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Authorised form of nameBrenner; Sydney (1927 - 2019)
Dates1927 - 2019
NationalityBritish
Place of birthGermiston, South Africa
Date of birth13/01/1927
Date of death05/04/2019
OccupationMolecular Biologist
ActivityCareer:
Distinguished Research Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) 2002
Honours:
CH 1987
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election18/03/1965
Age at election38
RSActivityRoyal Society roles:
Council: 1975-1977
Medals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1974; Copley Medal 1991
Lectures:
Croonian 1986
OtherInfoSydney Brenner was a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who made many seminal contributions to molecular biology. Joining the field at its inception in the 1950s, Sydney worked with notable contemporaries on studies of Escherichia coli and the viruses that attack this bacterium to reveal much about the structure and function of the genetic code and, in particular, RNA.

He proposed the existence of messenger RNA as an intermediary between DNA and protein. Sydney subsequently revealed that triplets of nucleotides within RNA encode the individual amino acids of a protein, as well as signals for stopping protein manufacture. Consequently, he showed that the order of such triplets directly determines the order of amino acids in a protein.

Sydney successfully established Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism, himself using the roundworm to study organ development and apoptosis. For these achievements, he earned the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Well known for providing insightful ideas to fellow scientists, Sydney has founded and led several research institutes and was instrumental in guiding Singapore’s investment in biomedical research.
SourceReferences:
'Address of the President, Sir Michael Atiyah, Given at the Anniversary Meeting on 29 November 1991' in NR 1992 vol 46 pp 155-169
R Holliday, 'The early years of molecular biology: personal recollections' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 195-208
R A Crowther, 'Viruses and the development of quantitative biological electron microscopy' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 65-81
Mariana Cook 'Faces of Science', 2005 p36-7
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/84854329
CodeNA3395
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1965/03Brenner, Sydney: certificate of election to the Royal Society
IM/000543Brenner, Sydneynd
P/0248Portrait of Brenner, Sydney 2003
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