Flavell, Richard Anthony (1945– )

English molecular biologist who is best known for his work on the nature of the genes for human globin chains (the protein components of the blood's oxygen-carrying substance haemoglobin). He showed that thalassaemia, a group of inherited anaemias, were the result of genetic defects. His work led to the development of gene therapies to correct the faulty genes and treat the condition.

He demonstrated that genetic defects in one or more of the globins cause individuals to develop thalassaemia. He went on to describe the exact nature of these genetic defects and the abnormal type of globin chain(s) they formed.

Flavell also investigated the segregation of different phenotypes (the visible traits displayed by an organism) with identical genotypes (the particular set of gene variants that produced these traits) using wheat.

Flavell studied at the University of Hull, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Zürich. He was appointed to a staff position at the National Institutes of Medical Research, Mill Hill, London in 1979 and was made president of the Biogen Corporation 1982–88. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 1984. In 1988 he settled in the USA in the post of professor in both immunology and biology at Yale University Medical School.