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Colin Blakemore is a British Neurobiologist specializing in Vision , and chief executive of the British Medical Research Council (MRC). He is best known to the public as the target of a long-running Animal-rights campaign. According to '' The Observer '', he is "regarded by many animal activists as the country's key hate figure." {Link without Title} Blakemore came to the attention of the Animal Rights Movement while at Oxford University in the 1980s, when he carried out research into Amblyopia and Strabismus , conducting experiments that involved sewing kittens' eyes shut from birth. {Link without Title} Since then, according to ''The Observer'', he and his family have "endured assaults by masked terrorists, bombs sent to his children, letters laced with razor blades, a suicide bid by his wife, and more than a decade of attacks and abuse." {Link without Title} BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH INTERESTS Born in Stratford-upon-Avon , England, he won a state scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he gained a first-class degree in medical sciences, then completed his doctoral studies at the University Of California, Berkeley , USA as a Harkness fellow. He returned to Cambridge to undertake post-doctoral research, before moving to the University of Oxford where he became Waynflete Professor Of Physiology at the age of 35. His research has focused on vision, the early development of the Brain and, more recently, conditions like Huntington's and Alzheimer's Disease . He has published over 220 scientific papers and a number of books on these subjects. He was director of the MRC Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience for eight years and, in 1989, was awarded the . In 2003, he succeeded Professor Sir George Radda as the head of the Medical Research Council, a national organisation that supports medical science with an annual budget of almost £500 million. {Link without Title} ANIMAL TESTING AND ANIMAL RIGHTS He is outspoken in his support of the use of Animal Testing in Medical Research , though he has also publicly denounced Fox Hunting and animal testing for Cosmetics . {Link without Title} In 1998, during the 68-day hunger strike of British animal-rights activist Barry Horne , Blakemore's life was threatened in a statement released by Robin Webb of the Animal Liberation Press Office on behalf of the Animal Rights Militia . Direct Action against him has abated somewhat since the prosecution of Cynthia O'Neill for harassing him in 2000. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1041665,00.html Soon after Blakemore's appointment to the MRC, '' The Sunday Times '' published a leaked British Cabinet Office document that suggested he was deemed unsuitable for inclusion in the 2004 New Year's Honours List because of his controversial research on animals. {Link without Title} In response, he threatened to resign, suggesting in interviews that his position as chief executive was now untenable: :It's a matter of principle. The mission statement of the MRC is explicit. There's a specific commitment to talk to the public about issues in medical research. How can I now go to our scientists, and ask them to risk talking about animal research, when there now appears to be evidence that in secret the government disapproves it, even though in public they've strongly encouraged it? {Link without Title} Amid press speculation that pressure from chief executive unrecognised in the British Honours System . REFERENCES
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