He won a major scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge at a time when advances in genetics were occurring there and became interested in biology and biochemistry.[citation needed] He then went to University College London where he learned laboratory skills supervised by Elizabeth Deuchar. In 1978, he moved to the Department of Genetics, at the University of Cambridge, and in 1980 began his collaboration with Matthew Kaufman. They explored the method of using blastocysts for the isolation of embryonic stem cells. After Kaufman left, Evans continued his work, upgrading his laboratory skills to the newest technologies, isolated the embryonic stem cell of the early mouse embryo and established it in a cell culture. He genetically modified and implanted it into adult female mice with the intent of creating genetically modified offspring, work for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2007. In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.[14] Today, genetically modified mice are considered vital for medical research.
Evans was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, on 1 January 1941.[2][7] His mother was a teacher.[10] His father maintained a mechanical workshop and taught Evans to use tools and machines including a lathe.[10] Evans was close to his grandfather who was a choir master at a Baptist Church for over 40 years, and whose main interests were music, poetry, and the Baptist Church.[10] His mother's brother was a professor of astronomy at the University of Cambridge.[10] As a boy Evans was quiet, shy and inquisitive.[12] He liked science, and his parents encouraged his education.[10] He remembers loving old science books and receiving an electric experimental set which he wanted for Christmas.[12] He attributes to a chemistry set, from which he learned basic chemistry, for the development of one of his "greatest amateur passions".[12] He went to middle school at St Dunstan's College,[10] an independent school for boys in South East London, where he started chemistry and physics classes, and studied biology.[12] 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.[10]
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.[12] He went to seminars by Sydney Brenner and attended lectures by Jacques Monod.[10] 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.[7][8] He decided on a career examining genetic control of vertebrate development.[15] 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".[12] He was awarded a PhD in 1969.[16][2][7][17]
He became a lecturer in the Anatomy and Embryology department at University College London, where he did research and taught PhD students and undergraduates.[17] In 1978, he moved to the Department of Genetics, at the University of Cambridge, where his work in association with Matthew Kaufman began in 1980.[7] They developed the idea of using blastocysts for the isolation of embryonic stem cells.[18]
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."[12] In October 1985, he visited the Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for one month of practical work to learn the most recent laboratory techniques.[8][19]
Evans and Kaufman isolated the embryonic stem cells from early embryos (embryoblasts) of mice and established them in cell cultures. These early embryonic cells have the potential to differentiate into any of the cells of the adult organism. They modified these stem cells genetically and placed them in the wombs of female mice so they would give birth to genetically modified offspring.[27]
In 1981, Evans and Kaufman published results for experiments in which they described how they isolated embryonic stem cells from mouseblastocysts and grew them in cell cultures.[27][28] This was also achieved by Gail R. Martin, independently, in the same year.[29] 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.[27] 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.[27]
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.[30] In some chimeric embryos, the genetically altered stem cells produced gametes, thus allowing transmission of the artificially induced mutation into future generations of mice.[31] In this way, transgenic mice with induced mutations in the enzyme Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) were created.[32] 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".[27] The production of transgenic mice using this proposed approach was accomplished in the laboratories of Oliver Smithies,[33] and of Mario Capecchi.[34]
When Evans was a student in Cambridge he met his wife, Judith Clare Williams,[2] at a lunch held by his aunt, wife of an astronomy professor.[10] 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.[10] 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.[2][35] 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.[10]
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.[36][37] 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.[10]
1999 - The USA charity March of Dimes awarded their annual prize in Developmental Biology for research into embryonic growth jointly to Professor Richard Gardner at the University of Oxford and Evans.[40]
^ abcdefghMartin Evans on Nobelprize.org , accessed 11 October 2020 including the Nobel Lecture Embryonic Stem Cells: The Mouse Source Vehicle for Mammalian Genetics and Beyond
, accessed 11 October 2020 including the Nobel Lecture Embryonic Stem Cells: The Mouse Source Vehicle for Mammalian Genetics and Beyond
