I worked in the Dunn School from December 1980 until November 1996, with George Brownlee in the “new building”. My initial task was to set up the chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides. At that time even the basic building blocks had to be chemically synthesised in the lab, they could not be purchased, and there were no automated machines to make oligonucleotides. After about 4 months of hard work I had produced our first oligonucleotide, the one that was used to clone blood coagulation Factor IX. By 1990 we had produced more than 1,000 oligonucleotides, many of which had been used to clone interesting genes for the first time, including different apolipoproteins, fibronectin, components of complement, and various lymphocyte cell surface proteins. 

Rodney Porter from Biochemistry was keen to see for himself how we made oligonucleotides, and he spent several mornings in our lab. I remember he nearly always had a pipe in his mouth (not alight), sitting in front of the fume cupboard. On one occasion he mouth pipetted chloroform! I tried to suggest that maybe this wasn’t a good idea!  

We were also the first lab in the UK to have a trial with an Applied Biosystems automated oligonucleotide synthesiser, in about 1983 (see photograph). The machine was shipped from the USA via Frankfurt, and scientists from all over the UK came to see a demonstration and hear talks. Later on we purchased several of their oligonucleotide synthesisers, and Alan Williams also purchased one of their peptide synthesisers. 

A photo of the front of the Dunn School taken 40 years ago in 1985. The front border was always beautifully kept and immaculate!

One of my favourite memories is the first time I met John Bell, now Sir John Bell, ex Regius Professor of Medicine. We collaborated with scientists at the John Radcliffe Hospital (before the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine existed), and I saw John soon after he returned to Oxford from Canada in 1987, sitting in a lab in the John Radcliffe Hospital on his own manually moving tubes between water baths set at different temperatures, performing the new cutting edge technique of PCR!