Janet Thornton

Thornton attended Bury Grammar School until 1967, where she was head girl.{{cite news |last1=Thomson |first1=David |title=Top scientist tells Bury Grammar School pupils: 'follow your dreams' |url=https://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/10704320.top-scientist-tells-bury-grammar-school-pupils-follow-your-dreams/ |publisher=Bury Times|website=burytimes.co.uk |date=2013-09-27 |language=en}} After graduating in physics from the University of Nottingham, Thornton completed a master's degree in biophysics at King's College London, and a PhD in biophysics at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London in 1973.{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Janet|last=Thornton |title=The conformation of dinucleotides |publisher=King's College London |year=1975 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lz20XwAACAAJ|author-link=Janet Thornton|oclc=731231069|id={{ProQuest| 301309997}}}}

After her PhD, Thornton worked in molecular biophysics with David Chilton Phillips at the University of Oxford.{{Cite journal | last1 = Thornton | first1 = J. M.| author-link1 = Janet Thornton | last2 = Bayley | first2 = P. M. | doi = 10.1002/bip.1976.360150511 | title = Conformational energy calculations for dinucleotide molecules. A systematic study of dinucleotide conformation, with application to diadenosine pyrophosphate | journal = Biopolymers | volume = 15 | issue = 5 | pages = 955–975 | year = 1976 | pmid = 177120 | s2cid = 30211950}}{{Cite journal | last1 = Perkins | first1 = W. J. | last2 = Piper | first2 = E. A. | last3 = Thornton | first3 = J. | doi = 10.1016/0010-4825(76)90034-2 | title = Computer techniques for conformational studies of biological molecules | journal = Computers in Biology and Medicine | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | pages = 23–31 | year = 1976 | pmid = 1253578}} In 1978, she returned to the National Institute for Medical Research, and following that took up to a Fellowship at Birkbeck College, part of the University of London. In 1990 she was appointed Professor and Director of the Biomolecular Structure and Modeling Unit in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University College London and later also was appointed to the Bernal Chair in the Crystallography Department at Birkbeck College.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

Thornton was Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) from 2001 to 2015, on the Wellcome Genome Campus at Hinxton near Cambridge.

{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703074247/https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/press-releases/janet-thornton-steps-down|archive-date=3 July 2015|url=https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/press-releases/janet-thornton-steps-down|title=Janet Thornton steps down|date=30 June 2015 |publisher=European Bioinformatics Institute}} She was an organiser of the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) and European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) joint Conference in Glasgow in 2004.{{Cite web|url=https://www.iscb.org/cms_addon/conferences/ismbeccb2004/faq.html|title=ISMB/ECCB 2004|website=www.iscb.org}}

Thornton's work is highly interdisciplinary, interfacing with structural biology, bioinformatics, biological chemistry and chemoinformatics, amongst others. She was an early pioneer in structure validation for protein crystallography, developing the widely used ProCheck software.{{Cite journal | last1 = Laskowski | first1 = R. A. | last2 = MacArthur | first2 = M. W. | last3 = Moss | first3 = D. S. | last4 = Thornton | first4 = J. M. | author-link4 = Janet Thornton| title = PROCHECK: A program to check the stereochemical quality of protein structures | doi = 10.1107/S0021889892009944 | journal = Journal of Applied Crystallography | volume = 26 | issue = 2 | pages = 283–291 | year = 1993 | bibcode = 1993JApCr..26..283L }} Together with Christine Orengo, she introduced the CATH{{Cite journal | last1 = Orengo | first1 = C. A. | last2 = Michie | first2 = A. D. | last3 = Jones | first3 = S. | last4 = Jones | first4 = D. T. |author-link4=David Tudor Jones| last5 = Swindells | first5 = M. B. | last6 = Thornton | first6 = J. M. | author-link6 = Janet Thornton| doi = 10.1016/S0969-2126(97)00260-8 | title = CATH – a hierarchic classification of protein domain structures | journal = Structure | volume = 5 | issue = 8 | pages = 1093–1109 | year = 1997 | pmid = 9309224| doi-access = free }} classification of protein structure.{{Google scholar id}}{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/nmeth.2831| pmid = 24645189| title = The Author File: Janet Thornton| journal = Nature Methods| volume = 11| issue = 2| pages = 115| year = 2014| last1 = Marx | first1 = V. | s2cid = 1970327| doi-access = free}}{{Cite journal

| pmid = 2500530

| year = 1989

| last1 = Sibanda

| first1 = B. L.

| title = Conformation of beta-hairpins in protein structures. A systematic classification with applications to modelling by homology, electron density fitting and protein engineering

| journal = Journal of Molecular Biology

| volume = 206

| issue = 4

| pages = 759–77

| last2 = Blundell

| first2 = T. L.

| author-link2 = Tom Blundell

| last3 = Thornton

| first3 = J. M.

| author-link3 = Janet Thornton

| doi=10.1016/0022-2836(89)90583-4

}}{{Cite journal

| pmid = 3224756

| year = 1988

| last1 = Thornton

| first1 = J. M.

| author-link1 = Janet Thornton

| title = Protein-protein recognition via side-chain interactions

| journal = Biochemical Society Transactions

| volume = 16

| issue = 6

| pages = 927–30

| last2 = Singh

| first2 = J

| last3 = Campbell

| first3 = S

| last4 = Blundell

| first4 = T. L.

| author-link4 = Tom Blundell

| doi=10.1042/bst0160927

}}{{Cite journal

| pmid = 3550471

| year = 1987

| last1 = Blundell

| first1 = T. L.

| author-link1 = Tom Blundell

| title = Knowledge-based prediction of protein structures and the design of novel molecules

| journal = Nature

| volume = 326

| issue = 6111

| pages = 347–52

| last2 = Sibanda

| first2 = B. L.

| last3 = Sternberg

| first3 = M. J.

| author-link3 = Michael Sternberg

| last4 = Thornton

| first4 = J. M.

| author-link4 = Janet Thornton

| doi = 10.1038/326347a0

| bibcode = 1987Natur.326..347B

| s2cid = 4330510

}}{{Scopus id}}{{Cite journal

| pmid = 6646210

| year = 1983

| last1 = Blundell

| first1 = T

| author-link1 = Tom Blundell

| title = Solvent-induced distortions and the curvature of alpha-helices

| journal = Nature

| volume = 306

| issue = 5940

| pages = 281–3

| last2 = Barlow

| first2 = D

| last3 = Borkakoti

| first3 = N

| last4 = Thornton

| first4 = J

| author-link4 = Janet Thornton

| doi=10.1038/306281a0

| bibcode = 1983Natur.306..281B

| s2cid = 4331613

}}{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1093/bioinformatics/btn528| title = The Protein Feature Ontology: A tool for the unification of protein feature annotations| journal = Bioinformatics| volume = 24| issue = 23| pages = 2767–2772| year = 2008| last1 = Reeves | first1 = G. A.| last2 = Eilbeck | first2 = K.| last3 = Magrane | first3 = M.| last4 = O'Donovan | first4 = C.| last5 = Montecchi-Palazzi | first5 = L.| last6 = Harris | first6 = M. A.| last7 = Orchard | first7 = S.| last8 = Jimenez | first8 = R. C.| last9 = Prlic | first9 = A.| last10 = Hubbard | first10 = T. J. P.| author-link10= Tim Hubbard| last11 = Hermjakob | first11 = H.| last12 = Thornton | first12 = J. M.| author-link12 = Janet Thornton | pmid=18936051 | pmc=2912506}}{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/nmeth.2803| title = EC-BLAST: A tool to automatically search and compare enzyme reactions| journal = Nature Methods| volume = 11| issue = 2| pages = 171–4| year = 2014| last1 = Rahman | first1 = S. A. | last2 = Cuesta | first2 = S. M. | last3 = Furnham | first3 = N. | last4 = Holliday | first4 = G. L. | last5 = Thornton | first5 = J. M. | pmid=24412978 | pmc=4122987}} Her group developed a robust enzyme classification, comparison and annotation tool – the EC-BLAST{{Cite journal|last1=Rahman|first1=Syed Asad|last2=Cuesta|first2=Sergio Martinez|last3=Furnham|first3=Nicholas|last4=Holliday|first4=Gemma L.|last5=Thornton|first5=Janet M.|date=1 February 2014|title=EC-BLAST: a tool to automatically search and compare enzyme reactions|journal=Nature Methods|language=en|volume=11|issue=2|pages=171–174|doi=10.1038/nmeth.2803|issn=1548-7091|pmc=4122987|pmid=24412978}} which calculates similarity between enzymes based on chemical reactions by capturing the bond change(s), reaction centre(s) or structural similarity between them.{{Cite journal|last1=Rahman|first1=Syed Asad|last2=Torrance|first2=Gilliean|last3=Baldacci|first3=Lorenzo|last4=Martínez Cuesta|first4=Sergio|last5=Fenninger|first5=Franz|last6=Gopal|first6=Nimish|last7=Choudhary|first7=Saket|last8=May|first8=John W.|last9=Holliday|first9=Gemma L.|date=1 July 2016|title=Reaction Decoder Tool (RDT): extracting features from chemical reactions|journal=Bioinformatics|volume=32|issue=13|pages=2065–2066|doi=10.1093/bioinformatics/btw096|issn=1367-4811|pmc=4920114|pmid=27153692}}

From 2008 to 2012, she co-ordinated the four-year preparatory phase of the European life sciences data infrastructure ELIXIR.{{Cite journal | last1 = Crosswell | first1 = L. C. | last2 = Thornton | first2 = J. M. | author-link2 = Janet Thornton| doi = 10.1016/j.tibtech.2012.02.002 | title = ELIXIR: A distributed infrastructure for European biological data | journal = Trends in Biotechnology | volume = 30 | issue = 5 | pages = 241–242 | year = 2012 | pmid = 22417641}} As of 2013 she remains on the ELIXIR board as one of EMBL's scientific delegates.{{cite web|url=http://www.elixir-europe.org/about/elixirs-leadership|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014053701/http://www.elixir-europe.org/about/elixirs-leadership|archive-date=14 October 2013|title=ELIXIR's leadership: Governance in ELIXIR's construction phase}} Her research has been funded by the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC),{{cite web|url=http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/person/7AAAC37B-EE56-4900-8539-813ABA0680F1|title=UK Government Grants awarded to Janet Thornton|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310045251/http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/person/7AAAC37B-EE56-4900-8539-813ABA0680F1|archive-date=10 March 2015|publisher=Research Councils UK}} the Wellcome Trust, and the European Union.

Thornton has supervised several PhD{{cite web|author=Anon|year=2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304170946/http://www.ebi.ac.uk/research/publications/theses|url=http://www.ebi.ac.uk/research/publications/theses|title=Publications EMBL-EBI PhD Theses|archive-date=4 March 2014}} and postdoctoral researchers including Sarah Teichmann and David Jones.

{{Library resources box|by=yes|lcheading= Thornton, Janet M.}}

Thornton was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1999.{{cite web|url=http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=2415|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071112020719/http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=2415|title= Why Prof. Thornton was awarded the FRS|archive-date=12 November 2007|publisher=Royal Society|location=London}} She became a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 2000,{{cite web|url=http://www.embo.org/documents/members/The_EMBO_Pocket_Directory.pdf|author=Anon|year=2000|title=The EMBO Pocket Directory|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316002020/http://www.embo.org/documents/members/The_EMBO_Pocket_Directory.pdf|archive-date=16 March 2015|publisher=European Molecular Biology Organization}} a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2014. Thornton is a supernumerary fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.{{cite web|url=https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/people/view/janet-thornton/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310040928/https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/people/view/janet-thornton/|title=Professor Dame Janet Thornton PhD, CBE, FRS, DBE, Churchill College, Cambridge|archive-date=10 March 2015}} She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2017.{{cite web|url=http://www.rsc.org/about-us/our-history/our-honorary-fellows/|title=Our Honorary Fellows|publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry|access-date=27 February 2018}} Thornton's nomination for the Royal Society reads {{centred pull quote|Janet Thornton is distinguished for her contribution to understanding protein three-dimensional structure: her perceptive comparative studies have led to the development of algorithms that are used to analyse and make predictions of supersecondary and tertiary structure. In the 1970s at Oxford (with M J Sternberg) she established clear and useful rules for the handedness of B-a-B units and demonstrated valid methods for prediction of the ordering of strands in B-sheets. At Birkbeck she developed this work to define families of conformations in B-hairpins and aB-links where the structures had previously been assumed at random. She has made the most comprehensive and useful analyses of tertiary interactions of protein sidechains, leading to an atlas that is valuable for protein and ligand design. The atlas is used widely in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. At University College she has developed studies of sidechain conformation and stereochemistry into a procedure, PROCHECK, for evaluating the quality of experimentally defined protein structures: this is used widely to check protein structures. She has presented a method, known as threading, which gives strong evidence about tertiary structure for a protein sequence which is not obviously homologous to any other known structure.{{cite web |url=http://royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27EC%2F1999%2F34%27) |title =EC/1999/34: Thornton, Janet M |publisher=The Royal Society |archive-date=15 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415203652/http://royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo=='EC/1999/34') |location=London}}}}

Her citation on election to the Academy of Medical Sciences reads: {{centred pull quote|Dame Janet Thornton is Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute and is a world leader in bioinformatics. She has contributed significantly to medical science by increasing our fundamental understanding of the structure of proteins and how they contribute to disease and ageing. The tools and databases she has developed are used worldwide for basic research, in academia and also in pharmaceutical companies.

As Director of the EBI, she has been responsible for strategic developments related to the impact of the life sciences data on medical science. She is actively pursuing the challenge of how to join up biological and medical data in the UK and building tools which will facilitate the exploitation of these data for research and in the clinic.{{cite web|url=http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/professor-dame-janet-thornton/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310050711/http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/professor-dame-janet-thornton/|archive-date=10 March 2015|title=Professor Dame Janet Thornton DBE FRS FMedSci|publisher=Academy of Medical Sciences}}}}

Thornton was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to bioinformatics.{{London Gazette|issue=60173|supp=y|page=6|date=16 June 2012}} The Times named Thornton number 86 of their "Eureka 100" British scientists in 2010.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/eureka-100-the-people-that-matter-bxd3ss79tb5|website=The Times|title= Eureka 100: the people that matter|location=London}} She was awarded the Suffrage Science award in 2011.

{{reflist}}

{{FRS 1999}}

{{ISCB Fellows}}

{{Authority control}}

{{S-start}}

{{s-aca}}

{{s-bef | before = Michael Ashburner
Graham Cameron}}

{{s-ttl | title = Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute | years = 2001–2015}}

{{s-aft|after=Rolf Apweiler
Ewan Birney}}

{{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Janet}}

Category:1949 births

Category:Living people

Category:Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization

Category:Alumni of King's College London

Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Female fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge

Category:Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London

Category:Academics of University College London

Category:British bioinformaticians

Category:Alumni of the University of Nottingham

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:National Institute for Medical Research faculty

Category:Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Women bioinformaticians

Category:People educated at Bury Grammar School (Girls)