Phillip Allen Sharp (born June 6, 1944) is an American
geneticistA geneticist is a scientist who studies genetics, the science of heredity and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer...
and
molecular biologistMolecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
who co-discovered gene splicing. He shared the 1993
Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
with
Richard J. RobertsSir Richard John Roberts is an English biochemist and molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Phillip Allen Sharp for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.Roberts is the son of a motor mechanic and housewife....
for "the discovery that
geneA gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic traits to offspring...
s in
eukaryoteA eukaryote is an organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes. The defining membrane-bound structure that sets eukaryotic cells apart from prokaryotic cells is the nucleus, or nuclear envelope, within which the genetic material is carried...
s are not contiguous strings but contain
intronAn intron is a DNA region within a gene that is not translated into protein. These non-coding sections are transcribed to precursor mRNA and some other RNAs , and subsequently removed by a process called splicing during the processing to mature RNA. After intron splicing An intron is a DNA region...
s, and that the splicing of
messenger RNAMessenger ribonucleic acid is a molecule of RNA encoding a chemical "blueprint" for a protein product. mRNA is transcribed from a DNA template, and carries coding information to the sites of protein synthesis: the ribosomes. Here, the nucleic acid polymer is translated into a polymer of amino...
to delete those introns can occur in different ways, yielding different
proteinProteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form. The amino acids in a polymer chain are joined together by the peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues...
s from the same DNA sequence".
Sharp was born in
Falmouth, KentuckyFalmouth is a small city in Pendleton County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,058 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pendleton County and is the meeting point of the South and Main forks of the Licking River.-Geography:...
. He studied at
Union CollegeUnion College is a four-year private college located in Barbourville, Kentucky. The college, founded in 1879, is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Union College is a small liberal arts college in the Appalachian Mountains...
and majored in chemistry and mathematics.
Phillip Allen Sharp (born June 6, 1944) is an American
geneticistA geneticist is a scientist who studies genetics, the science of heredity and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer...
and
molecular biologistMolecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
who co-discovered gene splicing. He shared the 1993
Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
with
Richard J. RobertsSir Richard John Roberts is an English biochemist and molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Phillip Allen Sharp for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.Roberts is the son of a motor mechanic and housewife....
for "the discovery that
geneA gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic traits to offspring...
s in
eukaryoteA eukaryote is an organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes. The defining membrane-bound structure that sets eukaryotic cells apart from prokaryotic cells is the nucleus, or nuclear envelope, within which the genetic material is carried...
s are not contiguous strings but contain
intronAn intron is a DNA region within a gene that is not translated into protein. These non-coding sections are transcribed to precursor mRNA and some other RNAs , and subsequently removed by a process called splicing during the processing to mature RNA. After intron splicing An intron is a DNA region...
s, and that the splicing of
messenger RNAMessenger ribonucleic acid is a molecule of RNA encoding a chemical "blueprint" for a protein product. mRNA is transcribed from a DNA template, and carries coding information to the sites of protein synthesis: the ribosomes. Here, the nucleic acid polymer is translated into a polymer of amino...
to delete those introns can occur in different ways, yielding different
proteinProteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form. The amino acids in a polymer chain are joined together by the peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues...
s from the same DNA sequence".
Sharp was born in
Falmouth, KentuckyFalmouth is a small city in Pendleton County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,058 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pendleton County and is the meeting point of the South and Main forks of the Licking River.-Geography:...
. He studied at
Union CollegeUnion College is a four-year private college located in Barbourville, Kentucky. The college, founded in 1879, is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Union College is a small liberal arts college in the Appalachian Mountains...
and majored in chemistry and mathematics. He completed his Ph.D. in chemistry at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a public research university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Illinois system....
in 1969. After completing his Ph.D., he worked at the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The Institute maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering, and operates and manages NASA's neighboring Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
until 1971, where he studied
plasmidA plasmid is an extra-chromosomal DNA molecule separate from the chromosomal DNA which is capable of replicating independently of the chromosomal DNA. In many cases, it is circular and double-stranded...
s and, later,
gene expressionGene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product. These products are often proteins, but in non-protein coding genes such as rRNA genes or tRNA genes, the product is a functional RNA...
in human cells at the
Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryThe Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The Laboratory has a broad educational mission, including the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences. It...
under James Dewey Watson.
In 1974, he was offered a position at MIT by biologist
Salvador LuriaSalvador Edward Luria was an Italian-born American microbiologist and a Nobel laureate for his pioneering work with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey on phages in molecular biology.-Biography:Luria was born Salvatore Luria in Turin, Italy to an influential Italian Sephardic Jewish...
. He was director of MIT's Center for Cancer Research (now the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research) from 1985 to 1991; head of the Biology department from 1991 to 1999; and director of the
McGovern Institute for Brain ResearchThe McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a research and teaching center, which conducts Integrated Research in neuroscience, molecular neurobiology, cognitive science, computation and related areas. It was founded in 2000 by Lore Harp McGovern and...
from 2000 to 2004. He is currently a professor of Biology and has been an
Institute ProfessorInstitute Professor is the highest title that can be awarded to a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a research university located in , United States...
since 1999; he is also a member of the Koch Institute. Sharp co-founded Biogen (now part of
Biogen IdecBiogen Idec, Inc. is a biotechnology company specializing in drugs for neurological disorders, autoimmune disorders and cancer. The company was formed in 2003 by the merger of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen Inc. and San Diego, California-based IDEC Pharmaceuticals...
), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and Magen Biosciences, and serves on the boards of all three companies. He is an editorial advisor to Xconomy, and is a member of the Board of Scientific Governors at
The Scripps Research InstituteThe Scripps Research Institute is a medical research facility that focuses on research in the basic biomedical sciences. Primarily located in La Jolla, California, with a sister facility in Jupiter, Florida, the institute is home to 3,000 scientists, technicians, graduate students, and...
.
In 1988 he was awarded the
Louisa Gross Horwitz PrizeLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers that have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemistry....
from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
together with Thomas R. Cech.
Sharp married Ann Holcombe in 1964. They have three daughters.
Pendleton County—Sharp's birthplace—named its current middle school after him.
Reference and external links