George Gow Brownlee is a British
pathologist and
Fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of
Lincoln College, Oxford.
Education
Brownlee was educated at
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...
[ and Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he studied Natural Sciences and was awarded a Master of Arts degree followed by PhD in 1967 for research on ]nucleotide
Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...
s supervised by Fred Sanger at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).
Career and Research
Brownlee was Professor of Chemical Pathology at Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, from 1978 to 2008.
Brownlee cloned and expressed human clotting factor IX, providing a recombinant source of this protein for Haemophilia B patients who had previously relied on the hazardous blood-derived product.
With Merlin Crossley he helped discover the two sets of genetic mutations that were preventing two key proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, re ...
from attaching to the DNA of people with a rare and unusual form of Haemophilia B – ''Haemophilia B Leyden'' – where sufferers experience episodes of excessive bleeding in childhood but have few bleeding problems after puberty. This lack of protein attachment to the DNA was thereby turning off the gene that produces clotting factor IX, which prevents excessive bleeding.
With Peter Palese and co-workers he developed the first reverse genetics system for influenza virus, markedly speeding up the process of developing influenza vaccine
Influenza vaccines, colloquially known as flu shots or the flu jab, are vaccines that protect against infection by influenza viruses. New versions of the vaccines are developed twice a year, as the influenza virus rapidly changes. While their ...
s.
Brownlee authored a biography of Fred Sanger published in 2014.
Awards and honours
Brownlee was awarded The Colworth Medal by the Biochemical Society in 1976[ and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1987.]
See also
* Pseudogene (database)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownlee, George
British pathologists
Fellows of the Royal Society
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Academics of King's College London
Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford
Living people
1942 births