Tim Hunt
Encyclopedia
Sir Richard Timothy "Tim" Hunt, FRS (born 19 February 1943 in Neston, Cheshire
) is an English
biochemist
.
Hunt was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland H. Hartwell for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells.
When cells with nuclei divide, they divide in phases called G1 (growth), S (synthesis), G2 (growth), and M (mitosis). Nurse, Hartwell and Hunt together discovered two proteins, cyclin and CDK (cyclin dependent kinase), that control the transition from one stage to another. These proteins are called checkpoints, because they check whether the cell has divided properly. If the cell doesn't divide correctly, other proteins will attempt to repair it, and if unsuccessful, they will destroy the cell. If a cell divides incorrectly and survives, it can cause cancer and other serious diseases.
Working in sea urchin eggs, Hunt discovered cyclins, proteins that bind to cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) proteins and regulate their activity. Cyclins and CDKs turn other cell cycle proteins on and off by adding or removing phosphate groups.
to Richard William Hunt
, a lecturer in palaeography
in Liverpool, and Kit Rowland, daughter of a timber merchant. (After the death of both his parents Hunt found his father had actually worked at Bush House
, most likely in intelligence, although it is not known what he actually did). In 1945 Richard became Keeper of the Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library
, and the family relocated to Oxford
. At the age of eight he was accepted into the Dragon School
, where he first developed an interest in Biology thanks to his German teacher, Gerd Sommerhoff
. When he was fourteen he moved to Magdalen College School, Oxford
, where the science prizes now bear his name, becoming even more interested in science and fully studying subjects such as chemistry and zoology.
to study Natural Sciences, graduating in 1964 and immediately beginning work in the university Department of Biochemistry under Asher Korner, working with scientists such as Louis Reichardt
and Tony Hunter. A 1965 talk by Vernon Ingram
interested him in hemoglobin synthesis, and at a conference in 1966 in Greece on the subject he persuaded Irving London to allow him to work in his laboratory in New York, staying from July to October 1966. He finished his PhD in 1968 and again returned to New York to work with London, where he collaborated with Nechama and Edward Kosower and Ellie Ehrenfeld. While there they discovered that tiny amounts of glutathione
inhibited protein synthesis in reticulocytes, and that tiny amounts of RNA
killed the synthesis all together. After returning to Cambridge he again began work with Hunter and Richard Jackson, who had discovered the RNA strand used to start haemoglobin synthesis. After 3–4 years the team discovered at least two other chemicals acting as inhibitors.
While doing summer work in 1982 at the Marine Biological Laboratory
at Woods Hole, Massachusetts
, using the sea urchin
(Arbacia punctulata) egg as his model organism, he discovered the cyclin
molecule. Hunt found that cyclins begin to be synthesised after the eggs are fertilized and increase in levels during interphase
, until they drop very quickly in the middle of mitosis
in each cell division
. He also found that cyclins are present in vertebrate
cells where they also regulate the cell cycle. He and others subsequently showed that the cyclin
s bind and activate a family of protein kinase
s, now called the cyclin-dependent kinases, one of which had been identified as a crucial cell cycle regulator by Paul Nurse.
In 1990, he began work at Imperial Cancer Research Fund, now known as the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute
in the United Kingdom. He became a fellow of the Royal Society
in 1991 and a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
in 1999. In 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
with Leland Hartwell
and Sir Paul Nurse
for their discoveries regarding cell cycle
regulation by cyclin
and cyclin-dependent kinase
s. In 2006 he was awarded the Royal Medal
for 'discovering a key aspect of cell cycle control, the protein cyclin which is a component of cyclin dependent kinases, demonstrating his ability to grasp the significance of the result outside his immediate sphere of interest'. He was knighted
by the Queen in the same year.
He is a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering
.
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
biochemist
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
.
Hunt was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland H. Hartwell for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells.
When cells with nuclei divide, they divide in phases called G1 (growth), S (synthesis), G2 (growth), and M (mitosis). Nurse, Hartwell and Hunt together discovered two proteins, cyclin and CDK (cyclin dependent kinase), that control the transition from one stage to another. These proteins are called checkpoints, because they check whether the cell has divided properly. If the cell doesn't divide correctly, other proteins will attempt to repair it, and if unsuccessful, they will destroy the cell. If a cell divides incorrectly and survives, it can cause cancer and other serious diseases.
Working in sea urchin eggs, Hunt discovered cyclins, proteins that bind to cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) proteins and regulate their activity. Cyclins and CDKs turn other cell cycle proteins on and off by adding or removing phosphate groups.
Early life
Hunt was born on 19 February, 1943 in Neston, CheshireCheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
to Richard William Hunt
Richard William Hunt
Richard William Hunt , was a scholar, grammarian, palaeographer, editor, and author of a number of books about medieval history and the Keeper of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, from 1945 to 1975. He was a lecturer in palaeography in Liverpool, and worked at Bush House during...
, a lecturer in palaeography
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
in Liverpool, and Kit Rowland, daughter of a timber merchant. (After the death of both his parents Hunt found his father had actually worked at Bush House
Bush House
Bush House is a building between Aldwych and The Strand in London at the southern end of Kingsway. The BBC World Service occupies the Centre Block, North East and South East wings. The North West wing was formerly occupied by BBC Online until they relocated to BBC Media Village in 2005, with some...
, most likely in intelligence, although it is not known what he actually did). In 1945 Richard became Keeper of the Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
, and the family relocated to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. At the age of eight he was accepted into the Dragon School
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...
, where he first developed an interest in Biology thanks to his German teacher, Gerd Sommerhoff
Gerd Sommerhoff
Gerd Sommerhoff OBE , was a pioneer of theoretical neuroscience and a noted humanist.A great-grandson of the German composer Robert Schumann, he was living in England at the onset of the Second World War...
. When he was fourteen he moved to Magdalen College School, Oxford
Magdalen College School, Oxford
Magdalen College School is an independent school for boys aged 7 to 18 and girls in the sixth form, located on The Plain in Oxford, England. It was founded as part of Magdalen College, Oxford by William Waynflete in 1480....
, where the science prizes now bear his name, becoming even more interested in science and fully studying subjects such as chemistry and zoology.
Higher education and career
In 1961 he was accepted into Clare College, CambridgeClare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...
to study Natural Sciences, graduating in 1964 and immediately beginning work in the university Department of Biochemistry under Asher Korner, working with scientists such as Louis Reichardt
Louis Reichardt
Louis Reichardt is a noted American mountaineer, the first American to summit both Everest and K2. He is also a Professor of Physiology and Biochemistry/Biophysics at UCSF, where he studies neuroscience. The character of Harold Jameson, U.C.S.F...
and Tony Hunter. A 1965 talk by Vernon Ingram
Vernon Ingram
Vernon M. Ingram, Ph.D., FRS was a German American professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.-Biography:Ingram was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia...
interested him in hemoglobin synthesis, and at a conference in 1966 in Greece on the subject he persuaded Irving London to allow him to work in his laboratory in New York, staying from July to October 1966. He finished his PhD in 1968 and again returned to New York to work with London, where he collaborated with Nechama and Edward Kosower and Ellie Ehrenfeld. While there they discovered that tiny amounts of glutathione
Glutathione
Glutathione is a tripeptide that contains an unusual peptide linkage between the amine group of cysteine and the carboxyl group of the glutamate side-chain...
inhibited protein synthesis in reticulocytes, and that tiny amounts of RNA
RNA
Ribonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....
killed the synthesis all together. After returning to Cambridge he again began work with Hunter and Richard Jackson, who had discovered the RNA strand used to start haemoglobin synthesis. After 3–4 years the team discovered at least two other chemicals acting as inhibitors.
While doing summer work in 1982 at the Marine Biological Laboratory
Marine Biological Laboratory
The Marine Biological Laboratory is an international center for research and education in biology, biomedicine and ecology. Founded in 1888, the MBL is the oldest independent marine laboratory in the Americas, taking advantage of a coastal setting in the Cape Cod village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts...
at Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands...
, using the sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
(Arbacia punctulata) egg as his model organism, he discovered the cyclin
Cyclin
Cyclins are a family of proteins that control the progression of cells through the cell cycle by activating cyclin-dependent kinase enzymes.- Function :...
molecule. Hunt found that cyclins begin to be synthesised after the eggs are fertilized and increase in levels during interphase
Interphase
Interphase is the phase of the cell cycle in which the cell spends the majority of its time and performs the majority of its purposes including preparation for cell division. In preparation for cell division, it increases its size and makes a copy of its DNA...
, until they drop very quickly in the middle of mitosis
Mitosis
Mitosis is the process by which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus into two identical sets, in two separate nuclei. It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis, which divides the nuclei, cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two cells containing roughly...
in each cell division
Cell division
Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells . Cell division is usually a small segment of a larger cell cycle. This type of cell division in eukaryotes is known as mitosis, and leaves the daughter cell capable of dividing again. The corresponding sort...
. He also found that cyclins are present in vertebrate
Vertebrate
Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
cells where they also regulate the cell cycle. He and others subsequently showed that the cyclin
Cyclin
Cyclins are a family of proteins that control the progression of cells through the cell cycle by activating cyclin-dependent kinase enzymes.- Function :...
s bind and activate a family of protein kinase
Kinase
In chemistry and biochemistry, a kinase is a type of enzyme that transfers phosphate groups from high-energy donor molecules, such as ATP, to specific substrates, a process referred to as phosphorylation. Kinases are part of the larger family of phosphotransferases...
s, now called the cyclin-dependent kinases, one of which had been identified as a crucial cell cycle regulator by Paul Nurse.
In 1990, he began work at Imperial Cancer Research Fund, now known as the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute
London Research Institute
The Cancer Research UK London Research Institute is a biological research facility whose aim is to conduct research into the basic biology of cancer...
in the United Kingdom. He became a fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1991 and a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
in 1999. In 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
with Leland Hartwell
Leland H. Hartwell
Leland Harrison Hartwell is former president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and R...
and Sir Paul Nurse
Paul Nurse
Sir Paul Maxime Nurse, PRS is a British geneticist and cell biologist. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Leland H. Hartwell and R...
for their discoveries regarding cell cycle
Cell cycle
The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the series of events that takes place in a cell leading to its division and duplication . In cells without a nucleus , the cell cycle occurs via a process termed binary fission...
regulation by cyclin
Cyclin
Cyclins are a family of proteins that control the progression of cells through the cell cycle by activating cyclin-dependent kinase enzymes.- Function :...
and cyclin-dependent kinase
Cyclin-dependent kinase
thumb|350px|Schematic of the cell cycle. outer ring: I=[[Interphase]], M=[[Mitosis]]; inner ring: M=Mitosis; G1=[[G1 phase|Gap phase 1]]; S=[[S phase|Synthesis]]; G2=[[G2 phase|Gap phase 2]]...
s. In 2006 he was awarded the Royal Medal
Royal Medal
The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal, is a silver-gilt medal awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge" and one for "distinguished contributions in the applied sciences" made within the Commonwealth of...
for 'discovering a key aspect of cell cycle control, the protein cyclin which is a component of cyclin dependent kinases, demonstrating his ability to grasp the significance of the result outside his immediate sphere of interest'. He was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
by the Queen in the same year.
He is a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering
Campaign for Science and Engineering
The Campaign for Science and Engineering is a non-profit organization which promotes science and engineering in the UK. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based economy, highlighting the need for top-quality science and maths education at all...
.
External links
- Biographical informations and videos (presentations and other) from Wilsede Science Connections — web page with two minute video interview with Hunt on the discovery of cyclin