Issue date: 7 October 2002

Sir John Sulston awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine: Wellcome Trust comment

Dr Mike Dexter, Director of the Wellcome Trust said: "Sir John's achievements rank alongside our greatest biological and medical discoveries. His C. elegans work inspired a new era in scientific research, and the sequencing of its genome was the spark that initiated the international Human Genome Project.

"These were among the many highlights in the career of this outstanding scientist, who provided unswerving and principled leadership during his time as Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute."

Dr Allan Bradley, who replaced Sir John as Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute said: "This is absolutely fantastic news! It's great for John and for British Science. I am thrilled that John's work has been honoured by the highest award. John has been instrumental in laying out several of the foundations upon which almost all experimental work in the worm depends. This began with the lineage map and extends to the genome sequence. John's vision in developing and persevering to finish the job is an inspiration to us all."

Notes to editors:
Sir John Sulston
Images of Sir John Sulston, former Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, are available to download at:
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Sir John (60) graduated from Cambridge University in 1963. After completing his PhD on the chemical synthesis of DNA, he moved to the USA to study prebiotic chemistry (the origins of life on earth). In 1969 he joined Sydney BrennerÃs group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge where he studied the biology and genetics of the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans. He and his team collaborated with Bob Waterston at Washington University in the USA to sequence the genome of this model organism.

In 1992, Sulston was appointed the first Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire which made the UKÃs contribution to the international Human Genome Project. The Institute started with temporary labs and just 15 staff but now has a 600-strong workforce and state-of-the-art buildings. Following publication of the first draft sequence of the human genome in 2000 he was listed among the UK's 100 most powerful people by the Observer newspaper. Sir John received his knighthood for services to genome research in the 2001 New Year's Honours. He stepped down as Director in September 2000 but continues to work on C. elegans at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Please note the Sanger Centre was renamed the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2001.

More information on Sir John and the Human Genome project is available at the following URLs:

www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/hgpsansln.htm

www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/hgphishow.htm

Media contacts:

Don Powell
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
t: 01223 494956
m: 07753 775397
e: don@sanger.ac.uk

Shaun Griffin or Barry Gardner
Media Office
Wellcome Trust
t: 0207 611 8612/7329
e: s.griffin@wellcome.ac.uk; b.gardner@wellcome.ac.uk