Edwin Southern

Professor Sir Edwin Mellor Southern, FRS (born 1938) is a 2005 Lasker Award-winning molecular biologist. His award is for the invention of the Southern blot, now a common laboratory procedure, when he was working at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Southern is Professor of Biochemistry (Emeritus) at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Trinity College. He is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford Gene Technology. He was made a Knight Bachelor in the June 2003 Birthday Honours for services to the development of DNA Microarray Technologies. In 2005 he was awarded the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities Award for outstanding contributions to Biomolecular Technologies.

He is also the founder and chairman of a Scottish charity, The Kirkhouse Trust, which aims to promote education and research in the Natural Sciences, particularly the biological and medical sciences. In addition the Edina Trust was founded to promote science in schools. These charities are financed using royalty income from licensing microarray technology.

The Southern blot is used for DNA analysis and is routinely used for genetic fingerprinting and paternity testing. The procedure is also frequently used to determine the number of copies of a gene in the genome. The concepts of the Southern blot were used in the development and creation of the modern microarray slide, which is a promising experimental tool. The northern blot is a similar procedure for RNA, playing off the Southern name. The western blot is a further pun on the Southern blot, but is an important research tool in protein detection.