Early career Following his PhD, Hunt returned to New York to work with London, in collaboration with Nechama Kosower, her husband Edward Kosower, and Ellie Ehrenfeld. While there, they discovered that tiny amounts of
glutathione inhibited
protein synthesis in
reticulocytes and that tiny amounts of
RNA killed the synthesis altogether. After returning to Cambridge, he again began work with Tony Hunter and
Richard Jackson, who had discovered the RNA strand used to start haemoglobin synthesis. After 3–4 years, the team discovered at least two other chemicals acting as inhibitors.
Discovery of cyclins It was at Woods Hole around July 1982, using
Arbacia sea urchin eggs as his model organism, that he discovered
cyclin proteins. Hunt was observing the eggs undergo cell division after fertilization. The study also included a control group where the eggs had been activated without fertilization by a
calcium ionophore. The eggs were incubated with the amino acid
methionine in which some of the atoms were radioactive isotopes (
radiolabelled), with samples being taken from the eggs at 10 minute intervals. During the egg development, the radioactive methionine was uptaken into the cells and used to make proteins. From the samples, proteins were precipitated and then separated by mass into distinct bands on a resolving gel mat, which were then observed by photographic film that could detect the radioactivity emitted by the proteins. Observing the changes in the bands across the samples, Hunt noticed that one of the proteins rose in abundance before disappearing during the
mitosis phase of cell division. It was later discovered that cyclins are continuously synthesised, but are specifically targeted for
proteolysis during mitosis. Hunt later demonstrated that cyclins were also present in another sea urchin,
Lytechinus pictus, as well as in
Spisula clams. That same year, Hunt defined the concept of
short linear motifs, parts of protein sequences that mediate interactions with other proteins. In 1993, the book
The Cell Cycle: An Introduction, which Hunt co-authored along with Andrew Murray, was published by
Oxford University Press. Hunt had his own laboratory at the Clare Hall Laboratories until the end of 2010, and remains an
Emeritus Group Leader at the
Francis Crick Institute. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the
Campaign for Science and Engineering. He has served on the Selection Committee for the
Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine. In 2010, Hunt joined the Academic Advisory Board of the Austrian think tank Academia Superior, Institute for Future Studies. Hunt has been a mentor and collaborator to researchers in the scientific community. During his career, he has supervised numerous PhD students, including
Hugh Pelham He also believes that science benefits when power is given to young people, himself having been given full autonomy and authority at age 27.
2015 controversy At the World Conference of Science Journalists in
Seoul in June 2015, Hunt gave a impromptu toast at a lunch for female journalists and scientists. As recounted by an EU official, Hunt said: Parts of the remarks were widely publicised on social media due to their perceived sexist nature, resulting in an intense online backlash, which some described as an act of
public shaming. Hunt resigned from his honorary professorship at
University College London after the university told him to; he also resigned from several other research positions. Hunt apologised and stated that the remarks were in jest. He said that they had been taken out of context, as the remarks had originally been reported without the words starting with "now seriously". Hunt also stated he "did mean the part about having trouble with girls". Some public figures and scientists, including some who had worked with Hunt, suggested that the backlash against him was disproportionate. == Awards and honours ==