Sir John Edward Sulston was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans in 2002 with his colleagues Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz.
26 Facts About John Sulston
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John Sulston was a leader in human genome research and Chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester.
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John Sulston was born in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England to Arthur Edward Aubrey John Sulston and Josephine Muriel Frearson, nee Blocksidge.
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John Sulston's father was an Anglican priest and administrator of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
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John Sulston developed an early interest in science, having fun with dissecting animals and sectioning plants to observe their structure and function.
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John Sulston won a scholarship to Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and then to Pembroke College, Cambridge graduating in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences.
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John Sulston joined the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, after being interviewed by Alexander Todd and was awarded his PhD in 1966 for research in nucleotide chemistry.
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John Sulston soon produced the complete map of the worm's neurons.
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John Sulston continued work on its DNA and subsequently the whole genome sequencing.
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John Sulston had argued successfully for the sequencing of C elegans to show that large-scale genome sequencing projects were feasible.
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In 2000, after the 'working draft' of the human genome sequence was completed, John Sulston retired from directing the Sanger Centre.
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John Sulston was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1986.
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John Sulston is distinguished for his work on the molecular and developmental genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans.
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John Sulston was elected an EMBO Member in 1989 and awarded the George W Beadle Award in 2000.
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In 2001 John Sulston gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on The Secrets of Life.
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In 2004, John Sulston received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
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In 2013, John Sulston was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand's Rutherford Memorial Lecture, which he gave on the subject of population pressure.
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John Sulston was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to science and society.
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John Sulston was a leading campaigner against the patenting of human genetic information.
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John Sulston met Daphne Bate, a research assistant in Cambridge.
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The couple lived in Stapleford, Cambridgeshire where they were active members of the local community: John Sulston regularly volunteered in the local library and in working parties at Magog Down; he was a Trustee of Cambridge Past, Present and Future.
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John Sulston was in favour of free public access of scientific information.
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John Sulston wanted genome information freely available, and he described as "totally immoral and disgusting" the idea of profiteering from such research.
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John Sulston wanted to change patent law, and argued that restrictions on drugs such as the anti-viral drug Tamiflu by Roche are a hindrance to patients whose lives are dependent on them.
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In December 2010, John Sulston backed Julian Assange by acting as a bail surety for him, according to Assange's attorney Mark Stephens.
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John Sulston died on 6 March 2018 of stomach cancer, aged 75 years.