He graduated from medical school in 1956. After house staff training, he joined the Army for 2 years, as part of the national service and was stationed in Singapore. There he treated the daughter of a Gurkha soldier with thalassemia, which sparked a lifelong interest in this disease. He used car batteries and filter paper for electrophoresis while there.[7]
Career
Returning from military service, he took a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.[citation needed] He returned to Liverpool, where he rose to the rank of Professor of Haematology.
His research concentrated on the genetics of the haemoglobinopathies and, in particular, a group of inherited haematological disorders known as the thalassemias that are associated with abnormalities in the production of globin, the protein component of haemoglobin. Weatherall was one of the world's experts on the clinical and molecular basis of the thalassemias and the application for their control and prevention in developing countries.[8][9][10][11]
In 1974, Weatherall moved to Oxford, as he was appointed Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford. He worked with the biochemist John Clegg until his retirement in 2000. They were able to separate the α and β chains of haemoglobin and to demonstrate that the relative lack of production of these proteins resulted in α and β thalassaemia.[7]
In 2009, a working group report under Weatherall's Chairmanship concluded that there was a strong scientific case to maintain biomedical research activities using non-human primates in carefully selected areas.[14]
In 2010 he was awarded a Lasker Award, the most significant US prize for medical research with many past award winners subsequently going on to receive Nobel prizes.[citation needed] He was the only person outside America to win the award that year.[citation needed]
In 2012, Keele University named the Medical School building on the Keele Campus the David Weatherall Building in honour of Sir David. The MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM) is named in his honour.[18]
^Murray, C. J. L.; Vos, T.; Lozano, R.; Naghavi, M.; Flaxman, A. D.; Michaud, C.; Ezzati, M.; Shibuya, K.; Salomon, J. A.; Abdalla, S.; Aboyans, V.; Abraham, J.; Ackerman, I.; Aggarwal, R.; Ahn, S. Y.; Ali, M. K.; Almazroa, M. A.; Alvarado, M.; Anderson, H. R.; Anderson, L. M.; Andrews, K. G.; Atkinson, C.; Baddour, L. M.; Bahalim, A. N.; Barker-Collo, S.; Barrero, L. H.; Bartels, D. H.; Basáñez, M. G.; Baxter, A.; et al. (2012). "Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990–2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010". The Lancet. 380 (9859): 2197–223. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61689-4. PMID23245608. S2CID205967479.
^Weatherall, D (2006). "Sir David Weatherall reflects on genetics and personalized medicine. Interviewed by Ulrike Knies-Bamforth". Drug Discovery Today. 11 (13–14): 576–9. doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2006.05.007. PMID16862731.
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