Nobel headcount grows for Genetics Congress

The Nobel winner count for July's International Congress of Genetics has risen to eight, with confirmation that Sir John Sulston will be joining fellow 2002 Medicine laureates Sir Sydney Brenner and Prof Robert Horvitz in Melbourne.

In the 1970s Sulston began a now classic study of the genesis and fate of each of 1090 cells of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. He discovered that 131 cells -- always the same cells -- died during the nematode's brief lifetime, as if they were genetically programmed to be expendable. His observation aroused little interest at the time, but the worm turned in the 1990s: the phenomenon Sulston described, called apoptosis or programmed cell death, has become one of biology's hottest research fields.

Apoptosis is now known to be play a central role in development and maturation in all animals -- billions of surplus neurons are 'pruned' as the human brain establishes its neural networks during foetal development, and the process continues through childhood and into teenage years.

Apoptosis also protects the body against cancer, by removing mature cells that have acquired hazardous mutation loads, before they turn cancerous. Geneticists have shown that mutation damage to genes that mediate apoptosis is a key process in the induction of cancer. Cancer researchers hope to develop novel cancer therapies that will bypass these mutant genes, forcing cancerous cells to mature and undergo apoptosis.

ICoG 2003 convenor Dr Phil Batterham said he was "absolutely thrilled" that all three 2002 Nobel Medicine laureates will be at the world's major genetics congress. "Sir John Sulston is an extraordinary individual," he said. "His work to define the pathways of development in Caenorhabditis was superb, and having done that, he went on to lead the project to sequence its genome.

The Caenorhabditis genome project, a trans-Atlantic effort involving UK and US researchers, began in 1990, and was completed in 1998. "People had seriously doubted whether it was possible to sequence the entire genome of a multi-cellular organism, but in both of his major projects, Sir John was totally dedicated and selfless. In doing all that work -- the developmental work and the genome sequencing -- he really made great personal sacrifices to create tools for those who would follow.

"He then came to prominence a third time, for his work with at the Wellcome Trust, in partnership with Francis Collins in the US, on the public effort to sequence the human genome.

"He is a remarkable scientist and human being, a great altruist throughout his career, and through his hard work, laid the platform for extraordinary advances in science."

Pioneering trio

Batterham said it was fitting that three scientists who had won the Nobel Prize last year for their pioneering work in developmental genetics and genomics would all be on the same platform as James Watson, co-discoverer with Francis Crick of the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule.

Batterham this week announced plans to hold an on-line auction of a limited edition archive-quality copy of 20th century biology's most famous image: a photograph of Watson and Crick with their historic first model of the DNA helix.

The Science Photo Gallery has produced 750 limited edition 20"x16" prints, and 350 larger (30"x20") limited-edition prints for sale to collectors, each one signed by the photographer who took the historic photograph, Antony Barrington-Brown.

But the print to be auctioned via the congress web site in the lead-up to the event will be unique -- Francis Crick has already agreed to sign the print, and Batterham said he believed its value will be greatly enhanced if he could add James Watson's signature on a trip to the US later this month. Funds raised by the auction will be used to help sponsor delegates from developing nations to attend the congress.

When Barrington-Brown took the photograph, at age 26, he had no idea that he was capturing an epochal moment in scientific history. He was living at Cambridge University, photographing academic staff, when he received a tip-off that someone at the university's famous Cavendish Laboratory had made an important discovery.

He went to the lab to take photograph to accompany a freelancer's story for Time magazine. "I knocked at the door of one of dozens of similar rooms where research students worked and was affably greeted by a couple of chaps lounging at a desk by the window, drinking coffee," Barrington Smith recalls.

"What's all this about?" I asked. With an airy wave of the hand one of them, Crick, I think, said, 'We've got this model', indicating an array of retort stands holding thin brass rods and balls.

"It meant absolutely nothing to me, so I set up my lights and camera and said, 'You'd better stand by it and look portentous' which they manifestly failed to do, treating my efforts as a bit of a joke."

The photographs came out well, and were duly sent to Time, which, in a perhaps unparalleled moment of editorial myopia, failed to appreciate the significance of the advance and decided not publish the story. The magazine sent Barrington-Brown a small fee for his effort.

The original photograph now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and Watson and Crick were later elevated to the pantheon of science's demigods with the award of the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Australian Biotechnology News is a major sponsor of the 19th International Congress of Genetics, and every week we will bring you the latest on speakers and the congress program.