Dr Sydney Brenner, CH FRS (born January 13, 1927) is a British biologist active in the United States. The Order of the Companions of Honour is a British and Commonwealth Order. ... The premises of the Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... January 13 is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Born in Germiston, South Africa, he made seminal contributions to the emerging field of molecular biology in the 1960s, notably in the elucidation of the triplet code of protein translation through the Crick, Brenner et al. experiment of 1961, which discovered frameshift mutations. This insight provided early elucidation of the genetic code. Germiston in the East Rand of Gauteng is South Africas sixth largest city with 70% of the western worlds gold passing through its gold refinery. ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Translation in the cytoplasm; tRNA carries amino acids which are added to the growing peptide chain in the ribosome. ... The Crick, Brenner et al. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... A frameshift mutation (also called a frameshift or a framing error) is a genetic mutation that inserts or deletes a number of nucleotides that is not evenly divisible by three from a DNA sequence. ... RNA codons. ...

Brenner then turned his sights on establishing Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of animal development including neural development. Brenner chose this 1 millimeter-long soil roundworm mainly because it is simple, is easy to grow in bulk populations, and turned out be quite convenient for genetic analysis. The title of his Nobel lecture on December 2002, "Nature's Gift to Science" (which can be downloaded from [1]), is an homage to this modest nematode, and he considered that having chosen the right organism turned out to be as important as having addressed the right problems to work on. Binomial name Caenorhabditis elegans Maupas, 1900 Caenorhabditis elegans (pronounced see-no-rab-DYE-tis) is a free-living nematode (one of the roundworms), about 1 mm in length, which lives in a temperate soil environment. ... A model organism is a species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the organism model will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. ... Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. ... The study of neural development draws on both neuroscience and developmental biology to describe the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which complex nervous systems emerge during embryonic development and throughout life. ... Classes Adenophorea    Subclass Enoplia    Subclass Chromadoria Secernentea    Subclass Rhabditia    Subclass Spiruria    Subclass Diplogasteria The roundworms or nematodes (Phylum Nematoda from Gr. ... Classes Adenophora    Subclass Enoplia    Subclass Chromadoria Secernentea    Subclass Rhabditia    Subclass Spiruria    Subclass Diplogasteria The roundworms (Phylum Nematoda) are one of the most common phyla of animals, with over 20,000 different described species. ...

For the latter work he shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Sir Edward Appletons medal Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ... H. Robert Horvitz is an American biologist best known for his research on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. ... John E. Sulston received his degree as a chemist at Cambridge, UK, but devoted his scientific life to biological research, especially in the field of molecular biology. ...

Brenner founded the Molecular Sciences Institute and is currently associated with the Salk Institute and the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. Known for his penetrating scientific insight and acerbic wit, Brenner for many years penned a regular column ("Loose Ends") in the journal Current Biology; he wrote "A Life In Science" (ISBN 0954027809) paperback published by Biomed Central Ltd. in 2001: The Molecular Sciences Institute is an independent non-profit research laboratory that combines genomic experimentation with computer modeling located in Berkeley, California. ... Salk Institute Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is an independent non-profit educational research organization in La Jolla, California. ... The Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) is an autonomous research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore. ...

Excerpted from My Life in Science by Sydney Brenner. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Seeing DNA ...of course the most important thing that happened then is that Jack Dunitz told me about all the developments with DNA in Cambridge because he was following it all. He told me that Francis Crick and Jim Watson had solved the structure of DNA, so we decided to go across to Cambridge to see it. This was in April of 1953.Jack and I and Leslie [Orgel] and another crystallographer went to Cambridge by car. It was a small car. It was very cold I remember, and the car wasn't heated. No one had heaters in cars then. We must have arrived in Cambridge in the late morning, at about 11am or thereabouts. We went into the Austin wing of the Cavendish Laboratory. I went in with Jack and Leslie, into this room that was lined with brick, and there on the side I can remember very clearly was this small model with plates for the bases - the original model with everything screwed together. And I could see the double helix! Francis was sitting there. This was the first time I met him and of course he couldn't stop talking. He just went on and on and on, and it was very inspiring, you see. Of course at this stage neither of the two famous Nature papers had yet appeared. The first paper was expected in a few weeks. They talked mainly about what eventually was in the second paper. Jim was at his desk in that room which I came to occupy later when I came to the Cavendish, and he was interspersing comments with Francis. So that's when I saw the DNA model for the first time, in the Cavendish, and that's when I saw that this was it. And in a flash you just knew that this was very fundamental. The curtain had been lifted and everything was now clear [as to] what to do. And I got tremendously excited by this."

See also

• Apoptosis, especially the section on "History and highlights in apoptosis research"

A cell undergoing apoptosis. ... A cell undergoing apoptosis. ...

External links

• Video of Sydney Brenner at the Peoples Archive
• http://www.bluesci.org/content/view/436/265/ for a report on his talk on 1st of May 2006!
• 2002 Nobel Prize
• Sydney Brenner