer</span> Method of creating a cloned embryo by replacing the egg nucleus with a body cell nucleus

In genetics and developmental biology, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a laboratory strategy for creating a viable embryo from a body cell and an egg cell. The technique consists of taking a denucleated oocyte and implanting a donor nucleus from a somatic (body) cell. It is used in both therapeutic and reproductive cloning. In 1996, Dolly the sheep became famous for being the first successful case of the reproductive cloning of a mammal. In January 2018, a team of scientists in Shanghai announced the successful cloning of two female crab-eating macaques from foetal nuclei.

The year 1958 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embryonic stem cell</span> Type of pluripotent blastocystic stem cell

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre-implantation embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells. Isolating the inner cell mass (embryoblast) using immunosurgery results in destruction of the blastocyst, a process which raises ethical issues, including whether or not embryos at the pre-implantation stage have the same moral considerations as embryos in the post-implantation stage of development.

In biology, reprogramming refers to erasure and remodeling of epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation, during mammalian development or in cell culture. Such control is also often associated with alternative covalent modifications of histones.

Douglas A. Melton is an American medical researcher who is the Xander University Professor at Harvard University, and was an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until 2022. Melton serves as the co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and was the first co-chairman of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. Melton is the founder of several biotech companies including Gilead Sciences, Ontogeny, iPierian, and Semma Therapeutics. Melton holds membership in the National Academy of the Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a founding member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Induced pluripotent stem cell</span> Pluripotent stem cell generated directly from a somatic cell

Induced pluripotent stem cells are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi in Kyoto, Japan, who together showed in 2006 that the introduction of four specific genes, collectively known as Yamanaka factors, encoding transcription factors could convert somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells. Shinya Yamanaka was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize along with Sir John Gurdon "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinya Yamanaka</span> Japanese stem cell researcher (born 1962)

Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize laureate. He is a professor and the director emeritus of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University; as a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California; and as a professor of anatomy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Yamanaka is also a past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).

Keith Henry Stockman Campbell was a British biologist who was a member of the team at Roslin Institute that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly, from fully differentiated adult mammary cells. He was Professor of Animal Development at the University of Nottingham. In 2008, he received the Shaw Prize for Medicine and Life Sciences jointly with Ian Wilmut and Shinya Yamanaka for "their works on the cell differentiation in mammals".

Xenbase is a Model Organism Database (MOD), providing informatics resources, as well as genomic and biological data on Xenopus frogs. Xenbase has been available since 1999, and covers both X. laevis and X. tropicalis Xenopus varieties. As of 2013 all of its services are running on virtual machines in a private cloud environment, making it one of the first MODs to do so. Other than hosting genomics data and tools, Xenbase supports the Xenopus research community though profiles for researchers and laboratories, and job and events postings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward M. De Robertis</span> American embryologist

Edward Michael De Robertis is an American embryologist and Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work has contributed to the finding of conserved molecular processes of embryonic inductions that result in tissue differentiations during animal development. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2013, worked for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for 26 years, and holds a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2009 Pope Benedict XVI appointed De Robertis to a lifetime position in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2022 Pope Francis appointed him Councillor of the Academy for four years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cell potency</span> Ability of a cell to differentiate into other cell types

Cell potency is a cell's ability to differentiate into other cell types. The more cell types a cell can differentiate into, the greater its potency. Potency is also described as the gene activation potential within a cell, which like a continuum, begins with totipotency to designate a cell with the most differentiation potential, pluripotency, multipotency, oligopotency, and finally unipotency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Har Swarup</span>

Har Swarup, FNA was vice-chancellor, academician, and scientist in the field of developmental biology and genetic engineering as well as an academician and teacher of molecular biology and biochemistry. He is known for his research at Oxford University on polyploidy, cloning, nuclear transfer and later for his many other researches such as the discovery of "ringed polysome figures" and on theories on gene expression changes with evolution and environment. In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded the Sir Dorabji Tata Medal, nominated as a fellow of Indian National Science Academy, Honorary Chief Wild Life Warden of the State of Madhya Pradesh and was the vice-chancellor of Jiwaji University, Gwalior until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Papalopulu</span> Professor of Developmental Neuroscience

Athanasia Papalopulu is a Wellcome Trust senior research fellow and Professor of Developmental Neuroscience in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester.

Julian Blow is a molecular biologist, Professor of Chromosome Maintenance, and also the Dean of the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Scotland.

Marie A. DiBerardino was an American biologist, specializing in developmental biology and genetics. She is known, with Robert William Briggs and Thomas Joseph King, as a pioneer in amphibian cloning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Daniel Lane</span> British molecular biologist

Charles Daniel Lane is a British molecular biologist who along with colleagues Gerard Marbaix and John Gurdon discovered the oocyte exogenous mRNA expression system – a system that not only reveals aspects of the control of gene expression but also provides a "living test tube" for the study of macromolecules: such a whole cell system also shows the merits of a non-reductionist approach, and the possibility of mRNA therapeutics.

References

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  2. ↑ Gurdon, J. B.; Byrne, J. A. (2003). "The first half-century of nuclear transplantation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 100 (14): 8048–8052. Bibcode:2003PNAS..100.8048G. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1337135100 . PMC   166179 . PMID   12821779.
  3. ↑ Gurdon, J. B. (2006). "From Nuclear Transfer to Nuclear Reprogramming: The Reversal of Cell Differentiation". Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. 22: 1–22. doi:10.1146/annurev.cellbio.22.090805.140144. PMID   16704337. S2CID   6185731.
  4. ↑ Gurdon, J. B.; Melton, D. A. (2008). "Nuclear Reprogramming in Cells". Science. 322 (5909): 1811–1815. Bibcode:2008Sci...322.1811G. doi:10.1126/science.1160810. PMID   19095934.
  5. ↑ Kain, K. (2009). "The birth of cloning: An interview with John Gurdon". Disease Models and Mechanisms. 2 (1–2): 9–10. doi:10.1242/dmm.002014. PMC   2615171 . PMID   19132124.
  6. ↑ Gurdon, J. (2003). "John Gurdon". Current Biology. 13 (19): R759–R760. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2003.09.015 . PMID   14521852. S2CID   12271157.
  7. ↑ Gurdon, J. (2000). "Not a total waste of time. An interview with John Gurdon. Interview by James C Smith". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 44 (1): 93–99. PMID   10761853.
  8. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – 2012 Press Release". Nobel Media AB. 8 October 2012.
  9. ↑ "Sir John Gurdon Biography and Interview". achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  10. ↑ "Sir John B. Gurdon – Biographical". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  11. ↑ Gurdon Institute (25 August 2016), Gurdon Institute | John Gurdon's 'Journey of a lifetime' lecture, March 2016 , retrieved 3 June 2017
  12. ↑ "None of us should ever be written off". Western Gazette . 18 October 2012. Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  13. ↑ Collins, Nick (8 October 2012). "Sir John Gurdon, Nobel Prize winner, was 'too stupid' for science at school". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  14. ↑ Nuclear transplantation in Xenopus (Thesis). Thesis DPhil—University of Oxford. 1960.[ permanent dead link ]
  15. ↑ Gurdon, John (1961). Studies on nucleocytoplasmic relationships during differentiation in vertebrates (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford.(subscription required)
  16. ↑ www.zoo.cam.ac.uk
  17. 1 2 Rodney Porter Lectures: Biography
  18. ↑ "www.chch.ox.ac.uk". Archived from the original on 5 July 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  19. ↑ www.burkespeerage.com
  20. ↑ Narbonne, P.; Simpson, D. E.; Gurdon, J. B. (2011). Misteli, Tom (ed.). "Deficient Induction Response in a Xenopus Nucleocytoplasmic Hybrid". PLOS Biology. 9 (11): e1001197. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001197 . PMC   3217020 . PMID   22131902.
  21. ↑ Gurdon, J. B.; Elsdale, T. R.; Fischberg, M. (1958). "Sexually Mature Individuals of Xenopus laevis from the Transplantation of Single Somatic Nuclei". Nature. 182 (4627): 64–65. Bibcode:1958Natur.182...64G. doi:10.1038/182064a0. PMID   13566187. S2CID   4254765.
  22. ↑ Gurdon, J. B. (1962). "The developmental capacity of nuclei taken from intestinal epithelium cells of feeding tadpoles". Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology. 10: 622–640. PMID   13951335.
  23. ↑ Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King (May 1952). "Transplantation of Living Nuclei From Blastula Cells into Enucleated Frogs' Eggs". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 38 (5): 455–463. Bibcode:1952PNAS...38..455B. doi: 10.1073/pnas.38.5.455 . PMC   1063586 . PMID   16589125.
  24. ↑ Swarup H. Production of heteroploidy in the three-spined stickle back (Gasterosteus aculeatus L) Nature in 1956;178:1124–1125. doi: 10.1038/1781124a0; http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v178/n4542/abs/1781124a0.html
  25. ↑ Wabl, M. R.; Brun, R. B.; Du Pasquier, L. (1975). "Lymphocytes of the toad Xenopus laevis have the gene set for promoting tadpole development". Science. 190 (4221): 1310–1312. Bibcode:1975Sci...190.1310W. doi:10.1126/science.1198115. PMID   1198115. S2CID   23153308.
  26. ↑ Gurdon, J. B.; Colman, A. (1999). "The future of cloning". Nature. 402 (6763): 743–746. Bibcode:1999Natur.402..743G. doi: 10.1038/45429 . PMID   10617195. S2CID   4302017.
  27. ↑ Gurdon, J. B.; Lane, C. D.; Woodland, H. R.; Marbaix, G. (1971). "Use of Frog Eggs and Oocytes for the Study of Messenger RNA and its Translation in Living Cells". Nature. 233 (5316): 177–182. Bibcode:1971Natur.233..177G. doi:10.1038/233177a0. PMID   4939175. S2CID   4160808.
  28. ↑ Jullien, J.; Astrand, C.; Halley-Stott, R. P.; Garrett, N.; Gurdon, J. B. (2010). "Characterization of somatic cell nuclear reprogramming by oocytes in which a linker histone is required for pluripotency gene reactivation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107 (12): 5483–5488. Bibcode:2010PNAS..107.5483J. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1000599107 . PMC   2851752 . PMID   20212135.
  29. ↑ Pasque, V.; Gillich, A.; Garrett, N.; Gurdon, J. B. (2011). "Histone variant macroH2A confers resistance to nuclear reprogramming". The EMBO Journal. 30 (12): 2373–2387. doi:10.1038/emboj.2011.144. PMC   3116279 . PMID   21552206.
  30. ↑ Simonsson, S.; Gurdon, J. (2004). "DNA demethylation is necessary for the epigenetic reprogramming of somatic cell nuclei". Nature Cell Biology. 6 (10): 984–990. doi:10.1038/ncb1176. PMID   15448701. S2CID   23201099.
  31. ↑ Johnny Michael (11 October 2012). "John Gurdon on ethics, politics, religion, and anti-theism". upublish.info. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013.
  32. ↑ Ann Schneible (4 December 2013). "Nobel Prize Winner Participates at Vatican Conference".
  33. ↑ "John Bertrand Gurdon". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  34. ↑ "John B. Gurdon". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  35. ↑ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  36. ↑ "The Gurdon Institute" . Retrieved 26 July 2011.
  37. ↑ "2014 – Event listing from April onwards". Royal College of Physicians. Archived from the original on 7 June 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  38. ↑ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  39. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012". NobelPrize.org. 8 October 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2012.


Academic offices
Preceded by Fullerian Professor of Physiology
1985–1991		Succeeded by
Preceded by Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge
1994–2002		Succeeded by
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