Education
Sharp was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 followed by a PhD in 1982 for research using quantitative genetics on the Drosophila melanogaster, fruit fly ''Drosophila melanogaster'' supervised by Alan Robertson (geneticist), Alan Robertson.Career and research
Sharp has held academic posts at Trinity College, Dublin from 1982 to 1993, the University of Nottingham from 1993 to 2007 and was appointed Professor at the University of Edinburgh in 2007. Sharp's research investigates the evolutionary origin of bacteria and viruses. He has carried out important work into the origin of HIV and its transmission from chimpanzees to humans. He also discovered that the human malaria parasite, ''Plasmodium'', originated in gorillas. He was one of the first researchers to use DNA sequence databases to gain insight into evolutionary processes. His work amplifying DNA from Common chimpanzee, chimpanzee feces, faecal samples showed that Subtypes of HIV, HIV type 1 was transmitted to humans from a specific chimp population in West Africa in the early 20th century. Paul went on to examine his collection of ape faecal samples for ''plasmodium'' parasites, finding a likely candidate for the form that causes malaria in humans. In the eighties, Sharp collaborated with Desmond G. Higgins during the creation of Clustal, CLUSTAL, a suite of multiple sequence alignment programs that have become widely used and highly influential. His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). His former doctoral students include Kenneth H. Wolfe.Awards and honours
Sharp was elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 1992, and was President of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. He was elected member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1993, a Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2010 and a List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 2013, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:Personal life
Sharps's entry in ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'' lists his recreations as hiking, hill walking, pteridology and, since 1967, supporting Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest Football Club.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Paul Martin Living people 1957 births British bioinformaticians Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Royal Irish Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization