Smith, Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-, b 1931, geneticist, University of Glasgow, Scotland,

Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith (1931- ) is a celebrated geneticist whose work on gene mapping has shaped our understanding of human evolution. Ferguson-Smith graduated MB, ChB in 1955 and was appointed a lecturer in Medical Genetics at the University in 1961. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965, a Reader in 1971, and Professor of Medical Genetics in1973. He was also Honorary Consultant in Medical Paediatrics at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children from 1966 and in Clinical Genetics at Yorkhill and Associated Hospitals from 1973 to 1987. In 1987, Ferguson-Smith left Glasgow to become Professor of Pathology and Professorial Fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He was also Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Medical Genetics from 1989. For a complete biography see the Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith collection description.

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, biographical material, 1957-2008, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence relating to references and recommendations, 1978-2001, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence, 1957-2005, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1998-2002, 1994-2004, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence with Dr Victor Almon McKusick, 1964, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1959-1961, 1957-1961, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1961-1964, 1959-1965, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, lectures and meetings, 1959-2008, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, medical genetics material, 1960-2006, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, consultancies and collaborations, 1992-2002, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence with Jennifer A Marshall Graves and others, 1995-2005, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, societies and organisations, 1978-2007, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1987-1998, 1987-2001, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith (1931- ) is a celebrated geneticist whose work on gene mapping has shaped our understanding of human evolution. Ferguson-Smith graduated MB, ChB in 1955 and was appointed a lecturer in Medical Genetics at the University in 1961. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965, a Reader in 1971, and Professor of Medical Genetics in 1973. He was also Honorary Consultant in Medical Paediatrics at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children from 1966 and in Clinical Genetics at Yorkhill and Associated Hospitals from 1973 to 1987. In 1987, Ferguson-Smith left Glasgow to become Professor of Pathology and Professorial Fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He was also Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Medical Genetics from 1989. For a complete biography see the Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith collection description.

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1981-1983, 1978-1984, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1976-1980, 1974-1983, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, publications, 1957-2008, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1965-1975, 1964-1976, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, correspondence from 1984-1987, 1980-1987, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith (1931- ) is a celebrated geneticist whose work on gene mapping has shaped our understanding of human evolution. Ferguson-Smith graduated MB, ChB in 1955 and was appointed a lecturer in Medical Genetics at the University in 1961. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965, a Reader in 1971, and Professor of Medical Genetics in1973. He was also Honorary Consultant in Medical Paediatrics at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children from 1966 and in Clinical Genetics at Yorkhill and Associated Hospitals from 1973 to 1987. In 1987, Ferguson-Smith left Glasgow to become Professor of Pathology and Professorial Fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He was also Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Medical Genetics from 1989. For a complete biography see the Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith collection description.

The BSE Inquiry was announced in December 1997 and set up in January 1998, "to establish and review the history of the emergence and identification of BSE and new variant CJD (vCJD) in the United Kingdom, and of the action taken in response to it up to 20 March 1996; to reach conclusions on the adequacy of that response, taking into account the state of knowledge at the time; and to report on these matters to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland". The Members of the Committee of the Inquiry were Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers (Chair), Mrs June Bridgeman and Ferguson-Smith. It reported in 2000 (the Phillips Report) and included some criticisms of the scientific and the Government response to the crisis.

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) material, 1999-2007, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith (1931- ) is a celebrated geneticist whose work on gene mapping has shaped our understanding of human evolution. Ferguson-Smith graduated MB, ChB in 1955 and was appointed a lecturer in Medical Genetics at the University in 1961. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965, a Reader in 1971, and Professor of Medical Genetics in 1973. He was also Honorary Consultant in Medical Paediatrics at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children from 1966 and in Clinical Genetics at Yorkhill and Associated Hospitals from 1973 to 1987. In 1987, Ferguson-Smith left Glasgow to become Professor of Pathology and Professorial Fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He was also Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Medical Genetics from 1989. For a complete biography see the Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith collection description.

In 1960 the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), followed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), called for rules of eligibility for women to ensure athletics were competing on an equal basis in terms of physical status. In 1966 a physical test was introduced for the European and Commonwealth games, repeated at the 1967 Pan-American games. This led to widespread resentment and the IOC proposed the sex chromatin test as a more acceptable method. Sex chromatin testing using buccal smears was introduced in 1968 for the Mexico Olympic Games that year. Ferguson-Smith was approached by the British Olympic Committee in 1969 to administer the tests for competitors for the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. He declined, arguing that the sex chromatin (buccal smear) test would be more likely to unfairly exclude athletes than detect cheats. His view was that all sex-testing in international sport should be abolished as demeaning to women, unreliable and in a few cases positively psychologically harmful.

The buccal smear test was challenged again in the 1980s and in 1988 the IOC Medical Commission set up a Working Group on Gender Verification. It held a meeting in 1988 but its second meeting, scheduled for 1989, was cancelled. In November 1990 a workshop called by the International Athletics Foundation on Approved Methods of Femininity Verification was held at Monte Carlo. Its recommendations included a call to end genetics-based gender verification and replace it with a health test for all athletes. The International Amateur Athletic Federation adopted its recommendations in January 1991 and the IAAF set up a Working Group on Gender Verification comprising some of the participants in the earlier workshop.

Ferguson-Smith served on this Working Group, which became known to its members as "the fax club" after the usual method of communication between members. Members included Professor Arne Ljungqvist (Chairman of the Medical Committee of the IAAF), Dr Elizabeth A Ferris (a sports physician), Alison S Carlson (a former athlete) and Professor Joe Leigh Simpson. It published articles and lobbied the IOC and professional associations and medical societies. It met with gradual success until in 1999 the IOC abandoned genetics based testing for the Sydney Olympics.

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, material relating to gender verification in sport, 1969-2001, (Glasgow University Archive Services)

Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith was born in Glasgow in 1931, the son of the distinguished physician and dermatologist John Ferguson-Smith. He graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in 1955 and held House Physician and House Surgeon posts at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, 1955-1956, and was Senior House Officer and Registrar in Pathology, 1956-1958. While undertaking postgraduate training in pathology he was introduced to research on sex chromatin under Bernard Lennox. Their buccal smear surveys revealed for the first time the high frequency of Klinefelter's Syndrome among subfertile males and those with learning difficulties. Unsuccessful efforts to undertake chromosome analysis in these patients during 1957-1958 led to Ferguson-Smith continuing his research in the USA, with appointment as Fellow in Medicine at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in 1959. Ferguson-Smith remained at Johns Hopkins, working on chromosomes with Victor Almon McKusick, for nearly three years. Here he established the first human chromosome diagnostic laboratory in the USA and undertook cytogenetic research into the Turner Syndrome and true hermaphroditism.

Ferguson-Smith returned to the Department of Genetics (headed by Guido Pontecorvo) at Glasgow University in 1961. He was appointed successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader, becoming the first Burton Professor of Medical Genetics in 1973. His duties included teaching genetics to medical students and the establishment of a Regional Genetics Service for a population of three million in the West of Scotland. The clinical cytogenetics service provided opportunities for contributing to the human gene map using familial chromosome polymorphisms, deletion mapping, in situ hybridisation and chromosome sorting by flow cytometry. His work on mapping the Y-linked sex determinant in XX males led to the isolation of the mammalian sex determining gene twenty-five years later. The work on translocations in pachytene, gene mapping through chromosome deletion and by in situ hybridisation proved to be the first descriptions in the human genetics literature. He also participated extensively in all eleven international Human Gene Mapping Workshops from 1973 to 1991. During this period he published on many other aspects of human meiosis, clinical genetics, antenatal diagnosis and human chromosome mapping.

In 1987 Ferguson-Smith was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Pathology at Cambridge University and Director of the East Anglia Regional Genetics Service. He led research on gene isolation, fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) techniques, reverse chromosome painting and studies in karyotype evolution using chromosome sorting and cross-species chromosome painting. He retired as Head of Pathology in 1998 and he and his team moved to the Cambridge University Department of Veterinary Medicine. In 2002 he established the Cambridge Resource Centre for Comparative Genomics, with Wellcome Trust support. The Centre produced and distributed chromosome-specific DNA from over 120 species of animals, birds and fish to scientists throughout the world for research in biology, evolution, gene mapping and cancer. This data led to many collaborative studies and allowed cross-species comparisons to be made and homologies between species mapped, so allowing detailed studies of relationships between species and research into genomic evolution. The cross-species chromosome homology maps generated by these studies were made available in a database (www.chromhome.org). An important aspect of the research of the Ferguson-Smith laboratory at the Vet School was on the evolution of vertebrate sex determination and their discovery and characterisation of the unique ten sex chromosome system of the platypus.

Ferguson-Smith's expertise as a medical geneticist was called on in a number of other capacities. In 1969 he was approached by the British Olympic Committee to administer the tests for competitors for the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. He declined, arguing that the method of testing (the sex chromatin or buccal smear test) would be more likely unfairly to exclude women athletes than detect cheats. The buccal smear test was challenged again in the 1980s and in 1991 the International Amateur Athletic Federation set up a Working Group on Gender Verification. Ferguson-Smith served on this Working Group which called for an end to genetics-based gender verification and its replacement with a health test for all athletes. It met with gradual success until in 1999 the IOC abandoned genetics based testing for the Sydney Olympics. In 1998 Ferguson-Smith was appointed as the scientist member of Lord Phillips' Committee reviewing the UK Government's original Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Inquiry. The Phillips Committee considered the emergence of BSE and new variant CJD and the action taken in response to it, reporting in 2000.

Ferguson-Smith has received many honours including election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1978 and the Royal Society of London in 1983, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1993 and the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998.

From the guide to the Papers of Malcolm Andrew Ferguson-Smith, geneticist, Professor of Medical Genetics, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1957-2008, (Glasgow University Archive Services)