Genetics in history

75th stories: Sir John Sulston and the Human Genome Project

To mark the 75th anniversary of the death of Henry Wellcome and the founding of the Wellcome Trust, we are publishing a series of 14 features on people who have been significant in the Trust's history. In our second piece, Mark Henderson (Science Editor of 'The Times') looks at Sir John Sulston, a Nobel Prize winner and the first Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. 05/05/11

Feature: Professor Mike Stratton - how I got into cancer genetics

A pathologist drawn into molecular biology in the mid-1980s and now Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Professor Mike Stratton tells Chrissie Giles how he'll never stop being fascinated by cells. 19/04/11

Professor Allan Bradley: a decade at Sanger

Professor Allan Bradley was Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute for ten years. In this interview he reflects on the achievements in that time. 15/06/10

The history of 'Alzheimer's disease'

Did Alois Alzheimer really 'discover' the disease? 23/06/04

Stephen Jay Gould: An obituary

Vidyanand Nanjundiah examines the impact of Stephen Jay Gould, evolutionist and prolific writer, who died in May 2002. 04/05/04

Crick and Cik: Archiving the Francis Crick papers

Archiving can be a glamorous business, discovers Chris Beckett, guardian of the Francis Crick papers. 10/11/03

Knowing Darwin

The second volume of Janet Browne's epic biography of Charles Darwin reveals a man more complex – and interesting – than is usually portrayed. 28/04/03

Acquiring the Crick papers

David Pearson, Head of the Wellcome Library, discusses the acqusition of the Crick archive, and how they will be made freely accessible to historians, students and scientitsts. 01/03/03

The Crick papers: 1952 At the Cavendish

Francis Crick joined the Cavendish Laboratory in 1949, working with Max Perutz on X-ray crystallography studies of the structure of proteins. 01/03/03

The Crick papers: 1953 DNA replication

Watson and Crick's double-helical model of DNA suggested a mechanism for the replication of DNA. 01/03/03

The Crick papers: 1953 The double helix

James Watson and Francis Crick's discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA marks the beginning of a branch of science that we now know as molecular biology. 01/03/03

The Crick papers: 1955 From DNA to protein

Crick predicted the existence of 'adaptors', later found to be transfer RNA. 01/03/03

The Crick papers: 1961 The triplet code

Crick, Sydney Brenner and colleagues discovered that the genetic code is a triplet code. 01/03/03

The Crick papers: 1962 The Nobel Prize

Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 01/03/03

Human Genome Project history 1: The project begins

In the late 1980s, biologists first began to entertain the idea that, given the funds and the technology, it would be possible to read the entire human genome, the three billion letters in the 'book of life'. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 10: Press views of the first draft

The announcement of the first draft of the human genome on 26 June 2000 was big news. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 2: Press views of the launch

With the launch of the Human Genome Project, the press argued over whether the human genome would be a 'holy grail of biology' or 'a splendid piece of symbolism and a scientific disaster'. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 3: The worm leads the way

The science that would provide the basis for mapping and sequencing the human genome was developed on a smaller scale: the sequencing of the genome of the humble nematode worm. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 4: Enter the Wellcome Trust

In 1993, with US entrepreneurs attempting to headhunt John Sulston and Bob Waterston, potentially undermining the Human Genome Project, the Wellcome Trust stepped in to fund a new sequencing institute, the Sanger Centre. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 5: 'Why fiddle around?'

Proposals in 1995 for a massive acceleration in sequencing of the human genome founder amid concerns about centralisation and accuracy. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 6: Public versus private

In 1998, the entry of Celera Genomics into the human genome sequencing arena galvanises the public effort. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 7: Press views of public vs private sequencing

When Celera announced that it planned to sequence the human genome, the race between the public and private efforts was on (in the media's eyes at least). 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 8: A genome available to all

Celera's approach to human genome sequencing challenged the guiding ethos of the public Human Genome Project: free and unrestricted access to genome data. 28/02/01

Human Genome Project history 9: The first draft, June 2000

After 1998, a stunning acceleration in sequence production by the main centres in the Human Genome Project saw them go from 6 per cent to 90 per cent of the genome in under two years. This sequence, the first draft, was announced on 26 June 2000. 28/02/01