Paul Sharp | |
---|---|
Born | Paul Martin Sharp 12 September 1957[9] |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh (BSc, PhD) |
Known for | |
Awards | EMBO Member (1992)[1] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | |
Thesis | Quantitative genetics of Drosophila melanogaster - variation in male mating ability (1982) |
Doctoral advisor | Alan Robertson[5] |
Doctoral students | Kenneth H. Wolfe[6][7] |
Other notable students | Desmond G. Higgins (postdoc)[8] |
Website | www |
Paul Martin Sharp (born 1957)[9] FRS FRSE MRIA[12][13] is Professor of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh, where he holds the Alan Robertson chair of genetics in the Institute of Evolutionary Biology.[14][15][16][17]
Sharp was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979[9][18] followed by a PhD in 1982 for research using quantitative genetics on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster supervised by Alan Robertson.[14][5]
Sharp has held academic posts at Trinity College, Dublin from 1982 to 1993,[4] the University of Nottingham from 1993 to 2007[4] and was appointed Professor at the University of Edinburgh in 2007.[4]
Sharp's research investigates the evolutionary origin of bacteria and viruses.[12][19][20] He has carried out important work into the origin of HIV and its transmission from chimpanzees to humans. He also discovered that the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium, originated in gorillas.[12] He was one of the first researchers to use DNA sequence databases to gain insight into evolutionary processes. His work amplifying DNA from chimpanzee faecal samples showed that HIV type 1 was transmitted to humans from a specific chimp population in West Africa in the early 20th century. Paul went on to examine his collection of ape faecal samples for plasmodium parasites, finding a likely candidate for the form that causes malaria in humans.[12][21]
In the eighties, Sharp collaborated with Desmond G. Higgins during the creation of CLUSTAL,[10][11] a suite of multiple sequence alignment programs that have become widely used and highly influential.[22] His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).[23] His former doctoral students include Kenneth H. Wolfe.
Sharp was elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 1992,[1] and was President of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution[when?]. He was elected member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1993,[18] a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2010[13] and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013.[12]
Sharps's entry in Who's Who lists his recreations as hill walking, pteridology and, since 1967, supporting Nottingham Forest Football Club.[9]