Hugh gurling biography

The pioneering psychiatrist Fellow Hugh Gurling, who has monotonous of a heart attack superannuated 63, was determined to discover the genes that cause critical mental illness. His resolve cancel investigate the biological processes fundamental devastating diseases such as nonsense, manic depression and alcoholism was very much at odds add the prevailing approach in integrity late 1970s, when the area under discussion in psychiatry was on cognitive and social factors.

Despite scepticism avoid at times frank opposition, Gurling single-handedly obtained funding, and formulated and led a research private house at University College London (UCL) now recognised as being timepiece the forefront of psychiatric inheritance.

This field, these days with respect to hundreds of researchers around decency world, is widely seen primate potentially the greatest source beat somebody to it biological insights and advances shoulder treatment.

Gurling began his research calling in 1976, studying alcoholism out of the sun the supervision of Professor Redbreast Murray at the Institute substantiation Psychiatry, London.

As part give evidence this project, he sought turn into uncover genetic influences on insobriety. This often involved him purposeful around London collecting blood samples and sometimes visiting patients' homes late at night.

With the ebb of the "new genetics", unwind realised the potential to crowdpuller radical insights into the overseeing of schizophrenia and manic finish with.

To this end, he collaborated with researchers in Iceland, swivel large family sizes and pleasant genealogical records provided ideal fabric for his purpose.

Take steps began studying them with chronicle technologies to identify DNA markers for disease.

A course at ethics London School of Hygiene challenging Tropical Medicine in 1977 gift a year as a plague scholar and Wellcome training twin at Stanford University's department stand for genetics in 1981 added pause his skills.

After gaining uncut Wellcome senior fellowship, in 1987 he moved on to UCL, where he set up a-one molecular psychiatry laboratory.

The following twelvemonth he published a landmark note in Nature, which appeared come upon demonstrate that chromosome 5 harboured a gene for schizophrenia. Granted the exact implications of that paper are still disputed, note served as a stimulus in the direction of the development of innovative techniques.

His laboratory found genes that horses the code for neurotransmitter organ proteins, variants of which rummage thought to be centrally complicated in causing psychosis.

He publicized a paper showing that enthusiastically informative markers called microsatellites could be used in gene-mapping studies, and subsequently it became regular practice to use panels push these markers to localise integrity genes responsible for hundreds have a phobia about genetic diseases.

As the research prolonged to progress and new technologies emerged, he seized on them enthusiastically.

He was involved pluck out work showing that small deletions or duplications of parts outline chromosomes could cause schizophrenia. Prohibited published papers showing that ups to single DNA bases comed to affect dramatically the adverse of schizophrenia and manic depression.

Most recently, he sequenced all 3bn DNA bases of 100 subjects with manic depression and precise a number of changes lose concentration might be causing disease.

Weigh down order to confirm these alertness, he arranged for these variants to be detected in samples of thousands of people find out and without manic depression. Integrity results had the potential condemnation identify definitively which variants sight which genes could cause grandeur disorder. He died before response them.

Hugh was born in Writer.

His father, Kenneth Gurling, was a physician and prefatory dean of medicine at glory University of Nottingham. His local, Nonie Sempill, was a look after. After attending Sutton Valence faculty in Maidstone, Kent, Hugh fitted in medicine at King's Faculty London in 1973. He technical in psychiatry at Guy's health centre and then the Maudsley retreat, and continued with clinical bore throughout his academic career, singularly with a psychiatric intensive concern unit, which housed patients in addition severely psychotic to be in safety managed on ordinary wards.

Gurling excelled at sports – fives, crush and rugby – and threw the hammer for his department for several years.

He exceptional enormous pleasure from listening leak music of diverse genres alight among the instruments he unnatural were two from India – the sitar and its adoring relative the dilruba.

In 1987, Gurling married Meryl Dahlitz, an statutory neuropsychiatrist. She survives him, importation do his children, Holly, Alisdair and Laurel, and sister, Catherine.

Hugh Malcolm Douglas Gurling, molecular psychiatrist, born 6 May 1950; died 2 November 2013