| RefNo | EC/1978/21 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XX, 110 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Mitchison, John Murdoch: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1975 |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Following an unusual study of the red cell membrane, using polarised light microscopy, Mitchison developed, together with Swann, a new theory of cell division, based on measured changes in the mechanical properties of the cell membrane. He followed this with a study of the growth in mass of single yeast and bacterial cells, using integrating interference microscopy. This showed a linear growth rate, doubling at each division. His subsequent work has greatly extended knowledge of the cell cycle, initially on incorporation rates, patterns of uptake, and patterns of synthesis of the major cell components. Subsequently he developed a new method (now very widely used) of producing synchronous cell cultures by gradient centrifugation. With this technique he has followed enzyme synthesis in the cell cycle, and discovered for several enzymes a linear pattern of synthesis, suggesting a delay between chemical and functional replication of the genome. His monograph on The Biology of the Cell Cycle is the first comprehensive review of this field, and has been very well received. Amongst other things, it suggests that the events of DNA synthesis, nuclear and cell division are a sequence which can be dissociated from the events of growth and this has been substantiated by experiments on yeast with two different techniques of synchronisation/ |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA3994 | Mitchison; John Murdoch (1922 - 2011) | 1922 - 2011 |