John Tooze FRS (16 May 1938 – 19 May 2021) was a British research scientist, research administrator, author, science journalist, former executive director of EMBObr>EMBC
director of research services at the

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 ...

London Research Institute The Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (LRI) was a biological research facility which conducted research into the basic biology of cancer. The LRI officially became a part of the Francis Crick Institute ("the Crick") in April 2015, res ...

and a vice president at The Rockefeller University.

Early childhood and education

John Tooze was born and grew up in a terraced house on Thornbury Road in

Perry Barr Perry Barr is a suburban area in north Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is also the name of a Government of Birmingham, England#Council constituencies, council constituency, managed by its own ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

where he attended Thornbury Road Primary school. At his second attempt he passed the grammar school entrance exam and joined Handsworth Grammar School in Birmingham. In 1955 in the 6th form he won a State Scholarship and an Open Scholarship from

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

(BA, 1961). After leaving Handsworth School in 1955 he decided to spend 6 months working as a labourer in the cooperage of Ansells Brewery,

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Located immediately to the north-west of Birmingham city centre, Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a wards of the United Kingdom, war ...

while waiting to begin two years of military service in the

Royal Army Educational Corps The Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC) was a corps of the British Army tasked with educating and instructing personnel in a diverse range of skills. On 6 April 1992 it became the Educational and Training Services Branch (ETS) of the Adjutant Ge ...

in September 1956. He was discharged as a sergeant in September 1958 and after obtaining his BA from

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

he went on to earn a PhD in biophysics from

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

in 1965 studying in the department where

Maurice Wilkins Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British biophysicist and Nobel laureate whose research spanned multiple areas of physics and biophysics, contributing to the scientific understanding ...

and John Randall worked.

Research and career

Research

Following his PhD, Tooze spent two years working as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

working on

Bacteriophage A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a phage (), is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria. The term is derived . Bacteriophages are composed of proteins that Capsid, encapsulate a DNA or RNA genome, and may have structu ...

genetics with

James Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biology, molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper in ''Nature (journal), Nature'' proposing the Nucleic acid ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He returned to the UK and was appointed a lecturer at

from 1965 to 1968. There he made a series of significant contributions to our understanding of the exocytic and endocytic pathways in

neuroendocrine Neuroendocrine cells are cells that receive neuronal input (through neurotransmitters released by nerve cells or neurosecretory cells) and, as a consequence of this input, release messenger molecules ( hormones) into the blood. In this way they b ...

and exocrine cells and the exploitation of these pathways by enveloped animal viruses. He also provided the first evidence that endocytic membranes are used in the

morphogenesis Morphogenesis (from the Greek ''morphê'' shape and ''genesis'' creation, literally "the generation of form") is the biological process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of deve ...

vaccinia The vaccinia virus (VACV or VV) is a large, complex, enveloped virus belonging to the poxvirus family. It has a linear, double-stranded DNA genome approximately 190 kbp in length, which encodes approximately 250 genes. The dimensions of the ...

and

human cytomegalovirus Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), also called human herpesvirus 5 (HHV-5), is a species of virus in the genus ''Cytomegalovirus'', which in turn is a member of the viral family known as ''Herpesviridae'' or herpesviruses. It is also commonly call ...

Positions with the journal ''Nature''

Beginning in 1966 Tooze had been writing under the byline “our cell biology correspondent” a regular weekly column for the news and views section of the scientific journal

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

. From March 1968 to Sept 1969 he worked full-time as assistant and later as deputy editor working with the editor-in-chief John Maddox.

Research administration

Tooze served as executive secretary of the

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

(EMBO) for over 20 years and secretary of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC). In 1982, he founded ''

The EMBO Journal ''The EMBO Journal'' is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on full-length papers describing original research of general interest in molecular biology and related areas. The editor-in-chief is Facundo D. Batista ( Harvard Medi ...

''.

Death

Tooze died on 19 May 2021 at the age of 83.

Awards and honors

Tooze was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal and EMBO Membership, both in 1986 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1994. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: *1986 Elected member of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) *1986 Recipient of EMBO Gold Medal for contributions to promotion of molecular biology in Europe *1993 Elected member of Academia Europaea *1994 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, UK *2016 Doctor of Science, h.c., Watson School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York

Timeline

*1938 Born Birmingham, England *1949–1955 Handsworth Grammar School, Birmingham, England *1955 State scholarship *1955 Open scholarship, Jesus College, Cambridge *1956–1958 Military service British Army – final rank sergeant *1958–1961 Jesus College, Cambridge University – B.A. honors *1965 Ph.D. biophysics, University of London *1965–1967 Postdoctoral fellow – J.D. Watson laboratory Harvard University *1961 Staff member MRC Biophysics Unit, King's College, University of London *1963–1968 Lecturer, Department of Biophysics, King's College, University of London *1968–1969 Deputy editor, ''Nature'', London *1970–1973 Research administrator, Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. *1973–1994 Executive Secretary, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), Heidelberg *1982–1993 Scientific Co-ordinator European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg *1993–1994 Acting director general, EMBL *1991–2015 Trustee of The Darwin Trust of Edinburgh *1994–2002 ICRF director of support services, Imperial Cancer Research Fund *2002–2003 Executive director of research integration and services, Cancer Research UK (formerly Imperial Cancer Research Fund) *2003–2005 Director of research services, Cancer Research UK *2005–2013 Vice president for scientific and facility operations, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY *2014 Retired

Editorships

* 1976–1980 Editor: ''Cancer Reviews'', BBA, Elsevier North Holland * 1979–1985 Editor in chief: ''Trends in Biochemical Sciences'' (TIBS) * 1982–2003 Executive editor: ''The EMBO Journal'' * 1991–1999 Advisory editor, ''Bio Essays'', Cambridge, UK * 1993–2003 Associate editor, ''European Journal of Cell Biology'' * 1993–2001 Editorial board, ''Structural Biology''

References

Books published

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tooze, John 1938 births 2021 deaths People educated at Handsworth Grammar School Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Alumni of King's College London Academics of King's College London Fellows of the Royal Society British emigrants to the United States Rockefeller University faculty