Robert B. Mellor (born in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, UK) is a British scientist probably best known for his 1989 "unified vacuole theory", although also made significant contributions to environmental technology and to our understanding of the workings of the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Unified vacuole theory
The theory states that in plant
endosymbioses, the micro-symbiont and the macro-symbiont generally share their lytic
vacuolar
A vacuole () is a membrane-bound organelle which is present in Plant cell, plant and Fungus, fungal Cell (biology), cells and some protist, animal, and bacterial cells. Vacuoles are essentially enclosed compartments which are filled with water ...
compartments. This stems from Mellor's earlier 1988
symbiosome
A symbiosome is a specialised compartment in a host cell that houses an endosymbiont in a symbiotic relationship.
The term was first used in 1983 to describe the vacuole structure in the symbiosis between the animal host the '' Hydra'', and the en ...
(or "symbiosome is a lysosome") theory, which states that the organelle that microsymbionts inhabit partially takes over the
lysosomal
A lysosome () is a membrane-bound organelle found in many animal Cell (biology), cells. They are spherical Vesicle (biology and chemistry), vesicles that contain Hydrolysis, hydrolytic enzymes that can break down many kinds of biomolecules. A ly ...
functions in these plant cells. These plant cells are analogous to the role of protein bodies in seeds, in particular that the
rhizobia
Rhizobia are diazotrophic bacteria that fix nitrogen after becoming established inside the root nodules of legumes (Fabaceae). To express genes for nitrogen fixation, rhizobia require a plant host; they cannot independently fix nitrogen. In gene ...
l
symbiosome
A symbiosome is a specialised compartment in a host cell that houses an endosymbiont in a symbiotic relationship.
The term was first used in 1983 to describe the vacuole structure in the symbiosis between the animal host the '' Hydra'', and the en ...
is an organ-specific form of lysosome or
vacuole
A vacuole () is a membrane-bound organelle which is present in plant and fungal cells and some protist, animal, and bacterial cells. Vacuoles are essentially enclosed compartments which are filled with water containing inorganic and organic mo ...
in
legume
A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...
root nodule
Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, primarily legumes, that form a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Under nitrogen-limiting conditions, capable plants form a symbiotic relationship with a host-specific strain of bacteria known a ...
s.
The Marburg and Basel Years (plant biology)
Mellor was interested in how plants distinguish between symbiotic and pathogenic infections. In 1984, he set about measuring defence responses including
Phytoalexin
Phytoalexins are antimicrobial substances, some of which are antioxidative as well. They are defined, not by their having any particular chemical structure or character, but by the fact that they are defensively synthesized ''de novo'' by plants t ...
and
Chitinase
Chitinases (EC 3.2.1.14, chitodextrinase, 1,4-β-poly-N-acetylglucosaminidase, poly-β-glucosaminidase, β-1,4-poly-N-acetyl glucosamidinase, poly ,4-(N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminide)glycanohydrolase, (1→4)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-D-glucan glycano ...
in nodules infected with different
rhizobia
Rhizobia are diazotrophic bacteria that fix nitrogen after becoming established inside the root nodules of legumes (Fabaceae). To express genes for nitrogen fixation, rhizobia require a plant host; they cannot independently fix nitrogen. In gene ...
l mutants. Gradually, he observed that in Rhizobia, the nod genes are responsible for producing different
nod factor
Nod factors (nodulation factors or NF), are signaling molecules produced by soil bacteria known as rhizobia in response to flavonoid exudation from plants under nitrogen limited conditions. Nod factors initiate the establishment of a symbiotic re ...
s (lipo-chitin molecules). Among many other effects he also observed that they can provoke plant defence responses, so that it is essential that these genes be switched off after infection, or symbiosis could not take place. This model won general acclaim, and the paper with David Collinge was later reprinted (Mellor and Collinge, 1995) as that year’s number one most important publication in the area of Plant Sciences.
In other works, Mellor has claimed that in
legume
A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...
s the
root nodule
Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, primarily legumes, that form a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Under nitrogen-limiting conditions, capable plants form a symbiotic relationship with a host-specific strain of bacteria known a ...
cytoplasm may be under water stress and the plant may combat this by using the bacterial/fungal (in the case of vesicular
arbuscular mycorrhiza
An arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) (plural ''mycorrhizae'', a.k.a. ''endomycorrhiza'') is a type of mycorrhiza in which the symbiont fungus (''AM fungi'', or AMF) penetrates the cortical cells of the roots of a vascular plant forming arbuscules. (N ...
) disaccharide sugar
trehalose
Trehalose (from Turkish '' tıgala'' – a sugar derived from insect cocoons + -ose) is a sugar consisting of two molecules of glucose. It is also known as mycose or tremalose. Some bacteria, fungi, plants and invertebrate animals synthesize it ...
. The concept has been repeatedly confirmed, and this effect explains why nodulated plants have a higher
drought tolerance
Drought tolerance is the ability to which a plant maintains its biomass production during arid or drought conditions. Some plants are naturally adapted to dry conditions'','' surviving with protection mechanisms such as desiccation tolerance, detox ...
than non-nodulated plants.
The Göttingen Years (environmental nanotech)
Mellor was also interested in
applied science
Applied science is the use of the scientific method and knowledge obtained via conclusions from the method to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted ...
, and after leaving the University of Basel he became director of research and development at a German chemical company. There he led the group that invented and patented a system to power immobilized oxido-reductase enzymes and artificial co-factors using
electrical power
Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions of ...
from a domestic socket. Twenty-five years later, the authors Eltarahony et al. stated in their round-up review paper that "... Mellor et al.
992
Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Worldwide
* Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as fa ...
pioneered the concept of current promotion, electrode bioreactor and denitrification control, this concept,
s now
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''.
History ...
widely used to treat different types of wastewater, such as toxic and refractory organic wastewater as well as wastewater containing heavy metal ions" helping to provide clean water for millions of people globally.
The London Years (computing and maths)
In early 2000, Mellor joined and helped
start-up
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
IT the University of Copenhagen, alongside
Mads Tofte
Mads Tofte (born 20 April 1959) is a Danish computer scientist who has contributed in particular to functional programming and the Standard ML programming language.
Education
Tofte was born in Lyngby, Denmark and grew up in Holbæk, Denmark. H ...
and others. In 2005 he became Director of Enterprise at Kingston University, London, (and quadrupling enterprise income) in Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics while teaching the mathematical modelling of business processes and knowledge management at MSc level. Mellor, influenced by
Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the Joh ...
, realized that econometric methods can be used to quantify the value of knowledge management. His breakthrough computer modelling resulted in a complete explanation of the developmental lifecycle of SMEs (
small and medium-sized enterprises
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...
), firstly in his 2011 book and then later expanded upon in his 2018 publication, "Big Data Modelling the Knowledge Economy".
He runs a Masters programme around IT Consultancy, as well as a select "
Big Data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
" research group engaged with modelling organizations, especially
Science Park
A science park (also called a "university research park", "technology park”, "technopark", “technopole", or a "science and technology park" (STP)) is defined as being a property-based development that accommodates and fosters the growt ...
s, in the context of
regional development
Regional development is a broad term but can be seen as a general effort to reduce regional disparities by supporting (employ) economin regions. In the past, regional development policy tended to try to achieve these objectives by means developmen ...
.
Most recently, working together with Matthias Georg Will, an econometric computer model was developed which explains why, in modern business environments, flat organizations can only exist if employees are able to competently evaluate incoming innovations and their judgement is accepted by their managers, a situation typified by the successful tech firms.
Works
R. B. Mellor PhD DSc, is the author of over 100 scientific publications in journals, as well as eleven books, several of which have been translated into other languages. His impact factor (h-Index) is 26, putting him well into the top decile (10%) of all researchers worldwide and in the top 20 researchers in computer modelling. He is an active consultant with over twelve years of industrial experience, and he lectures at postgraduate level on subjects like ‘information systems and econometrics’, ‘mathematical knowledge management’, ‘strategic innovation’, and ‘tech entrepreneurship’. He has received many international prizes for his work and ideas, and in 2020, he became a member of the advisor pool to the UK Government Office for Science on post-COVID-19 needs.
Personal life
Keen on outdoor activities, R. B. Mellor has cycled across most of Europe; in the 1970's with his friend
John Jowett
John D. Jowett is an English Shakespeare scholar and editor. He is the Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham and Deputy Director of the Shakespeare Institute.
Born in Lancashire, England, Jowett took his BA and MA at ...
he traversed Scotland on foot and also in 1980 co-wrote "The Pennine Way Pub Guide" (with John Jowett and Paul Wilson). He has climbed most of the central
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
and in the 80's and 90's was occasional guide ('bergführer') for the Alpine Association (Alpenverein) in the
Dolomites
The Dolomites ( it, Dolomiti ; Ladin: ''Dolomites''; german: Dolomiten ; vec, Dołomiti : fur, Dolomitis), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. They form par ...
and Austrian
Eastern Alps
Eastern Alps is the name given to the eastern half of the Alps, usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley up to the Splügen Pass at the Alpine divide and down the Liro River to Lake Como in the ...
. Always interested in music, he added support to the Danish
Soca music
Soca music is a genre of music defined by Lord Shorty, its inventor, as the "Soul of Calypso", which has influences of African and East Indian rhythms. It was originally spelt "sokah" by its inventor but through an error in a local newspaper ...
band Tropicats on their 1995 CD "Lets go Bananas". He holds an enhanced certificate for working with children and the vulnerable, and can often be found holding careers talks etc. in local schools and colleges.
Articles
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Books
*1996: ''The Nodulation of Legumes''. DSR forlag. OCLC 1124029713.
*''2001: ASP: Learning by Example.'' Franklin Beedle. .
*''2002: DHTML: Learning by Example.'' Franklin Beedle. .
*''2003: XML: Learning by Example''. Franklin Beedle. .
*''2008: Entrepreneurship for Everyone.'' Sage. .
*''2011: Knowledge Management and Information Systems.''
Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...
. .
*''2019: Management for Scientists.'
Emerald Publishing Limited
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mellor, Robert B.
English biologists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)