Richard Penry Ambler (26 May 1933 – 27 December 2013) was an English molecular biologist who conducted groundbreaking research into the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
[1] Ambler was the first scientist to publish an amino acid sequence of a bacterial protein, and had a long academic career at the University of Edinburgh.
[1] Ambler later returned to England to attend boarding school at Haileybury, before heading to Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1954 to study natural sciences.
He began a longstanding research project on the increasing resistance of certain bacteria to penicillin and other antibiotics, making important discoveries related to bacterial gene transfer and enzyme development.
Ambler was particularly interested in the potential for the wider significance of horizontal gene transfer in evolution, influencing Carl Woese's later perspective.