Brian S. Hartley Explained

Brian Hartley
Birth Name:Brian Selby Hartley
Birth Date:1926 4, df=yes
Birth Place:Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England
Thesis Title:The chemistry and biochemistry of certain organic phosphorus esters with special reference to the inhibition of chymotrypsin
Thesis Url:http://lib.leeds.ac.uk/record=b1027598~S5
Thesis Year:1952

Brian Selby Hartley (16 April 1926 – 3 May 2021)[1] FRS was a British biochemist. He was Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London from 1974 to 1991.[2] [3]

Education

Hartley was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1947 followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1952. He moved to the University of Leeds where he was awarded a PhD in 1952[4] for research supervised by Malcolm Dixon and Bernard A. Kilby.

Career and research

From 1952 to 1964, Hartley pioneered work on the sequence and mechanism of the enzyme chymotrypsin in Cambridge, and developed the use of paper chromatography to separate amino acids and peptides — an essential part of protein characterisation at that time.[5] [6] In 1965, he became a founding member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), and collaborated with David Mervyn Blow[7] in determining the structure and mechanism of chymotrypsin, as part of extensive work on chymotrypsin and related enzymes.[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] His group also showed that mammalian serine proteases, including the blood clotting cascade, had homologous structures and mechanisms, indicating a common evolutionary origin.[13] Hartley also studied other enzymes, such as aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (with Alan Fersht),[14] [15] xylose isomerase[16] and glucose isomerase.[17]

In 1974, Hartley became Head of the Department of Biochemistry at Imperial College London, converting it into a centre for molecular biology. In 1982, he conceived the need for a discipline – biotechnology – to exploit molecular biology breakthroughs. He left the Department of Biochemistry to set up Imperial's Centre for Biotechnology, and became a founding board member of Biogen – the longest surviving genetic engineering company. Since then, Hartley has founded companies to make cheap bioethanol from waste hemicellulosic biomass, using genetically engineered compost heap microorganisms.

Awards and honours

Hartley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1971. His certificate of election reads:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Brian Hartley (1926 – 2021). 7 May 2021.
  2. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20151124095720/https://royalsociety.org/people/brian-hartley-11577/ . 2015-11-24 . Professor Brian Hartley FRS . . London . One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
  3. Hartley. Brian. The First Floor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge (1952–58). IUBMB Life. 56. 7. 2004. 437–439. 1521-6543. 10.1080/15216540412331318974. 15545222. 19975592.
  4. PhD. University of London. Transducing phages for analysis of gene duplications. Brian Selby. Hartley. 1978. 500526968.
  5. 10.1038/1841869a0. A Two-Dimensional System for the Separation of Amino-Acids and Peptides on Paper. 1959. Richmond. Virginia. Hartley. Brian S.. Nature. 184. 4702. 1869–1870. 1959Natur.184.1869R. 4287417.
  6. 10.1042/bj1010214. Location of disulphide bridges by diagonal paper electrophoresis. The disulphide bridges of bovine chymotrypsinogen A. 1966. Brown. JR. Hartley. BS. Biochemical Journal. 101. 1. 214–228. 5971783. 1270086.
  7. Blow. David M.. Birktoft. J. J.. Hartley. Brian S.. Role of a Buried Acid Group in the Mechanism of Action of Chymotrypsin. Nature. 221. 5178. 1969. 337–340. 0028-0836. 10.1038/221337a0. 5764436. 1969Natur.221..337B. 4214520.
  8. 10.1042/bj0770149. The amino acid sequence around the reactive serine residue of some proteolytic enzymes. 1960. Naughton. M. A.. Sanger. F.. Hartley. B. S.. Shaw. D. C.. Biochemical Journal. 77. 1. 149–163. 13727969. 1204911.
  9. 10.1146/annurev.bi.29.070160.000401. Proteolytic Enzymes. 1960. Hartley. B. S.. Annual Review of Biochemistry. 29. 45–72. 14400122.
  10. 10.1016/0006-3002(59)90254-9. The amino acid sequence around the reactive serine of elastase. 1959. Hartley. B.S.. Naughton. M.A.. Sanger. F.. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. 34. 243–244. 14400120.
  11. 10.1038/2071157a0. Evolutionary Similarities between Pancreatic Proteolytic Enzymes. 1965. Hartley. B. S.. Brown. J. R.. Kauffman. Dorothy L.. Smillie. L. B.. Nature. 207. 5002. 1157–1159. 5882362. 1965Natur.207.1157H. 4216808.
  12. 10.1038/2011284a0. Amino-Acid Sequence of Bovine Chymotrypsinogen-A. 1964. Hartley. B. S.. Nature. 201. 4926. 1284–1287. 14151403. 1964Natur.201.1284H. 11398820.
  13. 10.1098/rspb.1979.0078. Evolution of enzyme structure. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences. 1979. 205. 1161. 443–452. 42054. Hartley. B. S.. 1979RSPSB.205..443H. 32023040.
  14. 10.1016/0014-5793(77)80471-7. The amino acid sequence of tryptophanyl tRNA Synthetase from Bacillus stearothermophilus. 1977. Winter. G.P.. Hartley. B.S.. FEBS Letters. 80. 2. 340–342. 891985. free. 1977FEBSL..80..340W.
  15. 10.1021/bi00672a001. Active site titration and aminoacyl adenylate binding stoichiometry of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. 1975. Fersht. Alan R.. Ashford. Jeremy S.. Bruton. Christopher J.. Jakes. Ross. Koch. Gordon L. E.. Hartley. Brian S.. Biochemistry. 14. 1. 1–4. 1109585.
  16. 10.1042/bj2890201. Arthrobacter D-xylose isomerase: Partial proteolysis with thermolysin. 1993. Siddiqui. K. S.. Rangarajan. M.. Hartley. B. S.. Kitmitto. A.. Panico. M.. Blench. I. P.. Morris. H. R.. Biochemical Journal. 289. Pt 1. 201–208. 8424759. 1132150.
  17. 10.1016/S0167-4838(00)00246-6. Glucose isomerase: Insights into protein engineering for increased thermostability. 2000. Hartley. Brian S.. Hanlon. Neil. Jackson. Robin J.. Rangarajan. Minnie. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Protein Structure and Molecular Enzymology. 1543. 2. 294–335. 11150612.

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