Azim_Surani

Azim Surani

Azim Surani

Kenyan-British developmental biologist

Azim Surani CBE FRS FMedSci[1] (born 1945 in Kisumu, Kenya) is a Kenyan-British developmental biologist who has been Marshall–Walton Professor at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge since 1992, and Director of Germline and Epigenomics Research since 2013.[4][5]

Quick Facts Born, Alma mater ...

Education

Surani was educated at Plymouth University (BSc),[when?] the University of Strathclyde (MSc)[6] and the University of Cambridge (PhD) where his research was supervised by Robert Edwards, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[1][6][7]

Career and research

Surani co-discovered mammalian genomic imprinting with Davor Solter[8] in 1984, and subsequently examined its mechanism and the functions of imprinted genes.[1] He later established the genetic basis for germ cell specification, using a single-cell analysis in mice.[1] This genetic network also initiates the unique resetting of the germline epigenome, including comprehensive erasure of DNA methylation towards re-establishing full genomic potency.[1] Epigenetic modifications and re-establishments of imprints then generate functional differences between parental genomes whilst aberrant imprints contribute to human disease.[1]

Surani's research is identifying key regulators of human germ line development and epigenome reprogramming, revealing differences between humans and mice attributable to their divergent pluripotent states and early postimplantation development.[1] He is also investigating transposable elements, host defence mechanisms, noncoding RNAs, and the potential for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in mammals.[1]

Awards and honours

Surani has received several awards for his work including the Royal Medal (2010), the Gabor Medal (2001) and the Mendel Lectures (2010).[citation needed] He received the Canada Gairdner International Award, with Davor Solter, "For the discovery of mammalian genomic imprinting that causes parent-of-origin specific gene expression and its consequences for development and disease."[9] He won the Rosenstiel Award in 2006, with Solter and Mary Lyon, for "pioneering work on epigenetic gene regulation in mammalian embryos".[10]

References

  1. [1]
    "Professor Azim Surani". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. 1990. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --"Terms, conditions and policies | Royal Society". Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. [2]
    Arney, Katharine Luisa (2002). Epigenetic modification in the mouse zygote and regulation of imprinted genes (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 894595629.
  3. [3]
    Ferguson-Smith, A. C.; Cattanach, B. M.; Barton, S. C.; Beechey, C. V.; Surani, M. A. (1991). "Embryological and molecular investigations of parental imprinting on mouse chromosome 7". Nature. 351 (6328): 667–670. Bibcode:1991Natur.351..667F. doi:10.1038/351667a0. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 2052093. S2CID 4233463. Closed access icon
  4. [4]
    Azim Surani publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  5. [5]
    "Azim Surani — The Gurdon Institute". Gurdon.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  6. [6]
    McFarlane, Alan (2009). "Azim Surani interviewed by Alan Macfarlane". alanmacfarlane.com. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
  7. [7]
    Surani, M. A. H. (1975). Modulation of Implanting Rat Blastocysts to Macromolecular Secretions of the Uterus. ethos.bl.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 500574338.
  8. [8]
    Anne C. Ferguson-Smith; Deborah Bourc'his (2018). "The discovery and importance of genomic imprinting". eLife. 7: e42368. doi:10.7554/eLife.42368. PMC 6197852. PMID 30343680.
  9. [9]
    "Gairdner Awards 2018 Laureates | Gairdner Foundation". Gairdner Foundation. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  10. [10]
    "Past Winners". Brandeis University. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Azim_Surani, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.