Steve Brown | |
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Born | Stephen David Macleod Brown 3 May 1955 [1] |
Education | Belfast Royal Academy |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA, PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | |
Thesis | The molecular organisation and evolution of rodent genomes (1981) |
Doctoral advisor | Gabriel Dover [5] [6] [7] |
Doctoral students | Elizabeth Fisher [8] |
Website | har |
Steve David Macleod Brown FRS FMedSci [9] [2] is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Mammalian Genetics Unit, MRC Harwell at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] a research centre on mouse genetics. In addition, he leads the Genetics and Pathobiology of Deafness research group. [14]
Brown was educated at Belfast Royal Academy [1] and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 [1] followed by a PhD in 1981 for research on the molecular organisation and evolution of rodent genomes [15] supervised by Gabriel Dover. [5]
Brown conducts research in mouse genetics and genomics. He has studied repeated sequences in the DNA of mice and produced molecular maps of mouse chromosomes, which were used to sequence the mouse genome. [5] [9] [16] He subsequently pioneered efforts to functionally annotate the mouse genome and identify and generate novel disease models through mutagenesis and phenotyping. In particular, he has identified key proteins involved in hearing, contributing to the understanding of the genetics of deafness. [9] For example, research in Brown's laboratory has shown that a mutation in the Evi1 gene increases susceptibility to inflammation of the middle ear (otitis media) in mice, leading to hearing loss. [17]
A particular focus has been the use of mouse models to elucidate the molecular basis of genetic deafness. With Karen Steel, he discovered myosin VIIA as the gene underlying the shaker-1 mutant – one of the first deafness genes to be identified. [18]
Prior to being appointed director of Harwell in 1998, Brown was a professor at Imperial College London. [19] He is chair of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium steering committee and joint editor-in-chief of the journal Mammalian Genome . [20] [21]
Brown was awarded The Genetics Society Medal in 2009,[ citation needed ] elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001, [2] and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2015. [9] [18] His certificate of election reads:
Stephen Brown is distinguished for his research in mouse genetics and genomics. He pioneered studies of repeated sequences in the mouse genome and the use of novel approaches to generate molecular maps of mouse chromosomes, work that underpinned the sequencing of the mouse genome. He has been at the forefront of new approaches in mutagenesis and phenotyping for the functional annotation of the mouse genome and the identification and characterisation of disease models. Notably, in collaboration he has utilised the mouse to study the genetics of deafness, identifying key proteins involved in auditory transduction, which has transformed our understanding in this field. [9]
Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon that causes genes to be expressed or not, depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or the father. Genes can also be partially imprinted. Partial imprinting occurs when alleles from both parents are differently expressed rather than complete expression and complete suppression of one parent's allele. Forms of genomic imprinting have been demonstrated in fungi, plants and animals. In 2014, there were about 150 imprinted genes known in mice and about half that in humans. As of 2019, 260 imprinted genes have been reported in mice and 228 in humans.
Mary Frances Lyon was an English geneticist best known for her discovery of X-chromosome inactivation, an important biological phenomenon.
Dame Kay Elizabeth Davies is a British geneticist. She is Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. She is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) functional genetics unit, a governor of the Wellcome Trust, a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function, and a patron and Senior Member of Oxford University Scientific Society. Her research group has an international reputation for work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In the 1980s, she developed a test which allowed for the screening of foetuses whose mothers have a high risk of carrying DMD.
Adenylyl cyclase type 2 is an enzyme typically expressed in the brain of humans, that is encoded by the ADCY2 gene. It belongs to the adenylyl cyclase class-3 or guanylyl cyclase family because it contains two guanylate cyclase domains. ADCY2 is one of ten different mammalian isoforms of adenylyl cyclases. ADCY2 can be found on chromosome 5 and the "MIR2113-POU3F2" region of chromosome 6, with a length of 1091 amino-acids. An essential cofactor for ADCY2 is magnesium; two ions bind per subunit.
Ecto-ADP-ribosyltransferase 4 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ART4 gene. ART4 has also been designated as CD297.
RNA polymerase-associated protein CTR9 homolog is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the CTR9 gene.
Veronica van Heyningen is an English geneticist who specialises in the etiology of anophthalmia as an honorary professor at University College London (UCL). She previously served as head of medical genetics at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh and the president of The Genetics Society. In 2014 she became president of the Galton Institute. As of 2019 she chairs the diversity committee of the Royal Society, previously chaired by Uta Frith.
Sir Adrian Peter Bird, is a British geneticist and Buchanan Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh. Bird has spent much of his academic career in Edinburgh, from receiving his PhD in 1970 to working at the MRC Mammalian Genome Unit and later serving as director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology. His research focuses on understanding DNA methylation and CpG islands, and their role in diseases such as Rett syndrome.
Laurence Daniel Hurst is a Professor of Evolutionary Genetics in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath and the director of the Milner Centre for Evolution.
The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) is an international scientific endeavour to create and characterize the phenotype of 20,000 knockout mouse strains. Launched in September 2011, the consortium consists of over 15 research institutes across four continents with funding provided by the NIH, European national governments and the partner institutions.
Karen Penelope Steel FRS FMedSci is a British scientist who studies the genetics of deafness, using the mouse as a model to identify the genes involved and to understand the molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms involved. She is Professor of Sensory Function at the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London. Previously she was Principal Investigator of the Genetics of Deafness research programme at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
Dame Amanda Gay Fisher is a British cell biologist and Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) London Institute of Medical Sciences at the Hammersmith Hospital campus of Imperial College London, where she is also a Professor leading the Institute of Clinical Sciences. She has made contributions to multiple areas of cell biology, including determining the function of several genes in HIV and describing the importance of a gene's location within the cell nucleus.
Rajesh Vasantlal Thakker is May Professor of Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. Thakker is also a Consultant physician at the Churchill Hospital and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Principal investigator (PI) at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM) and was Chairman of the NIHR/MRC Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Board until Spring 2016.
Sarah Amalia Teichmann is a German scientist who is head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and a visiting research group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). She serves as director of research in the Cavendish Laboratory, at the University of Cambridge and a senior research fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge.
Ketan Jayakrishna Patel is a British-Kenyan scientist who is Director of the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at the University of Oxford. Until 2020 he was a tenured principal investigator at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).
Wendy Anne Bickmore is a British genome biologist known for her research on the organisation of genomic material in cells.
Robin Campbell Allshire is Professor of Chromosome Biology at University of Edinburgh and a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. His research group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology focuses on the epigenetic mechanisms governing the assembly of specialised domains of chromatin and their transmission through cell division.
Donna R. Maglott is a staff scientist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information known for her research on large-scale genomics projects, including the mouse genome and development of databases required for genomics research.
Anne Carla Ferguson-Smith is a mammalian developmental geneticist. She is the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and International Partnerships at the University of Cambridge. Formerly head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge, she is a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge and serves as President of the Genetics Society.
Elizabeth Mary Claire Fisher is a British geneticist and Professor at University College London. Her research investigates the degeneration of motor neurons during amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease triggered by Down syndrome.
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