Martin Evans
Martin Evans
Martin Evans
Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.[13] Today, Children two sons, one daughter[1]
genetically modified mice are considered vital for Awards William Bate Hardy Prize (1993)
medical research.
Lasker Award (2001)
Knight Bachelor (2004)[1]
which he learned basic chemistry, for the development from the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, 17
[11] February 2008[4]
of one of his "greatest amateur passions". He went
to middle school at St Dunstan's College,[9] an Website cardiff.ac.uk/martinevans (http://
independent school for boys in South East London, cardiff.ac.uk/martinevans)
where he started chemistry and physics classes, and
studied biology.[11] He worked hard studying for the University of Cambridge entrance exams. At school
he was one of the best pupils, although not at the top of the class.[9]
Evans won a major scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge, at a time when there were many advances
in genetics being made. He studied zoology, botany and chemistry, but soon dropped zoology and added
biochemistry, finding himself drawn to plant physiology and function.[11] He went to seminars by Sydney
Brenner and attended lectures by Jacques Monod.[9] He graduated from Christ's College with a BA in
1963; although, he did not take his final examinations, because he was ill with glandular fever.[6][7] He
decided on a career examining genetic control of vertebrate development.[14] He moved to University
College London where he had a fortunate position as a research assistant, learning laboratory skills under
Dr Elizabeth Deuchar. His goal at the time was "to isolate developmentally controlled m-RNA".[11] He
was awarded a PhD in 1969.[15][1][6][16]
After Kaufman left to take up a professorship in Anatomy in Edinburgh, Evans continued his work,
branching out eclectically, "drawn into a number of fascinating fields of biology and medicine."[11] In
October 1985, he visited the Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for one month of practical
work to learn the most recent laboratory techniques.[7][18]
In the 1990s, he was a fellow at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. In 1999, he became Professor of
Mammalian Genetics and Director of the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University,[6][19] where he
worked until he retired at the end of 2007.[20] He became a Knight Bachelor in the 2004 New Year
Honours in recognition of his work in stem cell research.[6][21] He received the accolade from Prince
Charles at Buckingham Palace on 25 June 2004.[22] In 2007, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine along with Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies for their work in discovering a
method for introducing homologous recombination in mice employing embryonic stem cells.[8] Evans
was appointed president of Cardiff University and was inaugurated into that position on 23 November
2009.[23] Subsequently, Evans became Chancellor of Cardiff University in 2012.[24] He is an Honorary
Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge.[25]
In 1981, Evans and Kaufman published results for experiments in which they described how they isolated
embryonic stem cells from mouse blastocysts and grew them in cell cultures.[26][27] This was also
achieved by Gail R. Martin, independently, in the same year.[28] Eventually, Evans was able to isolate the
embryonic stem cell of the early mouse embryo and establish it in a cell culture. He then genetically
modified it and implanted it into adult female mice with the intent of creating genetically modified
offspring, the forebears of the laboratory mice that are considered so vital to medical research today.[26]
The availability of these cultured stem cells eventually made possible the introduction of specific gene
alterations into the germ line of mice and the creation of transgenic mice to use as experimental models
for human illnesses.[26]
Evans and his collaborators showed that they could introduce a new gene into cultured embryonic stem
cells and then use such genetically transformed cells to make chimeric embryos.[29] In some chimeric
embryos, the genetically altered stem cells produced gametes, thus allowing transmission of the
artificially induced mutation into future generations of mice.[30] In this way, transgenic mice with induced
mutations in the enzyme Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) were created.[31] The
HPRT mutations were produced by retroviral insertion; it was proposed that by taking advantage of
genetic recombination between the normal HPRT gene and an artificial gene sequenced added to the
cultured embryonic stem cells, "it may also eventually be possible to produce specific alterations in
endogenous genes through homologous recombination with cloned copies modified in vitro".[26] The
production of transgenic mice using this proposed approach was accomplished in the laboratories of
Oliver Smithies,[32] and of Mario Capecchi.[33]
Personal life
When Evans was a student in Cambridge he met his wife, Judith Clare Williams,[1] at a lunch held by his
aunt, wife of an astronomy professor.[9] After they were engaged, their relationship did not go well and
Judith went to live in Canada; however, a year later she returned to England and they married.[9] In 1978,
they moved from London to Cambridge with their young children, where they lived for more than 20
years before moving to Cardiff. They have one daughter and two sons.[1][34] Their older son was a
student at the University of Cambridge and their younger son was a boarder at Christ Church Cathedral
School in Oxford and sang in Christ Church Cathedral choir.[9] Martin's granddaughter has graduated
from the University of Nottingham and is now a practicing medicine Yorkshire and Humber.
His wife Judith Clare Williams, granddaughter of Christopher Williams, was appointed MBE for her
services to practice nursing in the 1993 New Year Honours.[35][36] She was diagnosed with breast cancer
at about the time the family moved to Cardiff. She works for breast cancer charities, and Martin Evans
has become a trustee of Breakthrough Breast Cancer.[9]
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External links
Sir Martin J. Evans (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/812) on Nobelprize.org