John Postgate (microbiologist)
| John Postgate | |
|---|---|
.jpg)
In his laboratory
|
|
| Born | John Raymond Postgate 24 June 1922 London, England |
| Died | 22 October 2014 (aged 92) |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford (BA, DPhil) |
| Thesis | Aspects of the metabolism of micro-organisms (1952) |
| Known for | Microbes and Man (1969) |
| Notable awards |
|
| Spouse | Mary Stewart (d. 2008) |
| Children |
|
John Raymond Postgate (24 June 1922 – 22 October 2014), FRS was an English microbiologist and writer, latterly Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at the University of Sussex. Postgate's research in microbiology investigated nitrogen fixation, microbial survival, and sulphate reducing bacteria. He worked for the Agricultural Research Council's Unit of Nitrogen Fixation from 1963 until he retired, by then its Director, in 1987. In 2011 he was described as a "father figure of British microbiology".
His admired popularizing book on microbes in human culture, Microbes and Man, first published in 1969, remains in print.
John Raymond Postgate was born on 24 June 1922, as the elder son of the writer Raymond Postgate and Daisy Postgate, née Lansbury, private secretary to her father George Lansbury, the politician who was Labour Party Leader of the Opposition 1932-35. He had one brother, Oliver Postgate, later a well-known animator and producer for British television. Several other members of the Postgate family were notable in a variety of fields. His cousin is the actress Angela Lansbury.
He attended kindergarten and primary private schools in Golders Green, North London, before moving at age 11 to Kingsbury County School; he was evacuated to Devon at the start of World War II. In 1941 he was awarded an exhibition scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he achieved a first class degree in Chemistry. He had also taken a special biochemistry course. His final examination involved research on the adaptation of bacteria to unfavourable environments and, supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council plus a Studentship from Balliol (which the MRC deducted from his grant), he spent a year reading Microbial Chemistry before doing research for a doctorate on aspects of how bacteria adapt to resist sulphonamide drugs. Sulfomamide drugs had been shown by D D Woods, his supervisor, to block the enzyme assimilating the metabolite p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA for short), a precursor of folic acid, by blocking the enzyme's active site. A substantial excess of a sulfonamide needed to put a complete stop to PABA assimilation. Postgate's research was to study sulfonamide action on a species of bacteria that required PABA from the environment as a vitamin; it gave him valuable experience of competition in enzymology.
...
Wikipedia