SubSection VRU/1/4 - Roy Markham Correspondence 1

Extent: 11 folders

From box labelled 'Correspondence mainly with Roy Markham, 1957 to 1958; May 1960 to April 1966. Purchasing arrangements 1962-1968.

Admin History: Roy Markham (29 Jan 1916-16 Nov 1979), B.Sc. (1938), PhD (1944), (Cambridge), F.R.S (1956): British plant virologist and fifth director of the John Innes Centre 1967 to his death in 1979. Markham studied at Cambridge, specialising in biochemistry under Norman Pirie. He based his PhD thesis on the isolation of plant viruses, including tomato bushy stunt virus and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). He worked as assistant to Kenneth M Smith at the Potato Virus Research Station, Cambridge from 1940, completing his PhD in 1944. This evolved into the Plant Virus Unit (VRU). In 1945-6 Markham and Smith started to experiment with electron microscopy, using high speed centrifugation followed by salt precipitation to prepare crystals of a newly isolated strain of tobacco necrosis virus. Some of their methods were adapted by Smith's Canadian PhD student G R Wyatt to discover 5-methyl-cytosine, the fifth base of DNA. Electron microscopy continued to be an important factor in Markham's work, including investigating the structure of RNA. The procedure was to digest the RNA with the enzyme and then to fractionate the products by paper chromatography and paper electrophoresis. Roy designed and built both the 1000 V powerpack and a simple electrophoresis apparatus. He joined the Molteno Institute in Cambridge working on the biochemistry of RNAs. He was a contemporary of James Watson who with Francis Crick proposed the double helix structure of the DNA molecule and is mentioned in his book The Double Helix. In 1956 he was invited to work at Washington University, St Louis, with David Lipkin and W H Cook, exploring cyclic nucleotides. They investigated products formed when adenosine triphosphate is treated with barium hydroxide, isolating a compound from the reaction mixture which they identified as cyclic 3'-5' adenine dinucleotide later revising it to adenosine-3' :5'-phospate. In 1960 Roy became director of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Virus Research Unit in Cambridge, succeeding Kenneth Smith. The John Innes Institute moved from Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire to Norwich, Norfolk in 1967. Before the institute's move was completed, its director, Kenneth S Dodds, resigned and Roy Markham was appointed as his successor, and he, along with the Virus Research Unit, moved to Norwich in October 1967. Markham played an important role in establishing the institute at its new location. Its move from Bayfordbury had led the majority of the institute's staff to find employment elsewhere, and only 17 staff members moved to Norwich in 1967. Under Markham's directorship, the institute grew and was reorganised into four new departments: Cell Biology, Genetics, Applied Genetics and Ultrastructural Studies. Markham persuaded the trustees of the John Innes Foundation, which owned the land on which the institute was built, to provide a large lecture hall and recreational facilities, including a swimming pool, for the staff. He took great interest in developing much of the technology at the new institute and listed himself under the 'Electronics Section' in the institute's annual reports.