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Sydney brenner

Sydney brenner. 1927 – Molecular Biology, Model Organisms, and C. elegans. Born on January 13, 1927 From Germiston, South Africa Attended the University of the Witwatersrand to study medicine at the age of fifteen Failed a class in medicine and had to retake it and surgery for his degree

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Sydney brenner

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  1. Sydney brenner 1927 – Molecular Biology, Model Organisms, and C. elegans

  2. Born on January 13, 1927 • From Germiston, South Africa • Attended the University of the Witwatersrand to study medicine at the age of fifteen • Failed a class in medicine and had to retake it and surgery for his degree • He then went to Oxford University for a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry • Explored into molecular biology at its birth – visited Cambridge to see the Watson and Crick model of DNA The early years

  3. Worked with bacteriophage and did some research with viruses in Berkeley during a trip to America • Stayed in contact with Watson and Crick, from which many of their conversations resulted in exciting ideas • Received a Doctorate of Philosophy from Exeter College • Worked for 25 years at the Medical Research Council Unit in Cambridge College and beginning research

  4. A model organism is an organism that is used to study a specific trait, disease, or phenomenon, usually having a short generation time, having similarities to humans, and are easily accessible for laboratory studies • Brenner had a goal to study the nervous system and searched for an organism that met the previously mentioned requirements • He came across Caenorhabditis elegans and began his research on it because of its simple and short life and reproductive cycles, its transparency, and its availability • Caenorhabditis elegans is a soil nematode common around the world http://testweb.science.uu.nl/developmentalbiology/elegans_mike.html Model organisms

  5. It is cultivated in large numbers (10,000 worms/petri dish) • Has six pairs of chromosomes (1 pair of sex chromosomes) • Two sexes: hermaphrodites and males • Hermaphrodites can produce 300+ offspring self-fertilizing and more when fertilizing with males • These properties allow for easy production of numerous genotypes and/or phenotypes in genetic research through the different types and large amounts of reproduction • Constantly contains 959 cells • These cells’ positions are constant and each one was mapped • Makes it easy to track traits and mutations within a specific cell • Its genome is about 100,000,000 base pairs • Completely sequenced in 1998 (first multicellular organism with a completely sequenced genome) C. elegans http://www.easternct.edu/~adams/ModelOrganismHomePage.html

  6. Introduced a need for a new branch of biological research • Demonstrated why developmental biology and molecular biology are important • Helps one understand diseases and find differentiation • It created a better genetic understanding of humans • As a multicellular organism, its processes were much more like a human’s than of the bacteria previously studied • The C. elegans genome matches 40% of the human genome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caenorhabditis_elegans C. elegansSignificance

  7. Programmed cell death • Brenner noticed that the number of cells remained at 959 although it gained 131 more cells during adulthood • Identified genes in C. elegans that controlled it • These genes are also in humans and carry out the same task • Apoptosis was just starting to be discovered at this point in the 70s apoptosis

  8. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2002 • It was jointly awarded and he shared it with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John Sulston • Awarded for discoveries in genetic regulation of organ development and PCD Nobel prize http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2002/brenner-photo.html

  9. Fellow of the Royal Society (1965) • Albert Lasker Medical Research Award (1971) • Kyoto Prize (1990) • Gairdner Foundation International Award (1991) • Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science (2000) • Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (2002) http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2002/brenner-photo.html Career accolades

  10. He is currently a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA • In a recent interview, he stated that “the thing is to have no discipline at all. Biology got its main success by the importation of physicists that came into the field not knowing any biology and I think today that’s very important” • Developed a genome project for Fugu rubripes, the Japanese puffer fish, after C. elegans • Established the Molecular Science Institution in Berkeley, CA to process information gathered from various new genome sequencing projects Interesting facts http://www.panoramio.com/photo/103823

  11. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2002/brenner-bio.htmlhttp://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2002/brenner-bio.html • http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/891288/Sydney-Brenner • http://wormclassroom.org/short-history-c-elegans-research • http://hobertlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Ankeny_2001.pdf • http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/A/Apoptosis.html • http://kingsreview.co.uk/magazine/blog/2014/02/24/how-academia-and-publishing-are-destroying-scientific-innovation-a-conversation-with-sydney-brenner/ • http://www.dnalc.org/view/16491-Biography-21-Sydney-Brenner-1927-.html • http://www.salk.edu/faculty/brenner.html Sources

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