Abstract
Sydney Brenner (1927–2019): The opening game
Highlights
Seeking the challenge of working with whole organisms, Brenner chose the transparent fast-growing nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, and started the work in the mid-1960s
In 1956, he moved to Cambridge where he shared an office with Francis Crick, during which time they, together with many collaborators, contributed groundbreaking work towards elucidating the triplet code and the role of mRNA in protein synthesis, resulting in seminal publications from 1961 to 1965
During the Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA (California, 1975), he took the lead in discussions on the ethics and appropriate use of these technologies. He was a proponent of the Human Genome Project and the need for more inclusive participation in this international project, and was a founding member of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO)
Summary
Seeking the challenge of working with whole organisms, Brenner chose the transparent fast-growing nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, and started the work in the mid-1960s. Throughout his life, he inspired breathtaking research projects and ambitious scientific institutes that are thriving today across several continents. As a young man, he left South Africa for the UK to pursue scientific ideas, and joined the laboratory of Cyril Hinshelwood (a future Nobel laureate) and completed a DPhil at the University of Oxford in 1954.
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