38-736: Sydney Brenner CH FRS FMedSci MAE (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist . In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston . Brenner made significant contributions to work on the genetic code , and other areas of molecular biology while working in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge , England. He established
76-653: A First Class in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Six months later Brenner had finished repeating Medicine and Surgery and in 1951 received the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBCh). Brenner received an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 which enabled him to complete a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at the University of Oxford as
114-488: A cobbler, came to South Africa from Lithuania in 1910, and his mother from Riga , Latvia, in 1922. He had one sister, Phyllis. He was educated at Germiston High School and the University of the Witwatersrand . Having joined the university at the age of 15, it was noted during his second year that he would be too young to qualify for the practice of medicine at the conclusion of his six-year medical course, and he
152-494: A free-living roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of animal development including neural development . He chose this 1-millimeter-long soil roundworm mainly because it is simple, is easy to grow in bulk populations, and turned out to be quite convenient for genetic analysis. One of the key methods for identifying important function genes was the screen for roundworms that had some functional defect, such as being uncoordinated , leading to
190-592: A laboratory technician. It was during this time, in 1945, that Brenner would publish his first scientific works. His masters thesis was in the field of cytogenetics and publications during this time in the field Brenner would later call Cell Physiology . In 1946 Wilfred Le Gros Clark invited Brenner to his Department of Anatomy in Oxford, during a visit to South Africa. Brenner was persuaded to finish his medical education instead. Brenner returned to medical school where he failed Medicine, nearly failed Surgery and achieved
228-743: A postgraduate student of Exeter College, Oxford , supervised by Cyril Hinshelwood . Following his DPhil, Brenner did postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley . He spent the next 20 years at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. There, during the 1960s, he contributed to molecular biology, then an emerging field. In 1976 he joined the Salk Institute in California . Together with Jack Dunitz , Dorothy Hodgkin , Leslie Orgel , and Beryl M. Oughton , he
266-507: A regular column ("Loose Ends") in the journal Current Biology . This column was so popular that "Loose ends from Current Biology", a compilation, was published by Current Biology Ltd. and became a collectors' item. Brenner wrote " A Life in Science ", a paperback published by BioMed Central . He is also noted for his generosity with ideas and the great number of students and colleagues his ideas have stimulated. In 2017, Brenner co-organized
304-518: A seminal lecture series in Singapore describing ten logarithmic scales of time from the Big Bang to the present, spanning the appearance of multicellular life forms, the evolution of humans, and the emergence of language, culture and technology. Prominent scientists and thinkers, including W. Brian Arthur , Svante Pääbo , Helga Nowotny and Jack Szostak , spoke during the lecture series. In 2018,
342-668: Is the Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, and a maximum of 65 members. Additionally, foreigners or Commonwealth citizens from outside the Commonwealth realms may be added as honorary members. Members are organised into a single class and are appointed by the monarch of the Commonwealth realms in their capacity as sovereign of the order. While membership of the order confers no title or precedence , those inducted into
380-768: The Chemical Society , the Royal Society , the Classical Association , and the Faraday Society , and received numerous awards and honorary degrees. Hinshelwood never married. He was fluent in seven classical and modern languages and his main hobbies were painting, collecting Chinese pottery, and foreign literature. As an artist, Hinshelwood painted scenes in Oxford, as well as portraits of Oxford University people including Harold Hartley , his doctoral supervisor, and Herbert Blakiston ,
418-767: The Howard Hughes Medical Institute . In August 2005, Brenner was appointed president of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology . He was also on the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute , as well as being Professor of Genetics there. A scientific biography of Brenner was written by Errol Friedberg in the US, for publication by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press in 2010. Known for his penetrating scientific insight and acerbic wit, Brenner, for many years, authored
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#1732793663064456-796: The Order of Merit in 1960. With Nikolay Semenov of the USSR , Hinshelwood was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1956 for his researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions. He was also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the United States National Academy of Sciences , and the American Philosophical Society . Hinshelwood was president of
494-539: The University of Oxford from 1937. He served on several advisory councils on scientific matters to the British Government . His early studies of molecular kinetics led to the publication of Thermodynamics for Students of Chemistry and The Kinetics of Chemical Change in 1926. With Harold Warris Thompson he studied the explosive reaction of hydrogen and oxygen and described the phenomenon of chain reaction . His subsequent work on chemical changes in
532-634: The anticodon and the amino acid on a tRNA is the basis for the unidirectional flow of information in coded biological systems. This is commonly known as the central dogma of molecular biology , i.e. information flows from nucleic acid to protein and never from protein to nucleic acid. Following this adaptor insight, Brenner conceived of the concept of messenger RNA during an April 1960 conversation with Crick and François Jacob , and together with Jacob and Matthew Meselson went on to prove its existence later that summer. Then, with Crick, Leslie Barnett , and Richard J. Watts-Tobin, Brenner genetically demonstrated
570-614: The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of developmental biology , and founded the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley , California , United States. Brenner was born in the town of Germiston in the then Transvaal (today in Gauteng ), South Africa, on 13 January 1927. His parents, Leah (née Blecher) and Morris Brenner, were Jewish immigrants . His father,
608-577: The Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms . It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. It was founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire . The order was originally intended to be conferred upon a limited number of persons for whom this special distinction seemed to be the most appropriate form of recognition, constituting an honour dissociated from either
646-486: The acceptance of title or the classification of merit. It is now described as being "awarded for having a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time". The first recipients of the order were all decorated for "services in connection with the war " and were listed in The London Gazette . The order consists of the monarch of the Commonwealth realms, who
684-473: The adsorption of the reactants on the surface is the rate-limiting step, is named after him. He was a senior research fellow at Imperial College London from 1964 to 1967. In addition to being named the second Dr. Lee's Professor of Chemistry at Oxford, Hinshelwood was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1929 , serving as president from 1955 to 1960. He was knighted in 1948 and appointed to
722-402: The allocation of this award to that country's citizens in preference to other Australian honours. The last Australian member, Doug Anthony , former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, died on 20 December 2020. Companions from other Commonwealth realms continue to be appointed, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa , a New Zealand soprano, was given the award in 2018 and Canadian author Margaret Atwood was given
760-532: The award in 2019. Sebastian Coe , Baron Coe CH represented the Order at the 2023 Coronation . The insignia of the order is in the form of an oval medallion, surmounted by a royal crown (but, until recently, surmounted by an imperial crown ), and with a rectangular panel within, depicting on it an oak tree, a shield with the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom hanging from one branch, and, on
798-710: The bacterial cell proved to be of great importance in later research work on antibiotics and therapeutic agents, and his book, The Chemical Kinetics of the Bacterial Cell was published in 1946, followed by Growth, Function and Regulation in Bacterial Cells in 1966. In 1951 he published The Structure of Physical Chemistry . It was republished as an Oxford Classic Texts in the Physical Sciences by Oxford University Press in 2005. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood process in heterogeneous catalysis, in which
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#1732793663064836-562: The encoded polypeptide chain. Together with the decoding work of Marshall Warren Nirenberg and others, the discovery of the triplet nature of the genetic code was critical to deciphering the code. Barnett helped set up Sydney Brenner's laboratory in Singapore , many years later. Brenner, with George Pieczenik, created the first computer matrix analysis of nucleic acids using TRAC, which Brenner continued to use. Crick, Brenner, Klug and Pieczenik returned to their early work on deciphering
874-509: The genetic code with a pioneering paper on the origin of protein synthesis, where constraints on mRNA and tRNA co-evolved allowing for a five-base interaction with a flip of the anticodon loop, and thereby creating a triplet code translating system without requiring a ribosome . This model requires a partially overlapping code. The published scientific paper is extremely rare in that its collaborators include three authors who independently became Nobel laureates. Brenner then focused on establishing
912-512: The identification of new sets of proteins, such as the UNC proteins. For this work, he shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston . The title of his Nobel lecture in December 2002, "Nature's Gift to Science", is a homage to this nematode ; in it, he considered that having chosen the right organism turned out to be as important as having addressed
950-569: The lectures were adapted into a popular science book titled Sydney Brenner's 10-on-10: The Chronicles of Evolution , published by Wildtype Books. Brenner also gave four lectures on the history of molecular biology, its impact on neuroscience and the great scientific questions that lie ahead. The lectures were adapted into the book, In the Spirit of Science: Lectures by Sydney Brenner on DNA, Worms and Brains . The "American plan" and "European plan" were proposed by Sydney Brenner as competing models for
988-459: The left shoulder. Cyril Norman Hinshelwood Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood OM FRS (19 June 1897 – 9 October 1967) was a British physical chemist and expert in chemical kinetics . His work in reaction mechanisms earned the 1956 Nobel Prize in chemistry . Born in London, his parents were Norman Macmillan Hinshelwood, a chartered accountant, and Ethel Frances née Smith. He
1026-527: The left, a mounted knight in armour. The insignia's blue border bears in gold letters the motto IN ACTION FAITHFUL AND IN HONOUR CLEAR , Alexander Pope 's description (in iambic pentameter ) in his Epistle to Mr Addison of James Craggs the Younger , later used on Craggs's monument in Westminster Abbey . Men wear the badge on a neck ribbon (red with golden border threads) and women on a bow at
1064-421: The newly opened Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB). According to Beryl Oughton, later Rimmer, they all travelled together in two cars once Dorothy Hodgkin announced to them that they were off to Cambridge to see the model of the structure of DNA. Brenner made several seminal contributions to the emerging field of molecular biology in the 1960s (see Phage group ). The first
1102-567: The order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CH . Appointments to the order are generally made on the advice of prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms. For Canadians, the advice to the Sovereign can come from a variety of officials. Originally, the order was limited to 50 ordinary members, but in 1943 it was enlarged to 65, with a quota of 45 members for the United Kingdom , seven for Australia , two each for New Zealand and South Africa , and nine for India , Burma , and
1140-542: The other British colonies . The quota numbers were altered in 1970 to 47 for the United Kingdom, seven for Australia, two for New Zealand, and nine for other Commonwealth realms. The quota was adjusted again in 1975 by adding two places to the New Zealand quota and reducing the nine for the other countries to seven. Whilst still able to nominate candidates to the order, the Cabinet of Australia has effectively stopped
1178-668: The right problems to work on. In fact, the C. elegans community has grown rapidly in recent decades with researchers working on a wide spectrum of problems. Brenner founded the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, California in 1996. As of 2015 he was associated with the Salk Institute , the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology , the Singapore Biomedical Research Council , the Janelia Farm Research Campus , and
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1216-466: The triplet nature of the code of protein translation through the Crick, Brenner, Barnett, Watts-Tobin et al. experiment of 1961 , which discovered frameshift mutations . Brenner collaborating with Sarabhai, Stretton and Bolle in 1964, using amber mutants defective in the bacteriophage T4D major head protein, showed that the nucleotide sequence of the gene is co-linear with the amino acid sequence of
1254-703: The way brain cells determine their neural functions. According to the European plan (sometimes referred to as the British plan), the function of cells is determined by their genetic lineage. According to the American plan, a cell's function is determined by the function of its neighbours after cell migration . Further research has shown that most species follow some combination of these methods, albeit in varying degrees, to transfer information to new cells. Brenner received numerous awards and honours, including: Brenner
1292-589: Was educated first in Canada, returning in 1905 on the death of his father to a small flat in Chelsea where he lived for the rest of his life. He then studied at Westminster City School and Balliol College, Oxford . During the First World War , Hinshelwood was a chemist in an explosives factory. He was a tutor at Trinity College, Oxford , from 1921 to 1937 and was Dr Lee's Professor of Chemistry at
1330-519: Was married to May Brenner ( née Covitz , subsequently Balkind) from December 1952 until her death in January 2010; their children include Belinda, Carla, Stefan, and his stepson Jonathan Balkind from his wife's first marriage to Marcus Balkind. He lived in Ely, Cambridgeshire . He was an atheist. Brenner died on 5 April 2019, in Singapore, at the age of 92. Companion of Honour The Order of
1368-529: Was one of the first people in April 1953 to see the model of the structure of DNA , constructed by Francis Crick and James Watson ; at the time he and the other scientists were working at the University of Oxford 's Chemistry Department. All were impressed by the new DNA model, especially Brenner, who subsequently worked with Crick in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and
1406-799: Was therefore allowed to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in Anatomy and Physiology . During this time he was taught physical chemistry by Joel Mandelstam , microscopy by Alfred Oettle and neurology by Harold Daitz . He also received an introduction to anthropology and paleontology from Raymond Dart and Robert Broom . The histologist Joseph Gillman and director of research in the Anatomy Department persuaded Brenner to continue towards an honours degree and beyond towards an MSc. Brenner accepted though this would mean he would not graduate from medical school and his bursary would be discontinued. He supported himself during this time by working as
1444-461: Was to prove that all overlapping genetic coding sequences were impossible. This insight separated the coding function from structural constraints as proposed in a clever code by George Gamow . This led Francis Crick to propose the concept of a hypothetical molecule (later identified as transfer RNA or tRNA) that transfer the genetic information from RNA to proteins. Brenner gave the name " adaptor hypothesis " in 1955. The physical separation between
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