Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner conducted important work on the genetic code and other areas of molecular biology while working at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He used the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to study developmental biology. Additionally, he founded the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, California, United States.
Education and early life
Brenner was born on January 13, 1927, in the town of Germiston, which was then part of the Transvaal (now part of Gauteng), South Africa. His parents, Leah (née Blecher) and Morris Brenner, were Jewish immigrants. His father, a cobbler, moved to South Africa from Lithuania in 1910, and his mother came from Riga, Latvia, in 1922. He had one sister, Phyllis, and one brother, Isaac.
Brenner studied at Germiston High School and the University of the Witwatersrand. He joined the university at age 15. During his second year, it was noted that he would be too young to qualify for medical practice after completing his six-year medical course. He was allowed to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Anatomy and Physiology instead. During this time, he studied physical chemistry with Joel Mandelstam, microscopy with Alfred Oettle, and neurology with Harold Daitz. He also learned about anthropology and paleontology from Raymond Dart and Robert Broom. Joseph Gillman, a histologist and director of research in the Anatomy Department, encouraged Brenner to pursue an honours degree and later an MSc. Brenner agreed, even though this meant he would not graduate from medical school and his financial support would end. He supported himself by working as a laboratory technician. In 1945, Brenner published his first scientific works. His master’s thesis focused on cytogenetics, and his publications during this time were in an area he later called Cell Physiology.
In 1946, Wilfred Le Gros Clark invited Brenner to join the Department of Anatomy at Oxford University during a visit to South Africa. Brenner decided to complete his medical education instead. He returned to medical school, where he failed Medicine, nearly failed Surgery, and earned a First Class in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Six months later, he repeated Medicine and Surgery and received the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBCh) in 1951.
Brenner received an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. This scholarship allowed him to earn a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at the University of Oxford as a postgraduate student at Exeter College, Oxford, under the guidance of Cyril Hinshelwood.
Career and research
After earning his doctorate, Brenner completed postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley. He then worked for 20 years at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. During the 1960s, he helped advance molecular biology, a field that was still developing. In 1976, he joined the Salk Institute in California.
In April 1953, Brenner and several scientists, including Jack Dunitz, Dorothy Hodgkin, Leslie Orgel, and Beryl M. Oughton, saw the first model of DNA’s structure, created by Francis Crick and James Watson. At that time, all of them worked in the Chemistry Department at the University of Oxford. They were all impressed by the model, especially Brenner, who later worked with Crick at the Cavendish Laboratory and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Beryl Oughton later recalled that they traveled to Cambridge together in two cars after Dorothy Hodgkin announced their trip.
In the 1960s, Brenner made important contributions to molecular biology. He proved that overlapping genetic coding sequences could not exist, which helped separate how genes function from their physical structure. This idea led Francis Crick to propose the concept of a molecule (later called transfer RNA or tRNA) that carries genetic information from RNA to proteins. Brenner introduced the term "adaptor hypothesis" in 1955. The separation of the anticodon and amino acid on tRNA explains how information flows one way in biological systems, known as the central dogma of molecular biology: information moves from nucleic acids to proteins, not the other way around.
In 1960, Brenner and others discovered messenger RNA, which carries genetic instructions from DNA to proteins. Later that year, Brenner, along with François Jacob and Matthew Meselson, proved messenger RNA’s existence. In 1961, Brenner and others showed that the genetic code uses three nucleotides to specify one amino acid, a discovery that revealed frameshift mutations. In 1964, Brenner and others used amber mutants in bacteriophage T4D to confirm that gene sequences match the order of amino acids in proteins.
Along with other scientists, Brenner’s work helped decode the triplet nature of the genetic code, which was essential for understanding how genes function. Years later, Barnett helped set up Brenner’s laboratory in Singapore.
Brenner and George Pieczenik developed the first computer analysis of nucleic acids using TRAC. Later, Brenner and others studied how mRNA and tRNA evolved together, creating a model for protein synthesis that did not require a ribosome. This paper included three Nobel laureates as authors, making it a rare scientific work.
Brenner then focused on using the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to study animal development, including the nervous system. He chose this 1-millimeter worm because it is simple, easy to grow, and useful for genetic studies. By identifying worms with defects, such as uncoordinated movement, Brenner helped discover proteins like the UNC proteins. For this work, Brenner shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston. He called the worm “Nature’s Gift to Science” in his Nobel lecture, highlighting its importance for research.
In 1996, Brenner founded the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, California. As of 2015, he was affiliated with the Salk Institute, the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, the Singapore Biomedical Research Council, the Janelia Farm Research Campus, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2005, he became president of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. He also served on the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute and was a professor of genetics there. A biography of Brenner was published in 2010 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Brenner wrote a popular column titled “Loose Ends” for Current Biology, which was later compiled into a book. He also wrote A Life in Science, published by BioMed Central. He was known for sharing ideas and inspiring many students and colleagues.
In 2017, Brenner co-organized a lecture series in Singapore that explored ten logarithmic scales of time, from the Big Bang to the present. Prominent scientists like W. Brian Arthur and Svante Pääbo participated. The lectures were later published as a book titled Sydney Brenner’s 10-on-10: The Chronicles of Evolution.
Brenner also gave lectures on molecular biology’s history, its impact on neuroscience, and future scientific questions. These lectures were adapted into a book titled In the Spirit of Science: Lectures by Sydney Brenner on DNA, Worms and Brains.
Brenner proposed two models for how brain cells determine their functions: the “American plan” and the “European plan.” According to the European plan, a cell’s function is determined by its genetic background. According to the American plan, a cell’s function depends on its neighbors after migration. Later research showed that most species use a mix of these methods to transfer information to new cells.
Personal life
Brenner was married to May Brenner (born as Covitz, later known as Balkind) from December 1952 until her death in January 2010. They had children named Belinda, Carla, and Stefan. He also had a stepson named Jonathan Balkind, who was from his wife’s first marriage to Marcus Balkind. Brenner lived in Ely, Cambridgeshire. He did not believe in any religion.
Brenner passed away on April 5, 2019, in Singapore, when he was 92 years old.