Alec Jeffreys

Sir Alec Jeffreys, John ( born January 9, 1950 in Luton, Bedfordshire ) is a British geneticist. He developed the genetic fingerprint.

Life

Alec John Jeffreys soon developed an interest in science, which was funded by his parents. At eight, he received his first chemistry set, later a brass microscope. After finishing school, Jeffreys studied biochemistry at the University of Oxford. After his PhD he spent some time at the University of Amsterdam. Since 1977 he worked at Leicester University.

On September 10, 1984, he discovered the genetic fingerprint of what he described as his eureka moment today. He researched at minisatellite, hypervariable DNA regions in the human genome. Even if he was not interested in developing a genetic fingerprint, but blood samples of various family members next to each examined in this minisatellite, he immediately recognized the reach of its discovery. The image of the minisatellite family members made ​​him realize that they can be assigned as a bar code of each individual person, but can be read even family relationships. Even today, each based genetic fingerprint to crime scene information and any paternity test on the variation discovered by him. Since this breakthrough Jeffreys research still on the variation in the human genome, and especially about how this variation comes about and passed down from generation to generation.

His research has helped to Jeffreys numerous awards. Among other things, he was defeated by Queen Elizabeth knighted in 1994. Other awards include the William Allan Award (1992 ) and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, which he received in 1996. In 2004 he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, in 2005 with the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

Jeffreys is married and has two grown daughters and two grandchildren. In the summer of Jeffreys is often found in his hut Surfing in Cornwall, England, where he passionately his hobby of surfing pursues.