| Citation | Distinguished for his investigations of the structure and organisation of genes. Flavell is responsible for early work on site-directed mutagenesis but is best known for his discovery that the coding region of the beta-globin gene is interrupted by non-coding sequences. Flavell has described several molecular lesions underlying beta-thalassaemia. He has defined the 5' regions near the gene that are important for its transcription. Flavell is also among the first to propose that DNA methylation may modulate gene transcription and that selective demethylation may be an important molecular mechanism governing cellular differentiation. |