(2001) Timothy Hunt
Sir Richard Timothy Hunt, FRS FMedSci FRSE MAE (born 19 February 1943) is a British biochemist and molecular physiologist. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland H. Hartwell for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division of cells. While studying fertilized sea urchin eggs in the early 1980s, Hunt discovered cyclin, a protein that cyclically aggregates and is depleted during cell division cycles.
Early life and education
Hunt was born on 19 February 1943 in Neston, Cheshire.At the age of eight, Hunt was accepted into the Dragon School, where he first developed an interest in biology thanks to his science teacher, the German educator Gerd Sommerhoff. When he was fourteen, he moved to Magdalen College School, Oxford, becoming even more interested in science and studying subjects such as chemistry and zoology.
In 1961, he was accepted into Clare College, Cambridge to study Natural Sciences, graduating in 1964 and immediately beginning work in the university Department of Biochemistry under Asher Korner. Following his PhD, Hunt returned to New York to work with London, in collaboration with Nechama Kosower, her husband Edward Kosower, and Ellie Ehrenfeld. While there, they discovered that tiny amounts of glutathione inhibited protein synthesis in reticulocytes and that tiny amounts of RNA killed the synthesis altogether. After returning to Cambridge, he again began work with Tony Hunter and Richard Jackson, who had discovered the RNA strand used to start haemoglobin synthesis. After 3–4 years, the team discovered at least two other chemicals acting as inhibitors.
