Sir Henry Harris (28 January 1925 – 31 October 2014) was an Australian professor of medicine at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

who led pioneering work on cancer and

human genetics Human genetics is the study of inheritance as it occurs in Human, human beings. Human genetics encompasses a variety of overlapping fields including: classical genetics, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, biochemical genetics, genomics, populatio ...

in the 2000s.

Early life and education

Harris was born in 1925 to a Jewish family in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In 1929, his family emigrated to Australia.''The Guardian''
Retrieved 11 December 2014 Harris studied at Sydney Boys High School from 1937 to 1941. In 1941, he first read modern languages, but was subsequently attracted to medicine through his literary interests. He studied medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and began a career in medical research rather than in clinical practice.

Career

In the early 1950s, Harris moved to England to study at the

Sir William Dunn School of Pathology The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology is a department within the University of Oxford. Its research programme includes the cellular and molecular biology of pathogens, the immune response, cancer and cardiovascular disease. It teaches undergr ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

under

Howard Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey, (; 24 September 1898 – 21 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his ro ...

. He completed his

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1954 and settled down to a career of academic research. In 1960, he was appointed the head of the new department of

cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...

at the John Innes Institute, and, in 1964, he succeeded Florey as head of the Dunn School. In 1979, he was appointed as Oxford's Regius Professor of Medicine, succeeding Richard Doll. Harris's research interests were primarily focused on cancer cells and their differences from normal cells. He later studied the possibility of genetic modification of human cell lines with the material of other species to increase the range of genetic markers. Harris and his colleagues developed some of the basic techniques for investigating and measuring genes along the human

chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...

. In 1965, he reported his observation that most nuclear

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

was non-coding, a view that was not widely accepted until years later. In 1969, Harris showed that when malignant cancer cells were fused with normal

fibroblast A fibroblast is a type of cell (biology), biological cell typically with a spindle shape that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, produces the structural framework (Stroma (tissue), stroma) for animal Tissue (biology), tissues, and ...

s, the resulting hybrids were not malignant, thus demonstrating the existence of genes that could suppress malignancy. Work on these tumour suppressor genes has become a worldwide industry. In 1983, Harris was elected to the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

as a Corresponding Fellow. In 1993, he was knighted. Much of Harris's work has been supported by

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

(formerly the Cancer Research Campaign). He died on 31 October 2014, aged 89.

Works

Published books

* * * * * (The

Romanes Lecture The Romanes Lecture is a prestigious free public lecture given annually at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, England. The lecture series was founded by, and named after, the biologist George Romanes, and has been running since 1892. Over the years, ...

for 1993). * * * *

References

External links

Henry Harris in the Oxford Brookes Medical Video ArchiveHenry Harris archive collection
– Wellcome Library finding aid {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Henry 1925 births 2014 deaths Soviet emigrants to Australia Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom British biologists Jewish British scientists British medical researchers Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society Australian Knights Bachelor People educated at Sydney Boys High School Royal Medal winners Regius Professors of Medicine (University of Oxford) Sydney Medical School alumni University of Sydney alumni Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Scientists from Sydney British people of Russian-Jewish descent Australian people of Russian-Jewish descent