Grahame Bulfield

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Grahame Bulfield
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materUniversity of Leeds
Known forFormer Director of the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh
AwardsCBE, FRSE, HonFRS
Scientific career
FieldsAnimal Genetics
InstitutionsUniversity of Edinburgh
Thesis Genetical and biochemical studies of fatness in mice
Doctoral advisor C.H. Waddington, D.S. Falconer, H. Kacser, G.S. Boyd

Grahame Bulfield, CBE, FRSE, Hon FRASE (born 1941) is an English geneticist, vice-principal and Emeritus Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the former director and chief executive of the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, when in 1996 the research group led by Ian Wilmut first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Grahame Bulfield was born in 1941 in Leeds, was educated  in Cheshire, where his interest in agriculture and farming started to grow. In 1959 he enrolled at the University of Leeds, reading for a BSc in Agriculture with Honours in animal production. His curiosity for genetics fully blossomed and he took to completion his honours project on the subject of "Beef Sire Performance and Progeny Test". [4] Upon recommendation by a lecturer, with the support of a scholarship from the Ministry of Agriculture, in 1964 he enlisted the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh, studying for a Diploma in Animal Genetics. Having gained valuable international experience in Sweden, at the University of Uppsala, as a Travelling Fellow of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, he registered for a PhD in Genetics at the University of Edinburgh, with a studentship from the Agricultural Research Council. [4] His specific area of interest was the biochemical genetics of two obese mutants in the mouse, and under the supervision of C.H. Waddington, D.S. Falconer, Henrik Kacser and G.S. Boyd, he presented his thesis "Genetical and biochemical studies of fatness in mice". [5] After his PhD and until 1971 he was involved in the Department of Genetics with the University of California, as a Fulbright Fellow. [4]

Career and research

In 1971, once returned to Edinburgh, he worked with Henrik Kacser on two projects funded by the MRC, concerning the screening and analysis of mouse mutants of human inherited disease. [4] In 1976 he was selected as a Lecturer and Medical Convenor of Medical Genetics at the University of Leicester. [6] Here his research extended from mouse disease mutants to the genetic control of gene expression, and the genetics of growth. [4] His studies led him to discover of a mutation on the mouse X-chromosome, responsible to cause the Duchenne and the Becker muscular dystrophy in humans, and thus opening a path to a possible cure. [7] He was appointed Head of the Genetics Group at the Poultry Research Centre of Edinburgh in 1981, a part of which merged into the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research (IAPGR), having its own  newly built Edinburgh Research Station in 1986. He was nominated Head of the Gene Expression Group, becoming Head of the whole station in 1988. Subsequently, this renamed itself Roslin Institute, as an independent body from its sister institute in Cambridge, and Bulfield was elected as its Chief Executive and director. [4] At Roslin he spearheaded pioneering projects with cutting-edge technology that made selective breeding of livestock animals easier, carrying on a tradition thousands of years old. His research covered the wide spectrum of genetics and molecular biology, analysing genetic similarities that exist between humans and other species. Production of animal feedstuff, cereals, milk, meat, benefited all from the findings of his research. Not only that, but this increased in-depth knowledge in the genetic sciences eased the way to curing and preventing human diseases and to the development of the new industry of bio-farming. [8] In 1996 the cloning of Dolly the sheep at Roslin received wide attention both in the public domain and in the scientific arena, raising questions and debates on the ethical aspects and implications of it. He sustained that science can be used for good or evil, and that his job as a scientist was to put as much information out in the public domain, so that the public and government could judge it. [9] Once Pasteur started to apply science to medicine in 1850, he let the genie out of the bottle. [10] He argued that the knowledge itself must be seen in a social context and that if Roslin had not gone ahead with Dolly, somebody else would have done it anyway. [9] If Dolly represented the living proof that animals could help humanity by producing organs and medicines, many saw her arrival as the prelude to human cloning. However, facing a worldwide diffused moral panic, he argued that he would be absolutely flabbergasted if we saw it happening in his lifetime, and that it was a nonsensical bit of hype. [11] Nevertheless, in 1997, he and his team at Roslin in charge of the Dolly's project, led by Ian Wilmut, had to appear before the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology to answer questions on cloning. [4] As a result, the UK's Ministry of Agriculture cut off funding to the project, just when the team was celebrating the publication of their work in the journal Nature. He was shocked and stated that he would move heaven and Earth to keep resources in that cloning program. Their effort to perfect transgenic animal that could well improve farming conditions was under threat by the effect of cuts, resulting in more redundancies in permanent staff. [12] In response the Institute raised £6M in commercial funding to exploit the cloning technology and established a company Roslin BioMed to take this forward; this was later sold to the Californian Company Geron. When in 2001 Roslin entered a partnership with Viragen (Amex) to exploit the Institute's transgenic chicken technology, he stated as its CEO that both he and his colleagues at Roslin believed to have found the ideal partner in Viragen and were looking forward to an extremely productive collaboration. [13] Since then he has served in an advisory capacity to several government and public committees, and as a consultant to a UK biotechnology company. [4]

Awards

In 1990 he was nominated Honorary Professor of the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently to a Personal Chair of Animal Genetics in 2002. [4] He was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1992. [14] In 1999 he was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. He was awarded a CBE for services to Animal Genetics in 2001. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloning</span> Process of producing genetically identical individuals of an organism

Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, cloning is the process of creating cloned organisms (copies) of cells and of DNA fragments.

<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">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 an enucleated 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony John Clark</span>

Anthony John Clark OBE FRSE was an English molecular biologist who was a founder of applying molecular technology to farm animals. He was director of the Roslin Institute from 2002 to 2004.

Sir Ian Wilmut, OBE FRS FMedSci FRSE is an English embryologist and Chair of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly. He was appointed OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development and knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours. He together with Keith Campbell and Shinya Yamanaka jointly received the 2008 Shaw Prize for Medicine and Life Sciences "for their works on the cell differentiation in mammals."

Polly and Molly, two ewes, were the first mammals to have been successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell and to be transgenic animals at the same time. This is not to be confused with Dolly the Sheep, the first animal to be successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell where there wasn’t modification carried out on the adult donor nucleus. Polly and Molly, like Dolly the Sheep, were cloned at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biologist</span> Scientist studying living organisms

A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in a particular branch of biology and have a specific research focus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Jaenisch</span> German biologist

Rudolf Jaenisch is a Professor of Biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is a pioneer of transgenic science, in which an animal’s genetic makeup is altered. Jaenisch has focused on creating genetically modified mice to study cancer and neurological diseases.

Megan and Morag, two domestic sheep, were the first mammals to have been successfully cloned from differentiated cells. They are not to be confused with Dolly the sheep which was the first animal to be successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell or Polly the sheep which was the first cloned and transgenic animal. Megan and Morag, like Dolly and Polly, were cloned at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph L. Brinster</span> American geneticist

Ralph Lawrence Brinster is an American geneticist, National Medal of Science laureate, and Richard King Mellon Professor of Reproductive Physiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Campbell (biologist)</span> British biologist (1954–2012) Professor of Animal Development at the University of Nottingham,

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified animal</span> Animal that has been genetically modified

Genetically modified animals are animals that have been genetically modified for a variety of purposes including producing drugs, enhancing yields, increasing resistance to disease, etc. The vast majority of genetically modified animals are at the research stage while the number close to entering the market remains small.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetically modified mammal</span>

Genetically modified mammals are mammals that have been genetically engineered. They are an important category of genetically modified organisms. The majority of research involving genetically modified mammals involves mice with attempts to produce knockout animals in other mammalian species limited by the inability to derive and stably culture embryonic stem cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roslin Institute</span> Scottish animal sciences research institute

The Roslin Institute is an animal sciences research institute at Easter Bush, Midlothian, Scotland, part of the University of Edinburgh, and is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Tracy was a transgenically modified sheep created by scientists at Scotland's Roslin Institute to produce the human protein alpha 1-antitrypsin, a substance regarded in the 1990s as a potential pharmaceutical for the treatments of cystic fibrosis and emphysema. Notably, she is the first transgenic farm mammal ever created.

<i>In re Roslin Institute</i> (Edinburgh) 2014 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

In re Roslin Institute (Edinburgh), 750 F.3d 1333 (Fed. Cir. 2014), is a 2014 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejecting a patent for a cloned sheep known as "Dolly the Sheep"— the first mammal ever cloned from an adult somatic cell.

Roger Burton Land FRSE was a 20th century British animal geneticist. As head of the Edinburgh Research Station he was one of the several scientists responsible for laying the groundwork for the creation of Dolly the Sheep. The Roger Land Building within the University of Edinburgh's King's Buildings complex is named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetics in fiction</span>

Aspects of genetics including mutation, hybridisation, cloning, genetic engineering, and eugenics have appeared in fiction since the 19th century.

Margaret M. Perry (1930-2009) was an English molecular geneticist and embryology researcher at the University of Edinburgh whose research produced the first warm-blooded animal developed completely in vitro.

Hugh Paterson Donald (1908–1989) was a New Zealand-born, British biologist, noteworthy as an important contributor to Peter Medawar's research on skin grafts.

References

  1. ↑ Giles, Jim; Knight, Jonathan (1 February 2003). "Dolly's death leaves researchers woolly on clone ageing issue". Nature. 421 (6925): 776. Bibcode:2003Natur.421..776G. doi: 10.1038/421776a . ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   12594470.
  2. ↑ Schnieke, A. E. (19 December 1997). "Human Factor IX Transgenic Sheep Produced by Transfer of Nuclei from Transfected Fetal Fibroblasts". Science. 278 (5346): 2130–2133. Bibcode:1997Sci...278.2130S. doi:10.1126/science.278.5346.2130. PMID   9405350.
  3. ↑ Campbell, K. H. S.; McWhir, J.; Ritchie, W. A.; Wilmut, I. (March 1996). "Sheep cloned by nuclear transfer from a cultured cell line". Nature. 380 (6569): 64–66. Bibcode:1996Natur.380...64C. doi:10.1038/380064a0. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   8598906. S2CID   3529638.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Bulfield, Grahame, 1941-: (geneticist, formerly director and chief executive, Roslin Institute, Edinburgh and vice-principal, University of Edinburgh) | University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections". archives.collections.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  5. ↑ Bulfield, Grahame John (1968). "Genetical and biochemical studies of fatness in mice".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ "University News". News. The Times (England) (Article). 30 July 1976. p. 16.
  7. ↑ Raeburn, Paul (31 July 1984). "Muscular Dystrophy Identified In Mouse, Speeding Search For A Cure". Domestic News. The Associated Press.
  8. ↑ Donnelly, Joe (22 April 1996). "More of the same, please". The Herald (Glasgow). p. 26.
  9. 1 2 Bragg, Melvyn (14 January 1999). "Genetic Engineering". bbc.co.uk (Radio podcast). In Our Times. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  10. ↑ Radford, Tim (23 May 1998). "Double jeopardy". News. The Guardian. London, UK. ISSN   0261-3077.
  11. ↑ Ross, Emma (13 August 2000). "Some think human cloning may be around the corner". Science, Medicine, Technology. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania).
  12. ↑ "Dolly the sheep UK Tories to axe cash for cloning experiments". World. Calgary Herald. 1 March 1997. p. 16.
  13. ↑ "Viragen Stockholders Meeting Features Collaboration With Institute That Created 'Dolly The Sheep'; Progress Reported On All Projects". Financial News. PR Newswire. 28 February 2001.
  14. ↑ "Royal Society of Edinburgh". News. The Times (England) (Article). 12 March 1992.
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