25 Facts About Adrian Bird

Sir Adrian Peter Bird was born on 3 July 1947 and is a British geneticist and Buchanan Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh.

Adrian Bird's research focuses on understanding DNA methylation and CpG islands, and their role in diseases such as Rett syndrome.

Adrian Bird was born in Rowley Regis near Wolverhampton, England, but from age 4 lived in the town of Kidderminster, near Birmingham.

Whilst at school, Adrian Bird played cricket and hockey for a local team.

Adrian Bird received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1970 for research supervised by Max Birnstiel, following undergraduate study of Biochemistry at the University of Sussex.

From 1987 to 1990 Adrian Bird continued his research at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.

In 1990, Adrian Bird became Buchanan Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh.

Adrian Bird helped create the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, in Edinburgh, and served as its director from 1999 until 2011, when he was succeeded by David Tollervey.

Adrian Bird is a trustee of the charitable organisation Cancer Research UK and of the Rett Syndrome Research Trust.

Adrian Bird serves as a Governance Board Member of the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre.

Adrian Bird's research has focused on CpG islands and their associated binding-factor MeCP2.

Adrian Bird's group discovered that the MeCP2 protein binds specifically to methylated CpG sites, and further that disruption of this interaction causes the autism spectrum disorder Rett syndrome.

In 2007, the Adrian Bird laboratory published a paper in the journal Science describing a proof-of-principle that the murine equivalent of Rett syndrome could be successfully reversed in laboratory mice.

Adrian Bird was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989, his nomination read:.

Adrian Bird is the leading authority on DNA methylation in animal cells.

Adrian Bird demonstrated a rolling circle mechanism for ribosomal gene amplification.

Adrian Bird showed that DNA methylation sites can be mapped using restriction enzymes and thus showed semi-conservative copying of methylation patterns.

Adrian Bird showed convincingly that the doublet CpG is a source of mutation in vertebrates which led to the use of 'GpG' restriction enzymes to detect polymorphisms linked to genetic diseases.

Adrian Bird discovered unmethylated 'HTF' islands at the 5i ends of housekeeping genes.

Adrian Bird was awarded the Gabor Medal in 1999 "in recognition of his pioneering work in the study of global mechanisms by which transcription of the mammalian genome is regulated and for his exploration into the molecular basis of fundamental biological mechanisms, particularly his development of ways of analysing methylation patterns of eukaryotic DNA using endonucleases and the discovery of and continued research into a new class of DNA sequences found in all vertebrates".

Adrian Bird received the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in the same year, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2005.

In 2013, Bird was tipped as a potential winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "fundamental discoveries concerning DNA methylation and gene expression" though the prize later went to James Rothman, Randy Schekman and Thomas C Sudhof.

Adrian Bird was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to science.

Adrian Bird was awarded the Buchanan Medal of the Royal Society in 2018 for his medical discoveries, and elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001.

Adrian Bird is married to fellow geneticist Cathy Abbott and has four children.