Alan Wolffe

Who was Alan Wolffe?

Alan Wolffe was a cell biologist known for his prominent role in establishing that the chromosomal organisation of genes is a dynamic phenomenon determining their expression, cell division and differentiation.

He married Elizabeth and had two children, Max and Katherine.

Wolffe was born on June 21, 1959 at Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. He was successful at biology early on, receiving the Biological Council Prize upon leaving secondary school. He then attended Oxford University, receiving a first class B.A. degree in 1981. He did his PhD under Prof. Jamshed Tata at the National Institute for Medical Research, London. He was awarded an EMBO long-term postdoctoral fellowship in 1984 and moved to the laboratory of Donald D. Brown at the Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore. He joined the National Institute of Health in 1987, working firstly with Gary Felsenfeld in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology. In 1990 he was appointed Chief of the newly founded Laboratory of Molecular Embryology.