"In 1949, when John Gurdon was a 16-year-old boarding school student at Eton College in England, his teacher described his biology studies as "disastrous" and his scientific ambitions as "ridiculous." "If he can't learn simple biological facts," his term report read, "he would have no chance of doing the work of a specialist, and it would be a sheer waste of time both on his part, and of those who have to teach him." Dr. Gurdon, who also was criticized for insisting "on doing his work in his own way," became a man of science, the first person to clone an animal - in this case, a frog - using DNA taken from an adult member of the species, something previously believed to be impossible."
"Dr. Gurdon's impact on science was both immediate and long-lasting. His experiments transformed scientists' understanding of DNA; paved the way for the cloning in 1996 of the first mammal, Dolly the sheep; and initiated a revolution in genetics that charged how DNA is studied and diseases are diagnosed and treated."
John Gurdon overcame early academic criticism and pursued biological research that demonstrated differentiated cells retain a full complement of genetic information. He pioneered nuclear transplantation in frogs, cloning an animal using DNA from an adult, a result previously considered impossible. His experiments redefined understanding of cellular differentiation and DNA's role, paved the way for the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep, and sparked technologies that transformed gene study, sequencing, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Gurdon held a longtime professorship in cell biology at the University of Cambridge and received the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Read at The Washington Post
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]