Robert Horne (virologist)

Horne was raised in Montreal and served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.{{cite journal |last1=Horne |first1=Robert |title=Viruses: architecture smaller than life |journal=RSA Journal |date=1991 |volume=139 |issue=5414 |pages=929–35 |jstor=41375434 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41375434}} He began his scientific career at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where he began working with transmission electron microscopes with Vernon Ellis Cosslett. He received his master's and doctorate from the University of Cambridge. In 1961, Horne moved to what was then the Institute of Animal Physiology (now the Babraham Institute), and in 1968 he moved again to what became the John Innes Centre, directed by Roy Markham. Horne remained there as a department head until retiring in 1982. He continued working after his retirement as an honorary professor at the University of East Anglia.

In addition to his scientific interests, Horne was a sailing enthusiast and an artist who focused on marine art.

Horne specialized in the use of electron microscopy to study viruses. In 1959, he and Sydney Brenner pioneered the technique of negative staining in electron microscopy and used it to study virus structure, beginning with bacteriophages.{{cite journal |last1=BRENNER |first1=S |last2=HORNE |first2=RW |title=A negative staining method for high resolution electron microscopy of viruses. |journal=Biochimica et Biophysica Acta |date=July 1959 |volume=34 |pages=103–10 |doi=10.1016/0006-3002(59)90237-9 |pmid=13804200}} With Peter Wildy and Willie Russell, Horne applied the technique to study the herpes simplex virus and the geometry of its capsid.{{cite journal |last1=Kemp |first1=Martin |title=Visible viruses |journal=Nature |date=November 1998 |volume=396 |issue=6707 |pages=123 |doi=10.1038/24062|pmid=9823890 |bibcode=1998Natur.396..123K |s2cid=29241274 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=WILDY |first1=P |last2=RUSSELL |first2=WC |last3=HORNE |first3=RW |title=The morphology of herpes virus. |journal=Virology |date=October 1960 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=204–22 |doi=10.1016/0042-6822(60)90195-1 |pmid=13785268}} In the 1960s, Horne, André Michel Lwoff, and Paul Tournier developed early systems of viral taxonomy.{{cite journal |last1=Lwoff |first1=André |last2=Tournier |first2=Paul |title=The Classification of Viruses |journal=Annual Review of Microbiology |date=October 1966 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=45–74 |doi=10.1146/annurev.mi.20.100166.000401|pmid=5330240 }}{{cite journal |last1=Lwoff |first1=A |last2=Horne |first2=RW |last3=Tournier |first3=P |title=[A virus system]. |journal=Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences |date=13 June 1962 |volume=254 |pages=4225–7 |pmid=14467544}}{{cite journal |last1=Lwoff |first1=A. |last2=Horne |first2=R. |last3=Tournier |first3=P. |title=A System of Viruses |journal=Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology |date=1 January 1962 |volume=27 |pages=51–55 |doi=10.1101/sqb.1962.027.001.008|pmid=13931895 }} His work with Alec Bangham on phospholipids contributed to the discovery of liposomes.

Horne wrote two books on virology and co-authored reference works in electron microscopy. He joined the editorial board of the journal Micron at its founding in 1969 and served as its editor-in-chief from 1978 to 1995.

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• [https://www.webofstories.com/play/sydney.brenner/86 Taking the electron microscope out of the hands of the elite]: video interview with Sydney Brenner, describing the development of negative staining

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Category:British virologists