History of the Sanger Institute
The origins of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute are intertwined with those of the Human Genome Project. In the 1980s Jim Watson, co-discoverer of the double helical structure of DNA, and others proposed that sequencing all three billion letters of the human genetic code might be possible. It was argued that the sequence would be an invaluable tool for biomedical research.
Aerial view of Hinxton Hall and the Sanger Centre. Credit: Wellcome Library, London
The human genome - the book of instructions needed to build a human being - is written in a four-letter DNA code. Although small genomes had been sequenced, the human genome was on a completely different scale. Many felt that it was a step too far, or would squeeze resources out of other areas of science.
Enter the worm
Meantime, mapping and sequencing continued on other smaller organisms, including the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Central to this work was John Sulston, then at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He and other members of the 'worm community' had pioneered an open, collaborative approach to genome research.
While the MRC had invested heavily in the sequencing of the worm genome, work on the human genome, 30 times the size of the worm's, would have been a very major undertaking. The Wellcome Trust saw that a human genome sequence would be a force for accelerating biomedical research - one of the main aims of the Trust - and seized the opportunity to support the global Human Genome Project.
Fortunately, at this point the Wellcome Trust was able to step in and, jointly with the MRC, establish a centre dedicated to genome sequencing. The Hinxton Hall estate to the south of Cambridge, became available and existing laboratories there were quickly converted.
By April 1993, 15 researchers were at work, and construction began on modernising an existing research building. The Sanger Centre, as it was then known, was formally opened in October 1993 by Fred Sanger, the double Nobel Laureate who devised the method for DNA sequencing used in the Human Genome Project and after whom the Centre was named.
Full steam ahead
The new facilities, added to over the following years, enabled the Sanger Institute to become one of the world's most productive genome sequencing centres. Between its inception and 1998, it played key roles in the worm and yeast genome projects. Subsequent to those projects, many pathogen genomes were sequenced and published and the Cancer Genome Project was initiated in 1999.
In 2000 John Sulston retired as director and Allan Bradley was recruited from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA, to take his place.
Under Professor Bradley, the Sanger Institute continued its sequencing work, participating in the final Human Genome Project publications in 2004 and 2006, but also diversified: large-scale, high-throughput systems were developed and projects to tackle key biological questions were initiated, including the 1000 Genomes Project.
The Sanger Institute also became an integral member of the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium and the International Cancer Genome Consortium, and other large, international programmes such as the International HapMap project.
This phase of work was linked to the construction of new research and computer facilities, to support the expansion of the Sanger Institute workforce, and a growth in the facilities and buildings located at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus.
The future of the Sanger Institute
In March 2010, Allan Bradley announced that he was to stand down as Director and Mike Stratton, who had been Deputy Director at the Sanger Institute since 2007 and head of the Cancer Genome Project, was appointed to succeed him in May 2010.
Speaking about his appointment, Stratton said: "It is a truly extraordinary challenge and great privilege to be appointed Director of the Sanger Institute. The Institute is currently on the crest of a wave of discoveries in revealing how genetic variation in human beings and in infectious agents causes disease. I aim to build ambitiously on the Institute's current leadership in large-scale analysis of genomes and experimental studies in model organisms to develop cellular systems that will explore human biology and to provide transformative insights into how diseases develop.
"In 10-20 years' time it is conceivable that we will all have our genomes sequenced as a routine. Our Institute will make a major contribution to understanding what these sequences mean and will be a leading voice in society's consideration of how they should be used in order to achieve our aim of improving human health."
View a timeline of events and discoveries
