Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 40 minutes ago
Lecture by 2001 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine Tim Hunt, Francis Crick Institute, at the Molecular Frontiers Symposium "Frontiers of New Knowledge in Science" in Hong Kong, Nov 15-17, 2024.
ABSTRACT
I always wanted to be a scientist. I loved gadgets and melting lead pipes and electrolyzing solutions of salt to make hydrogen and chlorine. Luckily, I had excellent teachers who channeled these enthusiasms into a deeper and more formal understanding of chemistry and biology so that it was possible to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge and carry on there with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, about the control of haemoglobin synthesis. It took ten years, some interesting side roads, a lot of travel and a devastating fire to solve the problem of how the synthesis of haem was coordinated with the synthesis of globin. Along the way, I discovered (quite by accident) that doublestranded RNA (dsRNA) was a potent inhibitor of protein synthesis. Thanks to the fire, we moved close to the famous MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where the canteen was a great place to arrange collaborations and learn about science from elder statesmen like Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner, Max Perutz and Fred Sanger and also from one’s peers, several of whom would later win Nobel prizes. The discussions were very open and free-flowing. They were fun and helped a lot. The fire also had a kind of purifying effect, destroying accumulated confusing data and allowing the purchase of new equipment. Fairly soon we discovered that both lack of haem and the presence of dsRNA activated protein kinases that phosphorylated the initiation factor eIF-2, reducing its activity. Having solved our problem; what to do next? I remembered a talk I’d heard as a student about sea urchin eggs, how they activated protein synthesis after fertilization. When the chance came to spend a summer at the MBL Woods Hole I jumped at it, and during my fifth summer there discovered cyclin, the disappearing protein that turned out to be a “key regulator of the cell cycle”. That was fun too.
Lecture by 2001 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine Tim Hunt, Francis Crick Institute, at the Molecular Frontiers Symposium "Frontiers of New Knowledge in Science" in Hong Kong, Nov 15-17, 2024.
ABSTRACT
I always wanted to be a scientist. I loved gadgets and melting lead pipes and electrolyzing solutions of salt to make hydrogen and chlorine. Luckily, I had excellent teachers who channeled these enthusiasms into a deeper and more formal understanding of chemistry and biology so that it was possible to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge and carry on there with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, about the control of haemoglobin synthesis. It took ten years, some interesting side roads, a lot of travel and a devastating fire to solve the problem of how the synthesis of haem was coordinated with the synthesis of globin. Along the way, I discovered (quite by accident) that doublestranded RNA (dsRNA) was a potent inhibitor of protein synthesis. Thanks to the fire, we moved close to the famous MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where the canteen was a great place to arrange collaborations and learn about science from elder statesmen like Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner, Max Perutz and Fred Sanger and also from one’s peers, several of whom would later win Nobel prizes. The discussions were very open and free-flowing. They were fun and helped a lot. The fire also had a kind of purifying effect, destroying accumulated confusing data and allowing the purchase of new equipment. Fairly soon we discovered that both lack of haem and the presence of dsRNA activated protein kinases that phosphorylated the initiation factor eIF-2, reducing its activity. Having solved our problem; what to do next? I remembered a talk I’d heard as a student about sea urchin eggs, how they activated protein synthesis after fertilization. When the chance came to spend a summer at the MBL Woods Hole I jumped at it, and during my fifth summer there discovered cyclin, the disappearing protein that turned out to be a “key regulator of the cell cycle”. That was fun too.
