British embryologist (1944–2023)
Sir Ian Wilmut
OBE
FRS
FMedSci
FRSE
[2]
[1]
[8] (7 July 1944 – 10 September 2023) was a British
embryologist and the chair of the
Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine
[9] at the
University of Edinburgh .
[10] He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first
cloned a mammal from an adult
somatic cell , a
Finnish Dorset lamb named
Dolly .
[11]
[12]
Wilmut was appointed
OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development
[13] and
knighted in the
2008 New Year Honours .
[14] He,
Keith Campbell and
Shinya Yamanaka jointly received the 2008
Shaw Prize for Medicine and Life Sciences for their work on
cell differentiation in mammals.
[7]
Early life and education
Wilmut was born in
Hampton Lucy ,
Warwickshire , England, on 7 July 1944.
[15] Wilmut's father, Leonard Wilmut, was a mathematics teacher who suffered from
diabetes for fifty years, which eventually caused him to become blind.
[16] The younger Wilmut attended the
Boys' High School in
Scarborough , where his father taught.
[17] His early desire was to embark on a naval career, but he was unable to do so due to his
colour blindness .
[18] As a schoolboy, Wilmut worked as a farm hand on weekends, which inspired him to study
Agriculture at the
University of Nottingham .
[17]
[19]
In 1966, Wilmut spent eight weeks working in the laboratory of
Christopher Polge , who is credited with developing the technique of
cryopreservation in 1949.
[20] The following year Wilmut joined Polge's laboratory to undertake a
Doctor of Philosophy degree at the
University of Cambridge , from where he graduated in 1971 with a thesis on
semen cryopreservation .
[21] During this time he was a postgraduate student at
Darwin College .
[22]
Career and research
After completing his PhD, he was involved in research focusing on gametes and embryogenesis, including working at the
Roslin Institute .
[17]
Wilmut was the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a lamb named
Dolly .
[23]
[24] She died of a respiratory disease in 2003. In 2008 Wilmut announced that he would abandon the technique of
somatic cell nuclear transfer
[25] by which Dolly was created in favour of an alternative technique developed by
Shinya Yamanaka . This method has been used in mice to derive
pluripotent stem cells from differentiated adult skin cells, thus circumventing the need to generate embryonic stem cells. Wilmut believed that this method holds greater potential for the treatment of degenerative conditions such as
Parkinson's disease and to treat stroke and heart attack patients.
[26]
Dolly was a bonus, sometimes when scientists work hard, they also get lucky, and that's what happened.
[27]
Ian Wilmut, quoted in
Time
Wilmut led the team that created Dolly, but in 2006 admitted his colleague
Keith Campbell
[28] deserved "66 per cent" of the invention that made Dolly's birth possible, and that the statement "I did not create Dolly" was accurate.
[29] His supervisory role is consistent with the post of
principal investigator held by Wilmut at the time of Dolly's creation.
Wilmut was an Emeritus Professor at the
Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine
[30] at the
University of Edinburgh and in 2008 was
knighted in the
New Year Honours for services to science.
[18]
Wilmut and Campbell, in conjunction with
Colin Tudge , published The Second Creation in 2000.
[31]
[15]
In 2006 Wilmut's book After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning was published,
[32] co-authored with
Roger Highfield .
Death
Wilmut died from complications of
Parkinson's disease on 10 September 2023, aged 79.
[33]
[15]
Awards and honours
In 1998 he received the
Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Award
[34] and the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement .
[35]
Wilmut was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the
1999 Birthday Honours "for services to Embryo Development"
[22]
[36] and a
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2002 .
[2] He was also an elected
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999
[1] and
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000.
[3] He was elected an
EMBO Member in 2003.
[5]
In 1997 Wilmut was
Time magazine man of the year runner up.
[27] He was
knighted in the
2008 New Year Honours for services to science.
[22]
[37]
Publications
Wilmut, Ian; Campbell, Keith; Tudge, Colin (2000). The Second Creation: The Age of Biological Control by the Scientists Who Cloned Dolly . London: Headline.
ISBN
0747221359 .
Wilmut, Ian; Highfield, Roger (2006). After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning . Norton.
ISBN
0393060667 .
References
^
a
b
c Anon (1999).
"Ian Wilmut FMedSci" . acdmedsci.ac.uk . London:
Academy of Medical Sciences . Archived from
the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016 .
^
a
b
c Anon (2002).
"Sir Ian Wilmut OBE FMedSci FRS" . royalsociety.org . London:
Royal Society . Archived from
the original on 17 November 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: 'All text published under the heading "Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .' --
"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies" . Archived from
the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016 .
^
a
b
"File relating to Ian Wilmut's Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2000–2005" . Collections.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2023 .
^
"Ian Wilmut Ernst: Schering Prize 2002" . Schering Stiftung . Retrieved 12 September 2023 .
^
a
b Anon (2003).
"EMBO Profile: Ian Wilmut" . people.embo.org . Heidelberg:
European Molecular Biology Organization .
^
"Paul Ehrlich Foundation: Prize Winners: 2005 Wilmut" . Goethe-Universität Frankfurt . Retrieved 12 September 2023 .
^
a
b
"The 2008 Prize in Life Science & Medicine" . Shaw Prize Foundation. Archived from
the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022 .
^
"Professor Sir Ian Wilmut FRS FMedSci FRSE | Royal Society" . Archived from
the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2011 .
^
"Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine" . Archived from
the original on 22 March 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2013 .
^
"Redirecting Cell Fate, Group leader: Ian Wilmut FRS, FRSE" . Archived from
the original on 23 April 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2011 .
^
Campbell, K. H. S. ; McWhir, J.; Ritchie, W. A.;
Wilmut, I. (1996). "Sheep cloned by nuclear transfer from a cultured cell line". Nature . 380 (6569): 64–66.
Bibcode :
1996Natur.380...64C .
doi :
10.1038/380064a0 .
PMID
8598906 .
S2CID
3529638 .
^ Schnieke, A. E.; Kind, A. J.; Ritchie, W. A.; Mycock, K.; Scott, A. R.; Ritchie, M.;
Wilmut, I. ; Colman, A.;
Campbell, K. H. (1997). "Human Factor IX Transgenic Sheep Produced by Transfer of Nuclei from Transfected Fetal Fibroblasts". Science . 278 (5346): 2130–2133.
Bibcode :
1997Sci...278.2130S .
doi :
10.1126/science.278.5346.2130 .
PMID
9405350 .
S2CID
36257561 .
^
"Times Higher Education: Queen's Birthday Honours" . Times Higher Education . 18 June 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2009 .
^
"Dolly creator heads Scots honours" . BBC News . 29 December 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2009 .
^
a
b
c
"Sir Ian Wilmut obituary" . The Guardian . 11 September 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023 .
^ Berry, S. (2001). "Profile – Ian Wilmut". Trends in Biotechnology . 19 (12): 525–526.
doi :
10.1016/S0167-7799(01)01842-X .
^
a
b
c
"Autobiography of Sir Ian Wilmut" . The Shaw Prize . 2008. Archived from
the original on 15 June 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2009 .
^
a
b
"Dolly the sheep creator knighted" . BBC. 29 December 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2007 .
^
"Ian Wilmut Interview: Pioneer of Cloning" . Academy of Achievement . 23 May 1998. Archived from
the original on 23 March 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2009 .
^ Rall, W. (2007).
"Ernest John Christopher Polge FRS (1926–2006)" . Cryobiology . 54 (3): 241–242.
doi :
10.1016/j.cryobiol.2007.04.001 .
^
Wilmut, Ian (1971).
The preservation of boar semen (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
OCLC
500590369 .
^
a
b
c
"WILMUT, Sir Ian" .
Who's Who . Vol. 1999 (online
Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. (Subscription or
UK public library membership required.) [
unreliable source? ]
^
"The Third Culture: Ian Wilmut" . Edge.org . Archived from
the original on 13 January 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2009 .
^ Giles, J.; Knight, J. (2003).
"Dolly's death leaves researchers woolly on clone ageing issue" . Nature . 421 (6925): 776.
Bibcode :
2003Natur.421..776G .
doi :
10.1038/421776a .
PMID
12594470 .
^
Wilmut, I. ; Beaujean, N.; De Sousa, P. A.; Dinnyes, A.; King, T. J.; Paterson, L. A.; Wells, D. N.; Young, L. E. (2002).
"Somatic cell nuclear transfer" (PDF) . Nature . 419 (6709): 583–586.
Bibcode :
2002Natur.419..583W .
doi :
10.1038/nature01079 .
PMID
12374931 .
S2CID
4327096 .
^ Highfield, Roger (16 November 2007).
"Dolly creator Prof Ian Wilmut shuns cloning" . The Sunday Times . Archived from
the original on 2 December 2007. Retrieved 11 December 2007 .
^
a
b Nash, Madeleine (29 December 1997).
"Dr Ian Wilmut...and Dolly" . Time . Archived from
the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2009 .
^
Wilmut, I. (2012).
"Keith Campbell (1954–2012)" . Science . 338 (6114): 1553.
Bibcode :
2012Sci...338.1553W .
doi :
10.1126/science.1233495 .
PMID
23258883 .
S2CID
206547014 .
^ Cramb, Auslan (8 March 2006).
"I didn't clone Dolly the sheep says prof" . The Telegraph . Retrieved 16 April 2009 .
^
"MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine" .
^ The Second Creation: Dolly and the age of biological control
ISBN
0674005864
^ After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning
ISBN
0316724696
^ Williams, Craig (11 September 2023).
"Professor Sir Ian Wilmut: Dolly the sheep creator dies aged 79" . The Herald . Retrieved 11 September 2023 .
^
"Foundation News" (PDF) . Technology Innovation and Society (Winter 1998): 14. 1998.
^
"Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" . www.achievement.org .
American Academy of Achievement .
^
"No. 55513" .
The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1999. p. 14.
^
"No. 58557" .
The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2007.
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