Profile: John Shine

John Shine.

John Shine.
Photo: Michel O'Sullivan

By Lucinda Schmidt
May 28, 2008

Internationally acclaimed,this scientist delights in the achievements of those whose work he now fosters.

Teachers can have a profound effect on the careers of their students. Just ask Professor John Shine, who detested biochemistry during a miserable three years studying veterinary science at Sydney University. A few years later, however, when he'd switched to a general science degree at ANU, an inspiring biochemistry lecturer instilled in him a fascination for molecular biology and how genes work.

"In a sense, that was what started me on my scientific career," says Shine, 61, the executive director of Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He's internationally recognised for his ground-breaking research cloning human hormone genes - built on a biochemistry foundation.

Shine's stellar career started before he'd left university, when he helped discover the Shine-Dalgarno gene sequence during his PhD at ANU. That discovery, isolating when a gene is turned on and off, meant he received three good post-doctoral job offers from overseas universities.

Looking back now, Shine is amazed by his casual approach to picking which offer to accept. Not Berlin, researching protein synthesis, because he couldn't speak German. Not Boston, studying viruses, because it was too cold.

Instead, he opted for three years at the University of California, researching recombinant DNA (the beginning of gene cloning) because "San Francisco sounded like a nice place to go".

He was part of a team that was the first to clone the insulin gene and the human growth hormone. Before that, isolating a single gene from the 50,000 or so that make a human was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

"The ability to clone a single gene led to the formation of the biotechnology industry," says Shine, noting that the majority of drugs are now based on this technology.

Despite the heady excitement of being the first in the world to see the sequence of a human gene, Shine returned to Australia in 1979 to set up a gene cloning research lab at ANU. But four years later he was back in San Francisco.

"The reality was, the activity in this rapidly developing area was still very much in the US," he says. "I was under pressure to go back to the US, because molecular biologists at the core of the biotechnology revolution were in short supply."

He co-founded a research company, California Biotechnology Inc, that grew to a couple of hundred scientists using gene cloning to research congestive heart failure, infant respiratory distress and wound healing.

By 1987, however, Shine realised that the company needed a business person to lead it, not a scientist, and that his two young teenage children would grow up American if the family did not return to Australia. He joined the Garvan Institute as deputy director, and became executive director in 1990.

Nowadays, he does very little of his own research, apart from heading a small team working on adult stem cells. Most of his time is spent managing the institute's 400 researchers, who study cancer, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, asthma, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

It sounds like a huge spread of interests but Shine says they all focus on the same thing: what genes go wrong in what disease. "Over the past 20 years, with the human genome project and the ability to clone separate genes, there's been an explosion in our knowledge base on how to treat these complex diseases," he says. "I know there's a lot of hype around this stuff but the truth is most of these breakthroughs are real. The train is rapidly charging down the track."


Biggest break Being in the right place at the right time. I went to San Francisco just as gene cloning, the biotechnology revolution was beginning [in 1975]. It was the best decision I ever made, career-wise.

Biggest achievement The discovery of the Shine-Dalgarno gene sequence [responsible for the initiation and termination of protein synthesis] while I was doing my PhD, although I probably didn't appreciate the significance at the time. And a few decades at the Garvan, fostering the amazing achievements of young scientists.

Biggest regret I don't really have any big ones. Maybe just how fast time has passed and the kids have grown up.

Best investment A wonderful wife, two great children and two grandchildren.

Worst investment I'm the part-owner of seven or eight racehorses that eat quickly and run slowly. They're not Melbourne Cup winners.

Attitude to money Especially over the last 10 years, I've appreciated the value of money in being able to progress important human endeavours such as medical research.

Personal philosophy I feel very strongly the importance of knowledge, education and understanding.

Best advice received My father used to say to me, "If you can keep your head when all around are losing theirs and blaming you, you will be a man, my son."

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