Hagan Bayley facts for kids

John Hagan Pryce Bayley, born on February 13, 1951, is a British scientist. He is a Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Oxford. He is well-known for his amazing work with tiny pores and machines.

Early Life and Education

Hagan Bayley went to schools like The King's School, Chester and Uppingham School. After that, he studied at Balliol College, Oxford. He then went to Harvard University, where he earned his PhD in 1979.

He was born in Wales. He spent a lot of his early career working in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Amazing Discoveries

Professor Bayley's research focuses on tiny holes, or 'pores,' found in the walls of cells. These are called transmembrane pore-forming proteins. He studies how these pores work and how to change them for new uses.

He is also interested in how cells send chemical messages. He explores how to create new materials using tiny biological parts.

Professor Bayley helped start a company called Oxford Nanopore Technologies. This company uses his ideas to create new technologies. One of his big achievements is using a protein called alpha haemolysin. He changed this protein to help sense very tiny things. This work is very important in the field of science.

His research has led to two major breakthroughs:

• Nanopore sequencing: This is a way to read the code of DNA and RNA very quickly. It uses tiny pores to identify the different parts of DNA as they pass through.
• Nanoreactors: These are like tiny factories. They use protein pores to do chemical reactions on single molecules. This allows scientists to study how molecules interact one by one.

Career Journey

After getting his PhD, Professor Bayley did more research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also worked at other universities. These included Columbia University, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Texas A&M University.

Since 2003, Professor Bayley has been working at the University of Oxford. He is also a fellow at Hertford College, Oxford.

Awards and Recognitions

In 2011, Professor Bayley was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK. His nomination highlighted his work at the meeting point of chemistry and biology. It praised his use of different scientific methods to understand how tiny channels and pores in cells work.

His work showed how protein pores can be used as "nanoreactors." These tiny reactors can examine single molecules. This led to new ways of detecting and identifying different substances.

In 2012, he was also elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

The Science Council in the UK recognized him in 2014. They named him "one of the UK's 100 leading practising scientists."