With the death of Michael Ashburner (last Friday) we Drosophilists and the Genetics community at large have lost a preeminent figure. His innumerable contributions began during the revival of Drosophila research, which started in the 1960s with a focus on developmental genetics. This revival has carried on with the use of Drosophila as a model for a host of biological and biomedical problems and with its central role in the transition to the genomics era. Michael was a contributor and prime mover in every phase of this evolution.

Chromosome puffing in the salivary glands had been studied by others, mostly in other Diptera. Michael began his independent work as a faculty member in Cambridge by providing a chromosome-by-chromosome catalog of the changes in puffing during metamorphosis in Drosophila. This work set the stage for his demonstration that these changes could be replicated by ecdysone induction in organ culture. Detailed analyses led to the “Ashburner model” describing the regulation of the puffing pathway in terms of early and late responses and positing how the progression might work. The framework, reminiscent of phage development, which was familiar to many molecular biologists attracted wide interest.

He turned next to the Alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) locus and the chromosomal region surrounding it. In a series of studies that appeared over several years, he and his colleagues began by providing a fine-scale genetic analysis of the Adh region and then, as the technology became available, cloned, and sequenced the gene and described an important example of promoter switching. In other work the lab addressed a variety of research areas and genes (heat shock, juvenile hormone, transvection, hybrid sterility). They also cloned the vasa gene and characterized its product. Ashburner’s list of collaborators in all this work includes many who have gone on to leadership positions in the community.

While Michael spent his entire career in the Department of Genetics (Cambridge University), he was, in fact, the most gregarious of researchers. An inveterate participant in meetings in Europe, the United States, and Asia, he kept copious notes and often appeared to remember the research project of every graduate student he met. And, at a time when the venerable Red Books (Lindsley and Grell, Lindsley and Zimm) could no longer keep up with the volume of new results, both genetic and molecular, a visit from Michael established lines of communication. “You have a question about X; call so-and-so, they have some new results.”

This knowledge was also shared in scholarly publications. Even as he was beginning his career Michael co-edited the multi-volume Genetics and Biology of Drosophila, the first real summary of the subject in 20 years. Later he would produce Drosophila: A Laboratory Manual, and Drosophila: A Laboratory Handbook, an encyclopedic introduction to fly genetics. And he would provide his own picture of the Genomic Sequencing project in Won for All: How the Drosophila Genome was Sequenced. He also transmitted the knowledge through teaching. Most notably, the very successful version of the CSH Drosophila genetics course that he taught (with G. Rubin, then Scott Hawley, Ken Burtis and Casey Bergman) at the Banbury Center years starting in 1990.

Michael's concern with data sharing became a passion in the 1980s. Having familiarized himself with the literature on the semantic web and ontologies, he began to assemble ideas for biological ontologies. In 2001 he joined with others to create the OBO (Open Biomedical Ontologies) Foundry to provide guidelines for independent ontology projects, and about the same time he helped lead the creation of the Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium that has since become integral to annotation efforts. During all of this, Ashburner was also a founding member of the Flybase project. At the 1968 Drosophila meeting Dan Lindsley gathered senior members of our community who had an interest in and experience with the public dissemination of stock lists and information on the genetics of Drosophila. One of these was of course Michael. His encyclopedic knowledge of the community and genetics coupled with his familiarity with the extensive bibliography of flies made him an obvious choice to participate in the group founding Flybase. He played a critical role in getting it off the ground, improving its functionality and maintaining its high standards. FlyBase has since become integral to fly research and has played an important role in the development of biological databases in general.

In 1997 the EBI opened in Hinxton. Ashburner was a leading advocate both for the Institute and for bringing this EMBL outstation to England. He became its first director, jointly with Graham Cameron.

Michael’s contributions to science have been innumerable and legion. We have provided only a small sampling of his efforts and influences. We have seen him referred to as a “giant” for his gifts to us all. While this may seem hyperbolic to some, we think that to paraphrase Newton we can indeed all see farther as we stand on his shoulders. We are all the better for his time amongst us and we are the poorer for his passing.

Peter Cherbas
Thom Kaufman