Wooding, Peter, Dr, 1938 (physiologist)
Biography
Dr Peter Wooding (b.1938), studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge (1957- 1960), and following a year (1961) working at Reed, a paper manufacturer in Kent, returned to Cambridge and completed a PhD (1964) in the Department of Biochemistry on plant biochemistry supervised by Donald Northcote (1921-2004). In 1964 he became a Demonstrator in that Department and Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. In 1968 Wooding moved to the Institute of Animal Physiology at Babraham (1948-1993, thereafter the Babraham Institute) where he started work on the study of animal cell structures using electron microscopy, starting with the study of mammary glands and showing how lipids emerged from a cell without killing it. He moved on to study placental structure in ruminants, which addressed the problem of how the foetus interacted with maternal cells without provoking immunological reactions, discovering the role of binucleate cells in ruminant placental development in the ewe. The successful development of a specific staining technique allowed the comparative study of tissue samples obtained from a wide range of ruminants. This established the structural features common to all ruminant placentation. Subsequently, careful use of immunocytochemcal techniques for preparing and staining samples allowed the detailed localisation of antibodies which indicated the function of the various structures of the ruminant placenta. After retirement from Babraham in 2000 he worked as a histology technician at the Genome Research Centre at Hinxton until 2005. The chance then came to move to the Dept of Physiology, Cambridge University to run the electron microscope and collaborate with other academics in using the facility as well as continuing his ruminant research. Final retirement from scientific laboratory work came in 2021.