Professor Alan Finlay Wright

Alan Wright was born in Edinburgh, son of a minister who was chaplain at Loretto school, where he was initially educated, later moving to Glenalmond. He graduated in medicine  from St Andrew’s University in 1965, and it was there that he met his lifelong partner, Liz Porter, daughter of an Edinburgh surgeon. 

Following registration, he started training in psychiatry, but his interests were in research and he soon moved to the Mammalian Genetics unit in Kings Buildings, Edinburgh University, to undertake a PhD with Henrik Kascer. On completion he moved to the MRC Brain Metabolism Unit to study the genetic components of psychiatric illness at a time when this was particularly challenging, the definition of populations being difficult and genetic mapping techniques still rudimentary. He then moved to the MRC Population and Cytogenetics Unit where he started the work on the genetics of eye disease that was to remain the dominant interest for the rest of his career.

The early years at this Unit were not easy. The shared office was in a small room in the basement and Alan would retreat to the boiler room when he needed quiet to write his papers. However John Evans, the Director at the time, was supportive and the research productive. By 1984 he was able to publish with Shomi Bhattacharya and others a ground-breaking paper on the genetic locus of the mutation responsible for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. At the same time he also developed a parallel interest in polycystic kidney disease, confirming the chromosome location of the genetic mutation.

His key paper in 1990 reported the mapping the multiple loci of mutations underpinning X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, leading to understanding of the underlying biochemical consequence of the mutation. This he celebrated with his co-authors by a day in the mountains. It was winter with a modest covering of snow. As they left the car a polite enquiry was made as to whether they had a compass. After a short pause Alan said he had, and produced a compass the size of a sixpence from his pocket, derived from a Christmas cracker.

Continuing to exploit refinements in mutational analysis technology in a range of collaborative projects he went on to contribute to major developments in the understanding of other eye diseases, including age-related macular degeneration. This genetic expertise was exploited in joint eye disease clinics with Bal Dhillon. Much of the research was supported by funds from charitable foundations – he was a director of Fight for Sight for more than 10 years.

Alan was a visionary with wide-ranging interests. He recognised that identifying the genetic mutations implicated in causing common diseases was going to be difficult in large population studies - an alternative approach was needed. One of his most important papers in Nature Genetics in 1996 argued that successful gene mapping required appropriate choice of the population to be studied, and the best option would be to target small populations in communities where there were much less genetic heterogeneity and more consistent environmental influences. The results from this now widely adopted approach were rewarding, with many high-impact papers emerging.  Perhaps the most important was the report of a newly identified urate transporter influencing serum urate concentration, urate excretion and gout, a paper that has influenced other investigations of a wide range of common conditions.

None of this was accomplished on his own. One of Alan’s key strengths was his ability to work with others. He had a way of making everyone forget completely about anything other than the scientific questions that he would be throwing out all the time, something that become known as “the Alan Effect”. With strong support and involvement from unit director Nick Hastie and Caroline Hayward, collaborations were established with many different research groups both national and international. A range of important studies followed, focusing on relatively isolated communities in Croatia, Sardinia, Orkney and Shetland. This work clearly required travel to meetings, and travel with Alan was almost invariably interesting. On one occasion, on his way to a genetic meeting, he was stopped because of a hammer in his luggage. With panache he demonstrated on the security official that it was in fact a tendon hammer. Why he had this in his luggage on the way to a genetics meeting remains a reasonable question - perhaps the bag had not been unpacked since his student days.

Alan had many interests outside medicine. His and Liz’s house in Applecross was a wonderful location for entertainment of family, friends and colleagues from all over the world. An accomplished hill walker he had climbed many of the Munros in the west of Scotland, including the Cuillin ridge on Skye. He was piper for the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, but his musical talents also included concertina and piano. He took an immense pride in Scottish music and verse, but his attempts over years to master Gaelic were only partially successful, insufficient to hold a conversation with his Gaelic- speaking cousin.

He leaves his wife Liz, two daughters and four grandchildren.

Mike Watson