Quotes from John Sulston

The human world lives in a framework called global economics. We live in a system based on GDP, which drives consumption. it causes people to compete with each other through trade in a way that they all grow.

Biomedical research is only as good as its delivery. Distribution of medicines by charities is no more than a stopgap.

It is not a Pandora's box that science opens; it is, rather, a treasure chest. We, humanity, can choose whether or not to take out the discoveries and use them, and for what purpose.

I believe our basic information, our 'software', should be free and open for everyone to play with, to compete with, to try and make products from. I do not believe it should be under the control of one person.

As far back as I remember, and earlier, I was an artisan, a maker and doer. Mechanically minded, my parents said.

We knew that all the protein-coding bits of genes do is to produce protein - they have to have instructions to turn them on and off. Those sequences lie well outside the protein-coding sequences, sometimes thousands, tens of thousands of bases away.

It is very clear that the present system of innovation for medicines is very inefficient and really somewhat corrupt. It benefits shareholders over patients; it produces for the rich markets and not for the poor and does not produce for minority diseases.

We can choose to address the twin issues of population and consumption to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption.

What is the purpose of being human and alive without doing new things?

The only thing I have retained from my upbringing - I did not retain the religious element - is the idea that you do not do things for money.

In science, as in business, there must be structures that ensure the well endowed do not use their position to block competition.

I don't think one ought to bring a clearly disabled child into the world.

Many people thought that, given my knowledge of the egg, I should analyse embryonic mutants.