Peter Bruce Nunn

Peter Bruce Nunn was born in London, England, a few hundred yards from Trafalgar Square. He began his scientific career in the laboratories of the Wright–Fleming Institute of Microbiology, at a time when Fleming was still active, working on high-pathogen bacteria for vaccine production, by which means the Institute supported itself. Subsequently, he was employed in commercial research in a laboratory, directed by Professor Arnold Bender, that specialised in the nutritional biochemistry of protein composition. Nunn subsequently graduated B.Sc. with first class honours in the University of London, majoring in Mammalian Physiology and Chemistry. His Ph.D. was in Biochemistry, specializing in amino acid transport in animal tissues.

Nunn joined the academic staff of the Department of Biochemistry, King’s College London in 1965. Here he fell under the influence of Professor Arthur Bell, who subsequently became Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Nunn was interested in neurodegenerative diseases and Bell was well known for his work on neurotoxic plants. Plant neurotoxins were an ideal vehicle for studying neurodegenerative diseases in geographical isolates and so the two began an active collaboration. Nunn’s major discovery at Kings’s was establishing that the amino acid BMAA, first isolated at King’s from seeds of Cycas micronesia, was neurotoxic to laboratory animals. Although cycads were known to be neurotoxic, this was the first demonstration of a purified neurotoxic chemical extracted from a cycad species.

The collaboration continued when Bell was appointed Professor of Botany at the University of Texas at Austin. Nunn had been appointed Faculty Associate in Austin, but returned to King’s College in 1970 as Lecturer (subsequently Senior Lecturer) in Biochemistry. Here he continued chemical, biochemical and neurophysiological research on neurotoxins from Lathyus sativus (believed to be the cause of the chronic neurological disease neurolathyrism - a primary upper motor neurone disease - in Ethiopia and the India sub-continent) and the cycad neurotoxin BMAA, which many believe to be the causative agent of the ALS/PD complex of Guam.

In the summer of 1985 Nunn was invited to join Professor Peter Spencer’s laboratory at the Rose F Kennedy Centre, New York City. Here Nunn worked on attempts to establish an animal model of Guamian ALS/PD in macaques and demonstrated, for the first time, that L-BMAA was an excitotoxin to neurones in culture. This work was subsequently incorporated into a BBC documentary film, “The Poison that Waits” (1989).

Nunn was Sub-Dean of Preclinical Medicine at King’s (1985 – 1990) and a member of the Medical Research Advisory Panel of the Motor Neurone Disease Society (U.K.) from 1988-1994. He continues to be a member of the Biochemical Society and previously was a member of the British Brain Research Association, the World Conference on Neurology and the British Toxicology Society. He has published over 70 scientific papers and articles.

After retirement from King’s, Nunn was appointed Visiting Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth. Here he continues his work on chemical neurotoxins and the chemical reactivity of the sweetener aspartame.