[3dem] Stephen Fuller

[Per Bullough]

This is very sad news indeed. Stephen was always stimulating company and very generous with his compliments where they were due.

Per

Prof. Per A. Bullough
Krebs Institute for Biomolecular Research
Dept. of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
University of Sheffield
Firth Court
Western Bank
Sheffield S10 2TN
United Kingdom

Tel:      +44 (0)114 222 4245
Fax:      +44 (0)114 222 2800
e-mail:   p.bullough at sheffield.ac.uk
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mbb/staff/bullough




On 1 Sep 2014, at 11:07, John Briggs <briggs at embl.de> wrote:

> We are sad to inform the community that Stephen Fuller died last week. Stephen was a key figure in the development and early application of cryo-em and computational image processing methods, especially to understand viruses. He worked at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge before spending almost 20 years at the EMBL in Heidelberg, where he headed the Structural Biology and Biocomputing Programme along with Dietrich Suck. Subsequently he became Professor of Macromolecular Structure and Assembly at Oxford University before his career was cut short by illness. His work on Semliki Forest Virus represented a major advance in the development and use of icosahedral reconstruction methods to determine virus protein structure from cryo-EM images. Among his other major contributions are a series of important papers on retroviral structure and assembly, an early study of centriole structure, and a tomography study of the immune synapse. A few examples of his papers are noted below. He was awarded the Ruska prize in 2000, gave the Ernst Abbe lecture in 2002, and was elected an EMBO member in 2008.
> 
> In addition to his research contributions, Stephen’s enormous enthusiasm for training and helping people to use cellular and molecular electron microscopy have made a major contribution to the development of the whole field of structural biology. He was a major driving force for the long and successful programme of EMBO courses on cryo EM which have trained many of the people in the field, and spawned similar courses worldwide, greatly helping in the development of the subject. He was instrumental in developing the EMDB, and in setting up support for visitors to do cryo EM work at EMBL. He was an unmissable figure at conferences, free (and direct!) with his ideas. Stephen's colleagues and friends knew him as an inspiring mentor and an extraordinarily kind and generous person.
> 
> John Briggs, Sarah Butcher and Helen Saibil
> 
> 
> 
> A few examples of his papers:
> 
> - Image-reconstruction reveals the complex molecular-organisation of adenovirus. Stewart et al., Cell 1991
> - The core of the mammalian centriole contains gamma-tubulin. Fuller et al., Curr. Biol. 1995
> - Low pH induces swivelling of the glycoprotein heterodimers in the Semliki-forest-virus spike complex. Fuller et al., Cell 1995
> - Cryo-electron microscopy reveals ordered domains in the immature HIV-1 particle. Fuller et al., Curr. Biol. 1997
> - Cryo-electron microscopy reveals the functional organization of an enveloped virus, Semliki Forest virus. Mancini et al., Mol. Cell 2000
> - Structural organization of authentic, mature HIV-1 virions and cores. Briggs et al., EMBO J. 2003
> - Centrosome polarization delivers secretory granules to the immunological synapse. Stinchcombe et al., Nature 2006
> 
> 
> briggs at embl.de
> Tel. +49 6221 387 8482
> 
> Dr. John Briggs
> European Molecular Biology Laboratory
> Meyerhofstr. 1
> 69117 Heidelberg
> Germany
> 
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