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Event |
People |
Places |
Sciences |
Waldmann is an immunologist who demonstrated how monoclonal antibodies could induce tolerance to foreign proteins and transplanted tissues. He and his team developed the first humanised monoclonal antibody (alemtuzumab) which is now used for combating leukaemia, preventing transplant rejection and treating autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and vasculitis.
1945-02-27T00:00:00+0000| 27 Feb 1945 | | Herman Waldmann was born in LebanonWaldmann | Cambridge University, Oxford University | Immunology, Monoclonal antibodies |
Aston was British a chemist and physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1922 for his identification of isotopes (atoms of the same element that differ in mass). He initially found them in the element neon and later in chlorine and mercury. Aston made the discovery with the help of a mass spectometer which made it possible to separate the isotopes of the chemical elements. Overall Aston discovered 212 naturally occurring isotopes.1945-11-20T00:00:00+0000| 20 Nov 1945 | | Francis W Aston diedAston | Cambridge University | |
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 crystallography, 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 |
Ingram shows that the difference between sickle-cell and normal haemoglobulin lies in just one amino acid. 1957-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1957 | | Victor Ingram breaks the genetic code behind sickle-cell anaemia using Sanger's sequencing techniqueIngram, Sanger | Cambridge University | DNA Sequencing |
C.H. Waddington, The Strategy of the Genes: A Discussion of Some Aspects of Theoretical Biology (London, 1957).1957-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1957 | | Conrad Waddington develops model of epigenetic landscape to show the process of cellular decision-making during biological developmentWaddngton | Cambridge University | Epigenetics, Embryology |
Prize awarded to Sanger 'for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin'.1958-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1958 | | Sanger awarded his first Nobel Prize in ChemistrySanger | Cambridge University | DNA Sequencing |
1960-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1960 | | Sanger begins to devise ways to sequence nucleic acids, starting with RNASanger | Cambridge University | DNA Sequencing |
M.F. Lyon, 'Gene action in the X-chromosome of the mouse', Nature, 190 (1961), 372–73.1961-04-22T00:00:00+0000| 22 Apr 1961 | | Genes linked to X-chromosome inactivation in female mice embyosLyon | Cambridge University | Epigenetics, Embyology |
The experiment was conducted by Sidney Brenner, Francois Jacob, and Matt Meselson and published as 'An unstable intermediate carrying information from genes to ribosomes for protein synthesis', Nature, 190 (1961), 576-81. They established the mRNA was responsible for transporting genetic information from the nucleus to the protein-making machinery in a cell. 1961-05-13T00:00:00+0000| 13 May 1961 | | Experiment confirms existence of mRNABrenner, Jacob, Meselson | University of Cambridge, Pasteur Institute, California Institute of Technology | DNA, RNA, genetics, mRNA |
1962-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1962 | | Nuclei from adult frog cells reprogrammed to full embryonic potential after transfer into frog eggsGurdon, Altman | Cambridge University | Stem cells |
The prize was awarded to James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins who helped to show that the DNA molecule consists of two strands that wind round each other like a twisted ladder. They argued that each strand contains a backbone made up of alternating groups of sugar (deoxyribose) and phosphate groups and that each sugar had an attached one of four nucelotide bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), or thymine (T). Much of this work rested on the work of Rosalind Franklin and and her student Ray Gosling. Franklin died before the Nobel Prize was awarded. 1962-10-19T00:00:00+0000| 19 Oct 1962 | | Nobel Prize awarded for uncovering the structure of DNAWatson, Crick, Wilkins, Franklin, Gosling | University of Cambridge, King's College London, Birkbeck College | DNA |
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane was a geneticist, biometrician and physiologist who helped to open up new research paths into population genetics and evolution. He was responsible for the establishment of human gene maps for haemophilia and colour blindness on the X chromosome and was one of the first to suggest that sickle-cell anaemia can provide some immunity to malaria. Haldane is also remembered for establishing the principles for in vitro fertilisation and for coining the terms 'clone' and 'cloning' in human biology. He was also a strong populariser of science and a renowned socialist.1964-12-01T00:00:00+0000| 1 Dec 1964 | | JBS Haldane diedJBS Haldane | University of Cambridge, University of California Berkeley, University of London | Genetics, Biology, Physiology |
Waldmann, under the mentorship of Alan Munro, launches research to understand the mechanism behind immune tolerance. 1973-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1973 | | Herman Waldmannn joins the Department of Pathology, Cambridge University.Waldmann | Cambridge University | Campath |
Hill was a British physiologist who helped found the disciplines of biophysics and operations research. His investigations into the physiological thermodynamics of muscle and nerve tissue helped to demonstrate that oxygen is necessary for recovery from muscular activity. At one point he used himself as a research subject which involved him running for three and a quarter hours every morning. His work paved the way to the discovery of a series of biochemical reactions carried out in muscle cells that are necessary for contraction. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1922 for helping to elucidate the production of heat and mechanical work in muscles.1977-06-07T00:00:00+0000| 7 Jun 1977 | | Achibald Vivian Hill diedHill | Cambridge University, University of Manchester, University College London | Physiology |
Adrian was a British electrophysiologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1932 for his discoveries relating to the nerve cell. This he did with the help of a capillary electrometer and cathode ray tube to amplify the signals produced by the nerve system. Recording the electrical discharge of single nerve fibres under stimulus in a frog he was the first to prove the presence of electricity within nerve cells. This paved the way to a better understanding of the physical basis of sensation and the mechanism of muscular control. His work on the electrical activity of the brain opened up new investigations into epilepsy and the location of cerebral lesions.1977-08-04T00:00:00+0000| 4 Aug 1977 | | Edgar Douglas Adrian diedAdrian | Cambridge University | Neuroscience |
1978-01-01T00:00:00+0000| 1978 | | Transplantable stem cells discovered in human cord bloodEvans | Cambridge University | Stem cells |
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