John E. Walker

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British chemist (born 1941)

title: "John E. Walker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1941-births", "members-of-the-european-molecular-biology-organization", "living-people", "people-from-halifax,-west-yorkshire", "english-chemists", "nobel-laureates-in-chemistry", "british-nobel-laureates", "members-of-the-royal-netherlands-academy-of-arts-and-sciences", "foreign-associates-of-the-national-academy-of-sciences", "alumni-of-st-catherine's-college,-oxford", "university-of-wisconsin–madison-faculty", "english-nobel-laureates", "fellows-of-sidney-sussex-college,-cambridge", "people-educated-at-rastrick-high-school", "knights-bachelor", "british-fellows-of-the-royal-society"] description: "British chemist (born 1941)" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_E._Walker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British chemist (born 1941) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
nameSir John Walker
honorific_suffix
imageJohn Ernest Walker.jpg
captionWalker in 2018
birth_nameJohn Ernest Walker
birth_date
birth_placeHalifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
educationRastrick Grammar School
alma_materUniversity of Oxford
thesis_titleStudies on naturally occurring peptides
thesis_urlhttp://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.711292
thesis_year1970
doctoral_advisorEdward Abraham
website
spouse
childrenTwo
work_institutionUniversity of Oxford
Laboratory of Molecular Biology
University of Cambridge
prizes{{Plainlist
*Knight Bachelor (1999)<ref name"whoswho"
*Copley Medal (2012)<ref namefrs One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: }}
::

| honorific_prefix = | name = Sir John Walker | honorific_suffix = | image = John Ernest Walker.jpg | image_size = | caption = Walker in 2018 | birth_name = John Ernest Walker | birth_date = | birth_place = Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | death_date = | death_place = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | education = Rastrick Grammar School | alma_mater = University of Oxford | thesis_title = Studies on naturally occurring peptides | thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.711292 | thesis_year = 1970 | doctoral_advisor = Edward Abraham | known_for = | website = | footnotes = | spouse = | children = Two | ethnicity = | field = | work_institution = University of Oxford Laboratory of Molecular Biology University of Cambridge | author_abbreviation_bot = | author_abbreviation_zoo = | prizes = {{Plainlist|

Early life and education

Walker was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, the son of Thomas Ernest Walker, a stonemason, and Elsie Lawton, an amateur musician. He was brought up with his two younger sisters (Judith and Jen) in a rural environment and went to Rastrick Grammar School. At school, he was a keen sportsman and specialized in physical sciences and mathematics during his final three years there. He received a 3rd class Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from St Catherine's College, Oxford. Walker began his study of peptide antibiotics with Edward Abraham at Oxford in 1965 and received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1969. During this period, he became interested in developments in molecular biology.

Career

From 1969 to 1971, Walker worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and from 1971 to 1974 in France. He met Fred Sanger, in 1974, at a workshop at the University of Cambridge. This resulted in an invitation to work at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council, which became a long-term appointment. Among the other staff was Francis Crick, who was well known for his discovery of the molecular structure of DNA. At first, he analyzed the sequences of proteins and then uncovered details of the modified genetic code in mitochondria. In 1978, he decided to apply protein chemical methods to membrane proteins. In this way, Walker characterized the subunit composition of proteins in the mitochondrial membrane and the DNA sequence of the mitochondrial genome.

His landmark crystallographic studies of the F1-ATPase, the catalytic region of the ATP synthase (done in collaboration with crystallographer Andrew Leslie), from bovine heart mitochondria revealed the three catalytic sites in three different conformations imposed by the position of the asymmetric central stalk. This structure supported the binding change mechanism and rotary catalysis for the ATP synthase (and related enzymes), one of the catalytic mechanisms proposed by Paul Boyer. This work, published in 1994, led to Walker's share of the 1997 Nobel prize for chemistry. Since this structure, Walker and his colleagues have produced most of the crystal structures in the PDB of mitochondrial ATP synthase, including transition state structures and protein with bound inhibitors and antibiotics. Scientists trained in Walker's group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge or MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit have gone on to determine crystal bacterial complex I and cryo-EM maps of mitochondrial complex I and vacuolar type ATPases.

Teaching and mentoring

Many students and postdoctoral research fellows who studied with John Walker have gone on to independent research careers, including

  • Derek Narendra, Assistant Clinical Investigator (NIH, NINDS)
  • Jan Pieters Abrahams, Postdoctoral Fellow (Leiden)
  • Ignacio Arechaga, Postdoctoral Fellow (Santander)
  • Matthew Bowler, PhD student (ESRF)
  • Susan Buchanan, Postdoctoral Fellow (NIH)
  • Elena Cabezon, Postdoctoral Fellow (Santander)
  • Ian Collinson, Postdoctoral Fellow (Bristol)
  • Ian Fernley, PhD student (MRC)
  • Nicholas Gay, PhD student (Cambridge)
  • Georg Groth, Postdoctoral Fellow (Düsseldorf)
  • Rene Lutter, Postdoctoral Fellow (AMC)
  • Bruno Miroux, Postdoctoral Fellow (Paris)
  • Mark Van Raaj, Postdoctoral Fellow (CNB Spain)
  • John Rubinstein, PhD student (Toronto)
  • Matti Saraste, Postdoctoral Fellow (EMBL)-- Leonid Sazanov, Postdoctoral Fellow (ISTA) and Daniela Stock, Postdoctoral Fellow (Sydney).

Awards and recognition

Walker was elected an EMBO Member in 1984. He shared his Nobel Prize with the American chemist Paul D. Boyer for their elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate. They also shared the prize with Danish chemist Jens C. Skou for research unrelated to theirs (Discovery of the Na+/K+-ATPase). Sir John was knighted in 1999 for services to molecular biology. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1995. He became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. In 2012 he was awarded the Copley Medal.

Personal life

Walker married Christina Westcott in 1963, and has two daughters.

References

References

  1. "John E. Walker – Facts".
  2. Walker, John Ernest. (December 2023). "Studies on naturally-occurring peptides". University of Oxford.
  3. "WALKER, Prof. John Ernest".
  4. Anon. (1995 }} One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: {{blockquote). "Sir John Walker FMedSci FRS". [[Royal Society]].
  5. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997".
  6. "John Walker interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 14 January 2008 (film)".
  7. [http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/18 Freeview Video of Fredrick Sanger in conversation with John Walker by the Vega Science Trust]
  8. [http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programmeset/10 A three part video interview with Sir John Walker by the Vega Science Trust]
  9. (1982). "Distantly related sequences in the alpha- and beta-subunits of ATP synthase, myosin, kinases and other ATP-requiring enzymes and a common nucleotide binding fold". The EMBO Journal.
  10. {{Scopus id
  11. (24 March 2021). "John Walker – Curriculum vitae – Mitochondrial Biology Unit". cam.ac.uk.
  12. {{Nobelprize
  13. (2014). "Frederick Sanger (1918–2013) Double Nobel-prizewinning genomics pioneer". Nature.
  14. "NINDS – Faculty".
  15. "John E. Walker". EMBO.
  16. "Advisory Council of the Campaign for Science and Engineering".
  17. "John Walker – Honours and Awards – Mitochondrial Biology Unit". cam.ac.uk.
  18. Anon. "J.E. Walker". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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