Wendy Anne Bickmore (born 28 July 1961) is a British

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

known for her research on the organisation of genomic material in cells.

Early life and education

Bickmore was born at

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the ...

on 28 July 1961 to Beryl and Keith Bickmore. She was educated at

Chichester High School For Girls Chichester High School (CHS) is an 11–18 Mixed-sex education, mixed, secondary school and sixth form with Academy (English school), academy status in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It was established in September 2016 following the merger ...

and obtained an undergraduate

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

from 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 ...

and her PhD from 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 ...

for research analysing

nucleic acid sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of Nucleobase, bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequence ...

s from the

Y chromosome The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abse ...

of humans supervised by Howard Cooke and

Adrian Bird Sir Adrian Peter Bird, (born 3 July 1947) is a British geneticist and Buchanan Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh. Bird has spent much of his academic career in Edinburgh, from receiving his PhD in 1970 to working at the MRC ...

Career

Bickmore’s interest in science began as a teen being influenced by her biology teacher and her parents who were keen amateur gardeners. Her interest in biochemistry was confirmed having read ‘The Chemistry of Life’ by Steven Rose and she went on to study

at university. Her Ph.D. research examined DNA sequences from the Y chromosome in humans. She was an independent fellow at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine from 1991 until 1996.

Research and career

Her work has focused on how DNA,

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

s and specific

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s are organised and packaged in the

cell nucleus The cell nucleus (pl. nuclei; from Latin or , meaning ''kernel'' or ''seed'') is a membrane-bound organelle found in eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells usually have a single nucleus, but a few cell types, such as mammalian red blood cells, h ...

, how this process is regulated during development to facilitate the expression of genes, and how aberrant genome organisation is linked to disease. In 2020, she was recognized for her research examining the likelihood that people will develop serious symptoms of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

disease. Bickmore was president of The Genetics Society from 2015 until 2018. As of 2021, she is director of the

MRC Human Genetics Unit The Medical Research Council (UK) Human Genetics Unit is situated at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. It is one of the largest MRC research establishments, housing over two hundred scientists, support staff, research fellows, PhD stude ...

at the

.Wendy Bickmore Wendy Bickmore She is a member of the editorial board for '' Genes & Development''.

Selected publications

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Awards and honours

Bickmore was awarded EMBO Membership in 2001, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2005 and elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2005 (FMedSci). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017. She was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

for services to biomedical sciences and women in science.

Personal life

She is a member of the organisation Trees for Life which is working to restore the forest in the Highlands of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bickmore, Wendy Anne 1961 births 20th-century British biologists 21st-century British biologists 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British women scientists Academics of the University of Edinburgh British women biologists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Female Fellows of the Royal Society Living people Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Commanders of the Order of the British Empire