Medicine and molecular genetics
Brenner studied medicine and science at the University of the Witwatersrand before investigating bacterial resistance to phages at Oxford. He moved to Cambridge in late 1956 to work in the Medical Research Council environment and developed a long scientific association with Francis Crick.
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Choosing Caenorhabditis elegans
Seeking a relatively simple animal for studying development and the nervous system, Brenner established research on C. elegans in Cambridge. Genetic analysis of the worm made it possible to connect gene changes with cell division, organ formation and other developmental processes.
Collaborative discoveries and later research
In 2002 Brenner, Sulston and Horvitz shared the Nobel Prize for discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death. Brenner also headed the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and later pursued genome research and new sequencing methods.