In Memoriam: Professor Peter Swann

After graduating in Chemistry at Birmingham University Peter carried out his Master’s on the 19th century industrial disease match-workers necrosis, an osteomyelitis of the jaw. He then joined Peter Magee at the MRC in Carshalton, working on the metabolism of carcinogenic n-Nitrosamines and their alkylation of DNA. He and Magee moved to the Courtauld Institute at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in 1967 as a lecturer and the Philip Hill Chair of Experimental Biochemistry respectively. His interest in the role of nitrosamines in human cancer centred around the view that some dietary and environmental factors associated with increases in human cancer might influence the pharmacokinetics of nitrosamines and in particular the connection between alcohol and oesophageal cancer. 

Apart from a post-doctoral fellowship at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, he worked at the Middlesex until its closure in 1987. He and his group moved to University College London where he became Professor of Molecular Oncology.  He went on working on the repair of DNA damage and published a series of important papers on TDG and other DNA repair enzymes and mechanisms with close friends, such as the Nobel Laureate Tomas Lindahl.

In addition to his research he served on the panel interviewing prospective medical students and for several years supervised the welfare and progress of post-graduate students in the Department.  Peter had an instinct for recruiting to his group top quality students and post-docs and the ability to inspire in them an enthusiasm for their work which served as a driving force in their subsequent careers. The friendship he extended and the continuing interest in their work were reasons for the sincere affection and deep respect for him that so many of them have expressed.

https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Peter-F-Swann-2162807889