Kim Nasmyth facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kim Nasmyth FRS FMedSci
Nasmyth in 2017
Born	Kim Ashley Nasmyth (1952-10-10) 10 October 1952 (age 72)
Nationality	British
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	University of York (BSc) University of Edinburgh (PhD)
Known for	Cohesin
Spouse(s)	Anna Dowson ​ (m. 1982)​
Children	Two
Awards	EMBO Member (1985) Wittgenstein-Preis (1999) Gairdner Foundation International Award (2007) Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1997) Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2018)
Scientific career
Fields	molecular biology, gene regulation, cell cycle control
Institutions	University of Oxford Research Institute of Molecular Pathology
Thesis	DNA replication in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (1977)
Doctoral advisor	Murdoch Mitchison
Notable students	Anton Gartner Angelika Amon Andrea Brand

Kim Ashley Nasmyth (born 18 October 1952) is an English scientist who studies genetics. He is famous for his work on how chromosomes separate when a cell divides. This is a very important process for all living things, including humans.

His discoveries have helped us understand how our bodies grow and stay healthy. He worked as a professor at the University of Oxford and was the director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Austria.

Early Life and Schooling

Kim Nasmyth was born in London, England, in 1952. His father, Jan Nasmyth, was a successful businessman who founded a large company called Argus Media.

Nasmyth went to Eton College and later studied Biology at the University of York. For his advanced studies, called a PhD, he went to the University of Edinburgh. There, he worked with a scientist named Murdoch Mitchison.

His research focused on how DNA copies itself in a type of yeast called fission yeast. Scientists often study simple organisms like yeast to learn about processes that also happen in human cells.

Scientific Career and Discoveries

Kim Nasmyth uses a climbing rope to explain how chromosomes are organized.

This drawing shows how the cohesin complex (the ring) holds two sister DNA strands together.

After finishing his PhD, Nasmyth moved to Seattle in the United States for more research. There, he learned new ways to find and copy genes in yeast. This work helped him and another scientist clone an important gene called CDC28, which helps control when a cell divides.

Studying Genes in Cambridge

Later, as a research leader in Cambridge, England, Nasmyth became interested in how yeast cells can switch their "mating type," which is similar to changing gender. He discovered that yeast has "silent" copies of genes that are turned off.

This was a big deal because it was one of the first times scientists saw that a gene's location on a chromosome could affect whether it was on or off. This is called the position effect.

Major Breakthroughs in Vienna

In 1986, Nasmyth was invited to work at the new Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria. There, he returned to studying the cell cycle, which is the life of a cell from one division to the next.

In the mid-1990s, his team made two huge discoveries:

• They found a group of proteins called the Anaphase-promoting complex (APC/C). This complex acts like a switch that tells a cell it's time for the chromosomes to separate.
• They discovered the genes for a protein complex called cohesin. Nasmyth showed that cohesin acts like a molecular glue, forming a ring that holds copied chromosomes together.

This was a major step in understanding how cells make sure that when they divide, each new cell gets a perfect copy of the DNA. He figured out that another protein, called separase, cuts the cohesin ring to release the chromosomes at just the right moment.

Work at Oxford University

In 2006, Nasmyth became the head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. He continued to lead a research group there, studying how cells work. He retired from research in 2022.

Awards and Honors

Nasmyth has won many important awards for his scientific work. These awards recognize his major contributions to our understanding of biology.

Personal Life

In 1982, Nasmyth married Anna Dowson. They have two daughters. His younger brother, Luke Hughes, is a furniture designer.

Nasmyth enjoys hobbies like skiing and climbing. He has said that thinking about climbing helped him come up with his idea of how the cohesin ring works. He also co-owns a vineyard in the south of France.