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Allbutt was an English physician who is renowned for inventing the short clinical thermometer. He introduced the instrument in 1866. It was a marked improvement on the previous foot-long thermometer which took 20 minutes to register a patient's temperature. In 1871 he introduced the use of the ophthalmoscope to inspect the interior of the eye. A few years later, in 1894, Allbutt determined that the painful heart condition angina pectoris stems from the aorta. 1836-07-20T00:00:00+0000| 20 Jul 1836 | | Thomas Clifford Allbutt was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, UKAllbutt | University of Cambridge | Diagnostics, Cardiovascular |
Hopkins was a biochemist who shared the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering vitamins and demonstrating they are an important nutrient in the diet. This was based on experiments he carried out on rats in 1901. He also helped establish the chemistry of muscle contraction, showing that lactic acid accumulates in working muscle in 1907. In 1922 he isolated and demonstrated the importance of tripeptide gluathione to the utilisation of oxygen by the cell.
1861-06-20T00:00:00+0000| 20 Jun 1861 | | Frederick Gowland Hopkins was born in Eastbourne, United KingdomHopkins | Cambridge University | Biochemistry, Cell |
Gwei-djen was a biochemist who undertook pioneering work on metabolic pathways. In 1933, Gwei-djen took the bold decision to leave China, then isolated from the West, to study for a doctorate at Cambridge University where she remained for the rest of her career. By 1939 she had developed the first sensitive assay for detecting low levels of pyruvic acid, an intermediate involved in the breakdown of carbohydrates. Her work demonstrated that the levels of pyruvic acid could be raised by vitamin B1 deficiency and exercise. Gwei-djen worked closely with both Dorothy and Joseph Needham. Together with Joseph she compiled a series of book detailing Chinese achievements in science and technology. .1904-07-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Jul 1904 | | Lu Gwei-djen was born in Nanjing, Qing ChinaGwei-djen | University of Cambridge | Biochemistry, Metabolism |
Lehmann was a biochemist who was renowned for his studies on the distribution of abnormal haemoglobins in many different human populations. This grew out of his interest in anaemia, begun when he served as assistant director of pathology to the North East India Command between 1942 and 1947. He helped to discover that a high incidence in the sickle-cell trait in several aboriginal southern Indian populations. Based on his work he hypothesised that the gene for the trait could have been brought to Africa from India during prehistoric migrations.1910-07-08T00:00:00+0000| 8 Jul 1910 | | Hermann Lehmann was born in Halle, Saxony, GermanyLehmann | St Bartholomew's Hospital, Cambridge University | Biochemistry, Haematology |
Hodgkin was a physiologist and biophysicist who helped discover with Andrew F Huxley the chemical processes responsible for the transmission of electrical impulses from one nerve cell in the brain through to other nerve fibers. This they did based on experiments involving the introduction of microelectrodes into the giant nerve fibre of the squid. Hodgkin received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1963 for this work. 1914-02-05T00:00:00+0000| 5 Feb 1914 | | Alan Lloyd Hodgkin was born in Banbury, United KingdomA Hodgkin | Cambridge University | Neuroscience |
Huxley was a physiologist and biophysicist who helped uncover the mechanism of muscle contraction in 1954 through experiments on the giant axon of the Atlantic Squid. His study of muscle fibres was helped by his development of interference microscopy. Huxley shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1963 for 'discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane'. 1917-11-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Nov 1917 | | Andrew F Huxley was born in Hampstead, United KingdomHuxley | Cambridge University, University College London | Cell, Neuroscience |
Krebs was a biochemist who in 1933 was forced to leave Nazi Germany because his father was Jewish. He is best known for having discovered two important chemical reactions in the body - the urea cycle and the citric acid cycle. These chemical reactions help break down food molecules into carbon dioxide, water and energy. He made the breakthrough in the 1930s. The process is known as the Krebs cycle. Krebs was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954.1918-08-25T00:00:00+0000| 25 Aug 1918 | | Hans Adolf Krebs was born in Hildesheim, GermanyKrebs | University of Freiburg, Cambridge University, Sheffield University, Oxford University | Cell, Biochemistry |
The concept, known as ectogenesis, was first put forward by JBS Haldane, a geneticist and biochemist, to the Heretics Society at the University of Cambridge.1923-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1923 | | Idea that embryos could be developed in artificial conditions outside the uterusJBS Haldane | University of Cambridge | Reproduction, IVF |
Allbutt was an English physician who is renowned for inventing the short clinical thermometer. He introduced the instrument in 1866. It was a marked improvement on the previous foot-long thermometer which took 20 minutes to register a patient's temperature. In 1871 he introduced the use of the ophthalmoscope to inspect the interior of the eye. A few years later, in 1894, Allbutt determined that the painful heart condition angina pectoris stems from the aorta.1925-02-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Feb 1925 | | Thomas Clifford Allbutt diedAllbutt | University of Cambridge | Diagnostics, Cardiovascular |
McLaren was a major pioneer in the development of IVF. She was also the key architect behind the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act (1990) which provided the world’s first legal guidelines for infertility treatment and all human embryo research. Following this Act, McLaren served for 10 years on the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, established in 1991, and became a critical player in debates about the governance of embryonic stem cells for therapy. She also made history in 1991 by becoming the Royal Society’s first woman officer.
1927-04-26T00:00:00+0000| 26 Apr 1927 | | Anne McLaren was born in London, United KingdomMcLaren | University College London, Edinburgh University, Cambridge University | Embryology, Reproduction, Stem cells |
Hopkins, an English biochemist. was awarded the Prize for his discovery of growth-stimulating vitamins and Eijkman, a Dutch physician and pathologist, for his discovery of the antinuetritic vitamin. Their work marked the beginning of research into vitamins. 1929-12-10T00:00:00+0000| 10 Dec 1929 | | Frederick Hopkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Christiaan Eijkman for the discovery of vitaminsHopkins, Eijkman | Cambridge University, Javanese Medical School | Nutrition |
Studies a combination of chemistry, physics, maths and physiology and specialises in biochemistry in his final year.1936-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1936 - 1940 | | Sanger takes degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge UniversitySanger | Cambridge University | DNA Sequencing |
Initially supervised by Bill Pirie, and then by Albert Neuberger, in the Department of Biochemistry. Thesis: 'On the metabolism of the amino acid lysine in the animal body'. 1940-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1940 - 1943 | | Sanger studies for a doctorate at Cambridge UniversitySanger | Cambridge University | DNA Sequencing |
C.H. Waddington, 'The Epigenotype', Endeavour, 1 (1942), 18-20.1942-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1942 | | 'Epigenetics' coined as a term to describe how genes interact with the environment to produce the physical traits of an organism Waddngton | Cambridge University | Epigenetics |
Sanger undertakes the research as part of team working with Albert Chibnall in Department of Biochemistry. His work is initially supported by a Beit Memorial Fellowship from 1944 and then by Medical Research Council from 1951. 1944-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1944 | | Sanger starts working on amino acid composition of insulinSanger | Cambridge University | DNA Sequencing |
Hopkins was a British biochemist who shared the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering vitamins and demonstrating they are an important nutrient in the diet. This was based on experiments he carried out on rats in 1901. He also helped establish the chemistry of muscle contraction, showing that lactic acid accumulates in working muscle in 1907. In 1922 he isolated and demonstrated the importance of tripeptide gluathione to the utilisation of oxygen by the cell. 1947-05-16T00:00:00+0000| 16 May 1947 | | Frederick Gowland Hopkins diedHopkins | Cambridge University | Biochemistry, Cell |
1949-10-01T00:00:00+0000| 1949 - 1952 | | Askonas completed doctorate on biochemistry of the muscle at Cambridge UniversityAskonas | Cambridge University | |
Nature published Crick and Watson's letter on Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for DNA in which they described a double helix structure.1953-04-02T00:00:00+0000| 2 Apr 1953 | | Nature published Crick and Watson's letter on Molecular Structure of Nucleic AcidsWatson,Crick | Cambridge | DNA |
One paper, published by Rosalind Franklin with her PhD student Ray Gosling, included an image produced with x-ray crystallogaphy, which showed DNA to have regularly repeating helical structure. Known as photograph 51, this image had been previously been shown by Maurice Wilkins, without Franklin's permission, to James Watson, who, together with Francis Crick, used it to develop their double-helix model of DNA which was also published in Nature. Calculations from the photograph provided crucial parameters for the size of the helix and its structure, all of which were critical for Watson and Crick's molecular modelling work. Crick and Watson depicted DNA as having a double helix in which A always pairs with T, and C always with G. Their final model represented a correction of an earlier model in the light of comments made by Franklin that the hydrophilic backbones should not go at the centre of the molecule, as Watson and Crick had originally assumed, but go on the outside of the molecule where they could interact with water. The three papers were published in Nature, 171 (25 April 1953), 737-41.1953-04-25T00:00:00+0000| 25 Apr 1953 | | Nature published three papers showing the molecular structure of DNA to be a double helixFranklin, Gosling, Crick, Watson, Wilkins. Stokes, Wilson | Birkbeck College, Kings College London, Cambridge University | DNA |
Sanger's insulin results establish for the first time that proteins are chemical entities with a defined sequence. The technique Sanger develops for sequencing insulin later becomes known as the degradation or DNP method. It provides the basis for his later development of sequencing tecdhniques for nucleic acids, including RNA and DNA.1955-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1955 | | Sanger completes the full sequence of amino acids in insulinSanger | Cambridge University | DNA Sequencing |
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