Kim Ashley Nasmyth (born 18 October 1952) is an English geneticist, the
Whitley Professor of Biochemistry
The position of Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford is one of the permanent chairs of the university, and the first in the field of biochemistry at the university. It is associated with a fellowship at Trinity College, Oxf ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, a Fellow of
Trinity College, Oxford
(That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody)
, named_for = The Holy Trinity
, established =
, sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge
, president = Dame Hilary Boulding
, location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH
, coordinates ...
, former scientific director of the
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology
The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a biomedical research center, which conducts curiosity-driven basic research in the molecular life sciences.
The IMP is located at the Vienna Biocenter in Vienna, Austria. The institute emplo ...
(IMP), and former head of the
Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford
The Department of Biochemistry of Oxford University is located in the Science Area in Oxford, England. It is one of the largest biochemistry departments in Europe. The Biochemistry Department is part of the University of Oxford's Medical Scien ...
. He is best known for his work on the segregation of chromosomes during cell division.
Early life and education
Nasmyth was born in London in 1952 of James Ashley (Jan) Nasmyth and Jenny Hughes. His father Jan was doubly descended from King Charles II and founder of the billion dollar publishing company
Argus Media
Argus (formerly known as Petroleum Argus Ltd) is an independent provider of price information, consultancy services, conferences, market data and business intelligence for the global petroleum, natural gas, electricity, emissions, biofuels, bi ...
. He attended
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
, Berkshire, then the
University of York
, mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £8.0 million
, budget = £403.6 million
, chancellor = Heather Melville
, vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery
, students ...
, where he studied Biology. Nasmyth went on to complete his graduate studies in the group of
Murdoch Mitchison
The Honounorable John Murdoch Mitchison FRS, FRSE (11 June 1922, Oxford – 17 March 2011, Edinburgh) was a British zoologist.
Background
Family
Mitchison was the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi ...
at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
. Here he worked on the cell cycle alongside
Paul Nurse
Sir Paul Maxime Nurse (born 25 January 1949) is an English geneticist, former President of the Royal Society and Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along ...
and his PhD thesis focused on the control of DNA replication in
fission yeast
''Schizosaccharomyces pombe'', also called "fission yeast", is a species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a model organism in molecular and cell biology. It is a unicellular eukaryote, whose cells are rod-shaped. Cells typically measu ...
. In Mitchison's lab he made substantial contributions to the study of the cell cycle in fission yeast isolating and characterising cell cycle mutants and the first identification of a gene product (
DNA ligase
DNA ligase is a specific type of enzyme, a ligase, () that facilitates the joining of DNA strands together by catalyzing the formation of a phosphodiester bond. It plays a role in repairing single-strand breaks in duplex DNA in living organ ...
) in these mutants.
Career and research
Nasmyth joined Ben Hall's lab in Seattle as a
postdoctoral researcher
A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...
where he developed ways of cloning genes by complementation in yeast and, in collaboration with Steve Reed, cloned the ''
CDC28
Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 also known as CDK1 or cell division cycle protein 2 homolog is a highly conserved protein that functions as a serine/threonine protein kinase, and is a key player in cell cycle regulation. It has been highly studied in th ...
'' gene from the budding yeast ''
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' () (brewer's yeast or baker's yeast) is a species of yeast (single-celled fungus microorganisms). The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have been o ...
''.
As a group leader in Cambridge Nasmyth became interested in the phenomenon of mating-type switching in yeast. Together with Kelly Tatchell he cloned the ''S. cerevisiae'' mating-type locus and found, surprisingly, that 'silent' copies of the mating-type genes including their promoters are maintained in the yeast chromosome. This represented the first case where the position of a gene in the chromosome had demonstrable biological significance, and prompted Nasmyth to abandon work on the cell cycle for a time and concentrate instead on studying gene silencing. He was one of the first to demonstrate that gene expression can be regulated through specific control elements which are distant from the start of transcription.
Max Birnstiel
Max Luciano Birnstiel (12 July 1933 – 15 November 2014) was a Swiss molecular biologist who held a number of positions in scientific leadership in Europe, including the chair of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich from ...
invited Nasmyth to join him at the then newly founded
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology
The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a biomedical research center, which conducts curiosity-driven basic research in the molecular life sciences.
The IMP is located at the Vienna Biocenter in Vienna, Austria. The institute emplo ...
(IMP) in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, where he was director. Nasmyth became one of the first three senior group leaders that Birnstiel recruited in 1986. At the IMP, Nasmyth changed his focus from gene silencing back to cell cycle control. In the mid-1990s Nasmyth co-discovered the
APC/C
Anaphase-promoting complex (also called the cyclosome or APC/C) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that marks target cell cycle proteins for degradation by the 26S proteasome. The APC/C is a large complex of 11–13 subunit proteins, including a cullin ...
and showed that its activity induces chromosome segregation. Using temperature-sensitive mutants of the APC/C he found several genes which are required for sister chromatid cohesion which we now know encode subunits of the cohesin complex. Nasmyth has since shown that cohesin forms a ring, that sister chromatids are held together within this ring and that they are released by cleavage of cohesin by
separase
Separase, also known as separin, is a cysteine protease responsible for triggering anaphase by hydrolysing cohesin, which is the protein responsible for binding sister chromatids during the early stage of anaphase. In humans, separin is encoded ...
. Following Max Birnstiel's retirement, Nasmyth became scientific director of the IMP in 1997.
In 2006, Nasmyth left the IMP to become head of the Department of Biochemistry of the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, a post he held until 2011. Nasmyth continues to head a research group at this department. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the
Campaign for Science and Engineering
The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is a non-profit organisation that is the UK's leading independent advocate for science and engineering. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based e ...
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...
, and
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...
. He plans to retire from research in 2022.
Awards and honours
Nasmyth has also been awarded the following:
* 1985 Member of the
European Molecular Biology Organization
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...
Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine
Established in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prizes are funded by the ''Fondation Louis-Jeantet'' and awarded each year to experienced researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of biomedical research in one of the member states of t ...
* 1999
Wittgenstein-Preis
The Wittgenstein Award (german: Wittgenstein-Preis) is an Austrian science award supporting the notion that "scientists should be guaranteed the greatest possible freedom and flexibility in the performance of their research." The prize money of up ...
* 1999 Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
* 2002 Croonian lecture/Medal of the Royal Society
* 2003 Boveri award for Molecular Cancer Genetics
* 2007
Gairdner Foundation International Award
The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a p ...
* 2009 Elected a
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) is an award for medical scientists who are judged by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences for the "excellence of their science, their contribution to medicine and society and the range of th ...
(FMedSci)
* 2018
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is a scientific award, funded by internet entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook; Sergey Brin of Google; entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, one of the ...
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences 2018 /ref>
Personal life
Nasmyth married Anna Dowson, daughter of Sir
Philip Dowson
Sir Philip Henry Manning Dowson (16 August 1924 – 22 August 2014) was a leading British architect. He served as President of the Royal Academy from 1993 to 1999.
Early life
Philip Dowson was born in South Africa. Having moved to England, he ...
, in 1982 and has two daughters. His younger brother is furniture designer, Luke Hughes. He enjoys skiing and climbing, a hobby to which he attributes his theory of how cohesin works. He also co-owns a vinyard in the south of France. Nasmyth held a large number of shares in his fathers billion dollar company
Argus Media
Argus (formerly known as Petroleum Argus Ltd) is an independent provider of price information, consultancy services, conferences, market data and business intelligence for the global petroleum, natural gas, electricity, emissions, biofuels, bi ...
until its purchase by General Atlantic in 2016. In 2014 he was appointed director of Badger Lane Management company. During his time in Vienna, Nasmyth became Austrian
citizen
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...