A world-renowned embryologist and specialist in regenerative medicine, Sir Ian led the team that cloned Dolly the Sheep in 1996 – the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.
Some 27 years on, the breakthrough continues to fuel many of the advances in the field of regenerative medicine today.
Early life
The son of two teachers, Sir Ian was born near Stratford-upon-Avon before the family moved to Yorkshire. It was at school in Scarborough where Ian first became interested in biology.
After school, Sir Ian went to the University of Nottingham, initially to study Agriculture but switched to Animal Science after being inspired by researchers at the University.
His early work at the University of Cambridge, as part of Professor Christopher Polge’s team, focused on the preservation of semen and embryos by freezing. This led to the birth of Frostie, the first calf to be born from a frozen embryo.
Dolly the Sheep
Sir Ian moved to the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (ABRO), the predecessor to The Roslin Institute, in 1973.
At ABRO, he continued to work with reproductive cells and embryos and became involved in a project to make genetically modified sheep which produced milk containing proteins that could be used to treat human diseases.
As the project progressed, it became clear that a new, more efficient method of making these sheep was needed. Ian led efforts to develop cloning techniques that could be used to make genetically modified sheep.
These endeavours led to the birth of Dolly in 1996.
Dolly’s birth transformed scientific thinking at the time by proving that specialised cells could be used to create an exact copy of the animal they came from.
