PROFILE: SYDNEY BRENNER
A LUCKY ACCIDENT Nobel laureate DR SYDNEY BRENNER has devoted his long career to understanding the story of life BY H E AT HER D UGMORE
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ho are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? These giant questions are the life work of Dr Sydney Brenner (BSc 1945, BSc Hons 1946, MBBCh 1951, DSc honoris causa 1972), pioneer of modern molecular biology. It’s said of him that no one better understands genomes and evolution. Genomes are an organism’s complete set of DNA, or genetic material – its instructions for life. From Brenner’s standpoint there’s no room for self-importance as he attributes all evolution to chance. “It is not purposeful. There is no creator,” he says. “Our main conclusion from studying the history of genomes is that all the major changes, from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, from unicellular to multicellular, from invertebrates to vertebrates, from apes to humans, are the products of lucky accidents that could not have been predicted.” Neither could it have been predicted that he would still be a leader in genetics at the age of 92. He is currently scientific advisor at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, and
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adjunct professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore. Though physically frail now, he works relentlessly. “I do not do anything but work. I am beyond all those other things,” he says. In 2016, Brenner conceived the idea of a lecture series covering 10-billion years, from the origin of the universe to the changes modern humans are making through science, technology, language
