John Sulston led the sequencing effort at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute during the Human Genome Project.
Sulston became the founding director of the Sanger Centre, as the institute was then called, in 1992. The centre was established by the Wellcome Trust to make the United Kingdom’s major contribution to the international HGP. Under his direction, it grew into one of the project’s largest sequencing centres and ultimately produced nearly one-third of the finished reference sequence.
His leadership was scientific and strategic. Sulston helped develop high-throughput sequencing operations, supported the use of large mapped DNA clones, and worked with collaborators including Bob Waterston. He also strongly defended the Bermuda Principles, under which HGP sequence data were released rapidly and freely to researchers worldwide.
Craig Venter led the competing private Celera Genomics effort, while Francis Collins directed the U.S. public HGP after 1992. Eric Lander led the Broad Institute’s genome centre. Sulston’s specific role was leading the Sanger contribution and the UK effort, not serving as the sole leader of the entire international project.