Paul M. Sharp
Scottish academic scientist (b.1957)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Martin Sharp (born 1957)[1] is a British bioinformatician who is a professor of genetics at the University of Edinburgh, where he holds the Alan Robertson chair of genetics in the Institute of Evolutionary Biology.[12][13][14][15]
12 September 1957[1]
Paul Sharp | |
|---|---|
| Born | Paul Martin Sharp 12 September 1957[1] |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh (BSc, PhD) |
| Known for | |
| Awards | EMBO Member (1992)[5] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Quantitative genetics of Drosophila melanogaster - variation in male mating ability (1982) |
| Doctoral advisor | Alan Robertson[8] |
| Doctoral students | Kenneth H. Wolfe[9][10] |
| Other notable students | Desmond G. Higgins (postdoc)[11] |
| Website | www |
Education
Sharp was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979[1][16] followed by a PhD in 1982 for research using quantitative genetics on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster supervised by Alan Robertson.[12][8]
Career and research
Sharp has held academic posts at Trinity College, Dublin from 1982 to 1993,[7] the University of Nottingham from 1993 to 2007[7] and was appointed Professor at the University of Edinburgh in 2007.[7]
Sharp's research investigates the evolutionary origin of bacteria and viruses.[17][18][19] 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.[17] 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.[17][20]
In the eighties, Sharp collaborated with Desmond G. Higgins during the creation of CLUSTAL,[2][3] a suite of multiple sequence alignment programs that have become widely used and highly influential.[21] His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).[22] His former doctoral students include Kenneth H. Wolfe.
Awards and honours
Sharp was elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 1992,[5] and was President of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution[when?]. He was elected member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1993,[16] a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2010[23] and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013.[17]
In 2024 Sharp was awarded The Darwin Medal for his work addressing the origins and evolution of HIV and the malaria parasite Plasmodium.[24]
Personal life
Sharps's entry in Who's Who lists his recreations as hill walking, pteridology and, since 1967, supporting Nottingham Forest Football Club.[1]
