Alan Wolffe (1959–2001)

Lab Chiefs in the history of the NIH. Alan Wolffe, an internationally recognized investigator The Laboratory of Molecular Embryology was quickly in chromatin research, died May 26 as a result of injuries organized with Alan’s characteristic vigor and intensity. suffered in a traffic accident in Rio Di Janeiro, Brazil, He recruited a strong group of junior faculty, all of whom where he was attending a scientific conference. Alhave now begun successful careers. The founding of though widely recognized in the field, and a prolific conLME coincided with what is now recognized as a golden tributor to the literature, Alan was only 41 years old. He age in chromatin research. Two separate processes of is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and two children, Max chromatin reorganization were linked to gene activation and Katherine. His untimely death has been a shock to in the early 1990s, the covalent modification of histone the wide community of scientists whose lives he tails, as well as the alteration in nucleosome structure by touched. ATP-dependent chromatin modifying complexes. Alan Alan was born and raised in Burton-upon-Trent, a and his colleagues were in the thick of the action during small village in Staffordshire, England. His father was a this period. Among many contributions, he identified a graduate of Oxford University in physics, but had relarge complex in Xenopus (Mi-2) that contained both turned to the village to manage a green-grocery. Alan covalent modification and nucleosome remodeling acworked there with his father in his youth. He also met tivities, linking these potentially disparate functions. and courted his life-long companion, Liz, in the village, What most impressed many of us during this period, where they were friends from an early age. however, was Alan’s ability to integrate and synthesize Alan followed his father to Oxford for undergraduate the whole of chromatin biology. When Ian Wilmut visited studies. Evidence of his keen intellect emerged during NIH to discuss the famous Dollie cloning experiment, it the Oxford days. In addition to a strong academic perforwas Alan who introduced Ian and placed the work in mance, he was a member of his college’s University context. His depth in the literature was unparalleled. Challenge Team, which appeared on national television He reviewed the field constantly, in many formats. His in competitions similar to an American quiz program. monograph, Chromatin, was widely read, and is now He became an enthusiast of the board game Go, and routinely utilized as an introduction to the field. also represented the university in competitions. After In a move that surprised many, Alan left academic Oxford, he joined the laboratory of Prof. Jamshed Tata science for the biotech world in March of 2000, becomat the Medical Research Council at Mill Hill for Ph.D. ing Chief Scientific Officer of Sangamo, Inc. What studies. Here he formed the early interests in chromoseemed attractive to Alan in this unexpected shift were some structure, developmental regulation, and endocri-