Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir John Sulston, aged 75

British geneticist Professor Sir John Sulston has died aged 75, the Wellcome Sanger Institute said.

Sir John headed Britain’s contribution to the first working draft of the human genome, the publication of which marked a milestone in science.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology in 2002, along with two colleagues, for work aiding the understanding of how genes control cell division and cell death in organisms.

Sir John founded the Sanger Institute – then called the Sanger Centre – at Hinxton, near Cambridge, and was director from 1992 to 2000.

It has gone on to become one of the leading centres for genome research in the world.

Institute director Professor Sir Mike Stratton said: “He had a burning and unrelenting commitment to making genome data open to all without restriction and his leadership in this regard is in large part responsible for the free access now enjoyed.

“We all feel the loss today of a great scientific visionary and leader who made historic, landmark contributions to knowledge of the living world, and established a mission and agenda that defines 21st Century science.”

Sir John led the 500-strong Sanger Centre team which, as part of the international Human Genome Project, sequenced a third of the human genome – the complex pattern of chemicals that makes up our DNA.

At the time of his death, he was professor and chairman of the Institute of Science, Ethics and Innovation at Manchester University.

Sir John founded the Sanger Institute near Cambridge.