George Brownlee facts for kids

George Gow Brownlee is a British pathologist. A pathologist is a doctor who studies diseases. He is also a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.

Education and Early Research

George Brownlee went to Dulwich College for his schooling. Later, he studied Natural Sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He earned a Master of Arts degree there.

In 1967, he completed his PhD. His research was about tiny building blocks of DNA and RNA called nucleotides. He worked with his supervisor, Fred Sanger, at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).

Career and Important Discoveries

From 1978 to 2008, Professor Brownlee worked at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. He was a Professor of Chemical Pathology there.

Helping Patients with Haemophilia B

Professor Brownlee made a big difference for people with Haemophilia B. This is a condition where blood does not clot properly. He was able to copy and produce a human protein called Factor IX. This protein helps blood clot.

Before his work, patients relied on Factor IX from donated blood. This could sometimes be risky. Brownlee's method created a safer, man-made source of this important protein.

With Merlin Crossley, he also studied a rare type of Haemophilia B called Haemophilia B Leyden. Children with this condition bleed a lot when they are young. But, they have fewer bleeding problems after they become teenagers.

They found out that two genetic mutations were causing this. These mutations stopped important proteins from attaching to the DNA. This turned off the gene that makes Factor IX. Understanding this helped explain why the bleeding problems changed over time.

Improving Flu Vaccines

Professor Brownlee also worked with Peter Palese and his team. They created a new way to study the influenza (flu) virus. This method is called reverse genetics.

This new system made it much faster to develop influenza vaccines. Faster vaccine development helps protect more people from the flu each year.

Writing About Science

In 2014, Professor Brownlee wrote a book about his former supervisor, Fred Sanger. Sanger was a famous scientist who won two Nobel Prizes.

Awards and Recognition

Professor Brownlee has received many important awards for his scientific work.

In 1976, he was given The Colworth Medal by the Biochemical Society. This award recognizes excellent work in biochemistry.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1987. Being a Fellow of the Royal Society is a very high honour for scientists in the UK.

In 1998, he was also elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci). He became an EMBO Member in 1979. EMBO is an organization that supports excellent researchers in life sciences.

See also

• Pseudogene (database)