It\u2019s spring in Heidelberg, and one can periodically still find Toby Gibson at EMBL Heidelberg these days, despite his retirement late last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The retired team leader isn\u2019t there all the time, but he is still working on packing up a lab that was active for 27 years. And others \u2013 like myself, the archivist, alumni relations, and former collaborators \u2013 continue to hunger for just one more story or a bit of advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s how we caught up with Gibson to gather reflections on his career and what he has learned along the way. But let us start with a brief introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gibson earned his undergraduate biology degree from Edinburgh University, specialising in molecular biology. He went on to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge for his PhD, working with Bart Barrell as part of the DNA sequencing department overseen by Fred Sanger, the Nobel laureate who invented DNA sequencing. Barrell had worked with Sanger on developing methods that enabled increasingly larger sequencing projects. \u201cIn those days, this was fully experimental bench-based, and we were running sequencing gels. We were sequencing the Epstein-Barr virus, whose genome spanned ~120,000 bases. I did 20,672 bases,\u201d Gibson explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n \u201cToby inspired me to love linear motifs. In fact, I\u2019d say that I\u2019m now a lifelong motif campaigner! They\u2019re everywhere in the cell!\u00a0 Toby not only crystallised the idea of ELM database, he also brought together the best minds and meticulously planned courses\/meetings to develop and sustain the motif biology community in a selfless manner. Today, ELM is much more than a resource and is integral to many researchers who want to really understand cell processes. In retrospect, Toby has founded a community while also doing high-quality science and developing ELM.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> <\/div>\n \n