David Tyrrell (physician) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Tyrrell
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|---|---|
| Born |
David Arthur John Tyrrell
19 June 1925 Ashford, Middlesex, England
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| Died | 2 May 2005 (aged 79) Salisbury, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Sheffield |
| Known for | Discovery and naming of coronaviruses |
| Spouse(s) |
Moyra Wylie
(m. 1950) |
| Children | 3 (1 son and 2 daughters) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research Medical Research Council, Sheffield Common Cold Unit Northwick Park Hospital |
| Doctoral students | Wendy Barclay |
David Arthur John Tyrrell (born June 19, 1925 – died May 2, 2005) was a British scientist who studied viruses. He was a top researcher at the Common Cold Unit. This unit focused on finding out what caused common colds. Dr. Tyrrell is famous for discovering the first human coronavirus in 1965. He also helped name these viruses "coronaviruses" in 1968. He worked with another scientist, June Almeida, to study these new viruses.
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About David Tyrrell
David Tyrrell was born on June 19, 1925, in Ashford, England. His family moved to Sheffield in 1940. There, he finished high school at King Edward VII School. He then studied medicine at the University of Sheffield. During his studies, he had an eye injury. This meant he didn't have to join the military. It also made him prefer using microscopes with only one eyepiece.
He finished his medical degree in 1948. In 1949, he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. He worked at hospitals in Sheffield for a few years. In 1950, he got a special research job in Sheffield.
His Work and Research
From 1951 to 1954, David Tyrrell worked in New York at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. He then returned to England. In 1954, he joined the Medical Research Council in Sheffield.
In 1957, he moved to the Common Cold Unit near Salisbury. This unit was set up to study colds. He became the head of the unit in 1962. He also led the Division of Communicable Diseases in 1967. Later, he became deputy director at the Clinical Research Centre in Harrow. He returned to the Common Cold Unit full-time in 1985. The unit closed in 1990.
In the 1960s, Dr. Tyrrell teamed up with June Almeida. She was an expert at taking pictures of viruses using a special microscope. Together, they studied a new type of virus. These viruses are now known as coronaviruses.
After retiring in 1990, he continued his research at Porton Down. He also wrote a book about his scientific journey called Cold Wars: The Fight Against the Common Cold. David Tyrrell passed away on May 2, 2005, in Salisbury.
His Family Life
David Tyrrell married Moyra Wylie in 1950. She was a doctor. They had three children: one son and two daughters. He was a very religious person. He played the organ and led the choir at his local church.
Key Scientific Discoveries
When Dr. Tyrrell joined the Common Cold Unit, he created a way to sort cold viruses. Some viruses grew in certain cell types, and others grew in different ones.
In 1961, a sample from a schoolboy was collected. It was called B814. This sample was unusual because it wouldn't grow in any of their usual cultures. When tested on healthy people, it caused cold symptoms and spread easily. Scientists weren't sure if it was a virus or a bacteria. So, they saved the sample for four years.
In 1965, Dr. Tyrrell learned about a Swedish surgeon named Bertil Hoorn. Hoorn had a special way to grow complex viruses using human throat tissue. Dr. Tyrrell invited Hoorn to the Common Cold Unit. With Hoorn's method, they finally grew the B814 sample. They confirmed it was a virus. It was different from all other known cold viruses.
Dr. Tyrrell and Malcolm L. Bynoe announced their discovery in the British Medical Journal in June 1965. This was the discovery of the first human coronavirus. But the virus was still hard to study.
In 1966, June Dalziel Almeida joined a hospital in London as an electron microscopist. She was skilled at looking at viruses up close. She had already studied other coronaviruses found in chickens and mice. Dr. Tyrrell sent her the B814 sample. He also sent another human virus called 229E. Almeida found that these two human viruses looked exactly like the chicken coronavirus.
Almeida and Tyrrell shared their findings in the Journal of General Virology in April 1967. They wrote that the human viruses 229E and B814 looked just like the chicken virus. Around the same time, other scientists also found new human viruses. It became clear that all these viruses were similar.
Almeida and Tyrrell then came up with the name "coronavirus." Dr. Tyrrell later wrote in his book:
We looked more closely at the appearance of the new viruses and noticed that they had a kind of halo surrounding them. Recourse to a dictionary produced the Latin equivalent, corona, and so the name coronavirus was born.
The word "corona" means "crown" in Latin. This name was chosen because the viruses looked like they had a crown of spikes around them.
Other Important Work
At the Rockefeller Institute, Dr. Tyrrell studied how poliomyelitis spread. He shared his findings in 1951. At the Common Cold Unit, he created ways to grow different cold viruses. He was the first to grow certain cold viruses, called rhinoviruses, using cells from the nose. He published his new methods in The Lancet in 1960.
He also researched Parvovirus B19 in the 1980s. He and his team found that this virus caused a rash illness. It also temporarily stopped blood formation in people with certain blood conditions.
Awards and Honours
David Tyrrell was recognized for his important work. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1970. This is a very high honour for scientists in the UK. In 1980, he was made a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE).
He also received honorary degrees from the University of Sheffield (1979) and the University of Southampton (1990). He won several awards for his scientific achievements, including the Stewart Prize (1977), the Ambuj Nath Bose prize (1983), and the Conway Evans Prize (1986).
