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John Sulston
Sir John Edward Sulston was a British biologist and academic. For his work on the cell lineage and genome of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans,
he was jointly awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sydney Brenner and Robert Horvitz. He was Chair of the Institute
for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester.
Early life and education
Sulston was born in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England to parents The Reverend Canon Arthur Edward Aubrey Sulston and Josephine Muriel Frearson.
His father was an Anglican priest and administrator of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. An English teacher at Watford Grammar School,
his mother quit her job to care for him and his sister Madeleine. His mother home-tutored them until he was five.
At age five he entered the local preparatory school, [ York House School], where he soon developed an aversion to games.
He instead developed an early interest in science, having fun with dissecting animals and sectioning plants to observe their structure and function.
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 . He 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.
Career
Between 1966 and 1969 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the US.
His supervisor Colin Reese had arranged for him to work with Leslie Orgel, who would turn his scientific career onto a different pathway.
Orgel introduced him to Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner, who were working in Cambridge. He became inclined to biological research.
Although Orgel wanted Sulston to remain with him, Sydney Brenner persuaded Sulston to return to Cambridge
to work on the neurobiology of Caenorhabditis elegans at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Sulston soon produced the complete map of the worm's neurons. He continued work on its DNA and subsequently the whole genome sequencing.
In collaboration with the Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis the whole genome sequence was published in 1998, so that C.
elegans became the first animal to have its complete genome sequenced. Sulston played a central role in both the C. elegans
and human genome sequencing projects. He had argued successfully for the sequencing of C. elegans
to show that large-scale genome sequencing projects were feasible. As sequencing of the worm genome proceeded, the project
to sequence the human genome began. At this point he was made director of the newly-established Sanger Centre, located in Cambridgeshire, England.
Following completion of the 'working draft' of the human genome sequence in 2000, Sulston retired from his role as director at the Sanger Centre.
With Georgina Ferry, he narrated his research career leading to the human genome sequence in The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics,
Ethics, and the Human Genome.
Personal life
 [^]  John Sulston met Daphne Bate, a research assistant in Cambridge. They got married in 1966 just before they left for US for postdoctoral research.
Together they had two children. Their first child, Ingrid, was born in La Jolla in 1967, and their second, Adrian, later in England.
Sulston's grandson Micah was born in 2001, followed by his granddaughter Kira in 2003. The couple lived in Stapleford, Cambridgeshire
where they were active members of the local community: John regularly volunteered in the local library and in working parties at Magog Down;
he was a Trustee of Cambridge Past, Present and Future. Although brought up in a Christian family, Sulston lost his faith during his student life
at Cambridge, and remained an atheist. He was a distinguished supporter of Humanists UK.
In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. Sulston was in favour of free public access of scientific information.
He wanted genome information freely available, and he described as "totally immoral and disgusting" the idea of profiteering from such research.
He also 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. Sulston provided bail sureties for Julian Assange, according to Mark Stephens, Julian's solicitor.
Having backed Julian Assange by pledging bail in December 2010, he lost the money in June 2012 when a judge ordered it to be forfeited,
as Assange had sought to escape the jurisdiction of the English courts by entering the embassy of Ecuador.
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