This important volume is mainly concerned with the development of methods for ?sequencing? ? that is, determination of the order of the amino acids in proteins and of nucleotides in RNA and DNA. In 1943 the position of only one amino acid in a protein (insulin) was known, and Sanger's first paper resulted in finding a second amino acid. In his final paper in 1982 he describes the determination of a DNA sequence of 48,502 nucleotides. The papers describe the steady improvements in techniques, and exciting biological results revealed by the sequences.
This important volume is mainly concerned with the development of methods for “sequencing” — that is, determination of the order of the amino acids in proteins and of nucleotides in RNA and DNA. In 1943 the position of only one amino acid in a protein (insulin) was known, and Sanger's first paper resulted in finding a second amino acid. In his final paper in 1982 he describes the determination of a DNA sequence of 48,502 nucleotides. The papers describe the steady improvements in techniques, and exciting biological results revealed by the sequences.
In this Brief, Joe Jeffers uncovers the life and works of two-time Nobel Laureate Frederick Sanger. Following Sanger’s early life to retirement, Jeffers describes how this celebrated British biochemist became the first person to determine the amino acid sequence of a protein for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1958. Highlighting Sanger’s remarkable career, Jeffers describes Sanger’s later change in research direction to investigate deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA), work for which Sanger also received the Nobel Prize jointly with Paul Berg and Walter Gilbert in 1980. Joe Jeffers conducted twelve interviews with Sanger over the period of 1999-2009 and he has also spoken to more than 40 of Sanger’s colleagues and family members. This brief provides a rigorous yet concise view of Sanger on a personal and scientific level and is suitable for biochemists, historians or the interested layperson.
The Second Tree documents a biological revolution that will change the way you think about the material world, your own life and even the inevitability of your own death Genetic scientists are busily pushing back the boundaries of the humanly possible, climbing the branches of a tree of life that has been grafted by man, not God. Elaine Dewar chronicles the lives, the discoveries, and the feuds among modern biologists, exploring how they have crafted the tools to alter human evolution. She travels the globe on the trail of Charles Darwin and his intellectual descendants, telling the story of James D. Watson and his partner Francis Crick, who first described DNA; of Frederick Sanger, who invented how to sequence genes and won two Nobel prizes; of the computer scientists who put the human genome on the World Wide Web. She visits companies that are trying to turn cloned sheep into pharmacies on the hoof, to resurrect prize cows from the grave, to transplant human genes into mice — ultimately attempting to give us immortality in pieces while trying to keep investors happy. As these tales spill out, we find out how biologists learn by doing: tearing mice and worms and flies and human eggs apart, twinning disparate animal cells and genes together — creating clones and chimeras as outlandish as any sphinx. In public, research biologists often express their good intentions about curing the big diseases. In private, many of them are compelled by furious struggles to be rich, famous and first. Dewar lays bare the motives, conflicts and fears of the men and women whose job it is to trespass the boundaries of what laypeople consider ethical and sacred.
Recombinant DNA, Third Edition, is an essential text for undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses in Genomics, Cell and Molecular Biology, Recombinant DNA, Genetic Engineering, Human Genetics, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics. The Third Edition of this landmark text offers an authoritative, accessible, and engaging introduction to modern, genome-centered biology from its foremost practitioners. The new edition explores core concepts in molecular biology in a contemporary inquiry-based context, building its coverage around the most relevant and exciting examples of current research and landmark experiments that redefined our understanding of DNA. As a result, students learn how working scientists make real high-impact discoveries. The first chapters provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts of genetics and genomics, an inside look at the Human Genome Project, bioinformatic and experimental techniques for large-scale genomic studies, and a survey of epigenetics and RNA interference. The final chapters cover the quest to identify disease-causing genes, the genetic basis of cancer, and DNA fingerprinting and forensics. In these chapters the authors provide examples of practical applications in human medicine, and discuss the future of human genetics and genomics projects.
Considered 'the father of genomics', Fred Sanger (1918–2013) paved the way for the modern revolution in our understanding of biology. His pioneering methods for sequencing proteins, RNA and, eventually, DNA earned him two Nobel Prizes. He remains one of only four scientists (and the only British scientist) ever to have achieved that distinction. In this, the first full biography of Fred Sanger to be published, Brownlee traces Sanger's life from his birth in rural Gloucestershire to his retirement in 1983 from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Along the way, he highlights the remarkable extent of Sanger's scientific achievements and provides a real portrait of the modest man behind them. Including an extensive transcript of a rare interview of Sanger by the author, this biography also considers the wider legacy of Sanger's work, including his impact on the Human Genome Project and beyond.
