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His career was interupted by the [[Second World War]] during which he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the [[Royal Engineers]] serving in Sicily and North Africa. In 1944 he was promoted to Major and transferred to the [[Royal Army Service Corps]] acting as a War Depatment analyst, based in [[Naples]] in [[Italy]].<ref>{{cite book|title=BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0 902 198 84 X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf}}</ref>
His career was interupted by the [[Second World War]] during which he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the [[Royal Engineers]] serving in Sicily and North Africa. In 1944 he was promoted to Major and transferred to the [[Royal Army Service Corps]] acting as a War Depatment analyst, based in [[Naples]] in [[Italy]].<ref>{{cite book|title=BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0 902 198 84 X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf}}</ref>


He moved to the [[University of Cambridge]] where he became [[Fred Sanger]]'s first [[PhD]] student.<ref name=sanger/> He was awarded his doctorate in 1948.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/477_33.html Britannica Information on Rodney Porter]</ref><ref>[http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1972/porter-bio.html Nobel Prize Biography of Rodney Porter]</ref>
After the war he moved to the [[University of Cambridge]] where he became [[Fred Sanger]]'s first [[PhD]] student.<ref name=sanger/> He was awarded his doctorate in 1948.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/477_33.html Britannica Information on Rodney Porter]</ref><ref>[http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1972/porter-bio.html Nobel Prize Biography of Rodney Porter]</ref>


==Career and research==
==Career and research==

Revision as of 14:41, 14 January 2018

Rodney Porter
Born
Rodney Robert Porter

(1917-10-08)8 October 1917
Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Died6 September 1985(1985-09-06) (aged 67)
NationalityEnglish
Alma mater
Known forChemical structure of antibodies
Awards
Scientific career
Fieldsbiochemistry
Institutions
ThesisThe free amino groups of proteins (1948)
Doctoral advisorFrederick Sanger[2]

Prof Rodney Robert Porter, CH, FRS[1] FRSE HFRCP (8 October 1917 – 6 September 1985) was a British biochemist[3][4] and Nobel laureate.[5][6][7]

Education and early life

He was born in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire, England, the son of Joseph Lawrence Porter, chief clerk of the Railway Carriage and Wagon Works in Earlston, and his wife, Isabel Mary Reese. He was educated at Ashton-in-Makerfield Grammar School.[8]

Rodney Robert Porter received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Liverpool in 1939 for Biochemistry.

His career was interupted by the Second World War during which he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers serving in Sicily and North Africa. In 1944 he was promoted to Major and transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps acting as a War Depatment analyst, based in Naples in Italy.[9]

After the war he moved to the University of Cambridge where he became Fred Sanger's first PhD student.[2] He was awarded his doctorate in 1948.[10][11]

Career and research

Porter worked for the National Institute for Medical Research for eleven years (1949–1960) before joining St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, Imperial College London and becoming the Pfizer Professor of Immunology. In 1967 he was appointed Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. His colleague Elizabeth Press (Betty Press) worked with him at NIMR, St Mary's and at Oxford contributing extensively to the work which led to the Nobel Prize.

Awards and honours

Porter was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1964.[1] He won the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1966.[citation needed] In 1972, Porter shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Gerald M. Edelman for determining the chemical structure of an antibody.[12][13][14][15][16] Using the enzyme papain, he broke the blood's immunoglobin into fragments, making them easier to study. He also looked into how the blood's immunoglobins react with cellular surfaces. He subsequently worked with colleagues Kenneth BM Reid, Robert Sim and Duncan Campbell on developing understanding of the Complement Proteins associated with defence against infection.

In 1991, Raymond Dwek founded the Oxford Glycobiology Institute at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford and this building was named after Porter as the Rodney Porter building.

Family

In 1948 he married Julia New.

Death

Porter died in a road accident at Winchester.

References

  1. ^ a b c Perry, S. V. (1987). "Rodney Robert Porter. 8 October 1917-6 September 1985". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 33: 445–89. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1987.0017. JSTOR 769960. PMID 11621436.
  2. ^ a b "Rodney Porter Memorial Lectures". Oxford: University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015.
  3. ^ Johnstone, A. P.; Kerr, M. A.; Turner, M. W. (1985). "Rodney Robert Porter (1917–1985)". Journal of Immunological Methods. 85 (1): 1–4. doi:10.1016/0022-1759(85)90268-6. PMID 3908556.
  4. ^ Steiner, L. A. (1985). "Rodney Robert Porter (1917–1985)". Nature. 317 (6036): 383. Bibcode:1985Natur.317..383S. doi:10.1038/317383a0. PMID 3900741.
  5. ^ Raju, T. N. (1999). "The Nobel chronicles. 1972: Gerald M Edelman (b 1929) and Rodney R Porter (1917-85)". Lancet. 354 (9183): 1040. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)76658-7. PMID 10501404.
  6. ^ Schlesinger, M. (1973). "The 1972 Nobel prize for medicine, G.M. Adelman and R.R. Porter". Harefuah. 84 (1): 41. PMID 4571222.
  7. ^ Harboe, M. (1972). "Nobel prize for immunoglobulin research". Tidsskrift for den Norske laegeforening : tidsskrift for praktisk medicin, ny raekke. 92 (34): 2363–2365. PMID 4568120.
  8. ^ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  9. ^ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  10. ^ Britannica Information on Rodney Porter
  11. ^ Nobel Prize Biography of Rodney Porter
  12. ^ Kyle, R A; Shampo M A (November 2000). "R.R. Porter—the 4-chain structure of immunoglobulin G". Mayo Clin. Proc. 75 (11): 1110. doi:10.4065/75.11.1110. PMID 11075737.
  13. ^ "Proceedings of the International Symposium on "The role and significance of international cooperation in the biomedical sciences." Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Rodney R. Porter. Washington, D.C., September 21–23, 1983". Perspect. Biol. Med. 29 (3 Pt 2): S1–229. 1986. PMID 3523420.
  14. ^ Small, P A (1985). "Rod Porter: his gifts to a young scientist". Biosci. Rep. 5 (10–11): 969–71. doi:10.1007/BF01119909. PMID 3913473.
  15. ^ Pasternak, C A (1985). "Rodney Robert Porter". Biosci. Rep. 5 (10–11): 809–13. doi:10.1007/BF01119892. PMID 3913470.
  16. ^ Pasternak, Charles A. (1985). "Special issue in memory of Rodney Porter". Biosci. Rep. 5 (10–11): 809–1014. doi:10.1007/bf01119892. PMID 3913469.
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