Thousands of pilgrims travel to Liverpool, England every year. Most come to visit the birthplace of the Beatles. They arrive at John Lennon “above us only sky” Airport. Top stop is the site of the Cavern on Mathew Street, the dark, sweaty club where the Beatles got their start. Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, St. Peter’s Church where John and Paul first met, and their childhood homes are all on the “Magical Mystery Tour”.

Site of the original Cavern Club on Mathew Street.

Liverpool is designated as a "World Heritage City" by UNESCO. Many come to admire the grandeur of the waterfront, the Anglican and Catholic cathedrals, or the old masters at the Walker Art Gallery. The City of Liverpool celebrates its 800th anniversary in 2007, being given city status by King John of Magna Carta fame in 1207.

Others come to visit Anfield, home of the Liverpool Football Club – England’s most successful football club, winners of the 2006 FA Cup. Everton fans head to Goodison Park. No love lost between the Reds and the Blues.

The "Three Graces" - The Royal Liver Building, The Cunard Building, and The Port of Liverpool
provide Liverpool with its famous skyline.

My journey was to visit the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool. The department was founded in 1902, making it the oldest biochemistry department. Our department, founded in 1907 is the second oldest, ahead of London (1912), Cambridge (1924), Queen’s (1924) and University College Dublin (1932).

Professor Huw Rees, Professor of Biochemistry was my host. I found Huw toiling away in his cramped office with a grant application for studentship support. I told him that I was on a pilgrimage from Canada to visit the oldest Biochemistry Department and that we were the second oldest and about to celebrate our 100th anniversary. Huw joined the Biochemistry Department in 1966 and was pleased to tell me about some of its history and to give me a tour.

Huw Rees and Reinhart Reithmeier outside the Johnston Laboratories (1903), first home of the Biochemistry Department.

The Department of Biochemistry at Liverpool was created in 1902 with Dr. Benjamin Moore as holder of the first chair. The chair was named in honour of William Johnston, a local ship-owner who donated £10,000 to create the department and construct a building.

Moore and another Liverpool biochemist, Edward Whitney, founded the Biochemical Journal in 1906, a year after the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The oldest biochemical journal, Hoppe-Seyler’s Zeitschrift für Physiologishe Chemie, started in 1877. The Biochemical Journal was taken over by the Biochemical Society in 1913.

During the 60’s expansion, the Department moved into the new Life Sciences Building. In 1996 the Department along with Environmental & Evolutionary Biology and Genetics & Microbiology merged to form the School of Biological Sciences (http://www.biolsci.liv.ac.uk/). In 2002 the Department celebrated its 100th anniversary with an international symposium on signalling.

The Life Sciences Building, opened in 1969.

In 2004 the Department moved into the Biosciences Building, an open concept structure that houses state-of-the art facilities for proteomics, genomics, imaging, microarrays, bioinformatics, and an NMR Centre for Structural Biology, the centerpiece being an 800 MHz Spectrometer. The current Chair of Biochemistry is Professor Stephen Edwards, a molecular immunologist interested in neutophil function. We have connections as our own Dr. Robert Painter, Professor Emeritus was a graduate of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool.

The Biosciences Building, opened in 2002.

What struck me during my visit was how similar the history of the two departments has been. We were created around the same time, survived difficult times during war and recession, moved into new buildings during the 1960s, and have expanded our mandate to include much more than traditional biochemistry, as biochemistry has become the fundamental molecular life science. It’s been a “Long and Winding Road” over the past 100 years. Who knows where the road will take biochemistry over the next 100 years!