| | 1 | Name: | Dr. David Botstein | | | Institution: | Princeton University; Calico | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
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| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | | | | |
In 2013 David Botstein retired as the Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University and joined Calico as Chief Scientific Officer. Calico is a Google startup that will focus on aging and life-extension. Previously he served as Griswold Professor of Genetics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; as vice president of science for Genentech, Inc.; and as Acherman Professor and chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. A native of Switzerland, he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (1967). David Botstein is one of the greatest geneticists working today and a pioneer in more ways than one. His early genetic work contributed to the discovery and understanding of transposable elements in bacteria. In the 1970s, his studies were instrumental in making the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae a major model organism that continues to be prominent in both fundamental biological research and biotechnology. A seminal 1980 paper by Botstein and colleagues suggested to employ restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) for producing a linkage map of the human genome. That visionary proposal became the foundation of the new science of genomics. He also co-founded the Saccharomyces Genome Database, which continues to be a leading international resource that connects genomic sequences with biological functions. In addition, Botstein is a pioneering educator who revamped the Princeton biological curriculum through the teaching of biology in close juxtaposition to physics, mathematics and chemistry. David Botstein is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1981); the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1985); and the Institute of Medicine (1993). Other professional honors include the Eli Lilly Award (1978); the Genetics Society of America Medal (1988); the Rosenstiel Award (1992); the Gruber Prize in Genetics (2003); and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2013). David Botstein was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Gretchen Cara Daily | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
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| | | Birth Date: | 1964 | | | | | | |
Gretchen Daily is a professor of biological sciences; the director of the Tropical Research Program at the Center for Conservation Biology; a senior fellow at CESP; and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Program on Environment and Resources at Stanford University. An ecologist by training, she is working to develop a scientific basis - and political and institutional support - for managing Earth's life support systems. Professor Daily's greatest contributions have been in developing a framework for illuminating the benefits generated by natural capital and the tradeoffs associated with alternative paths of development as a basis for implementing new conservation finance and policy. To this end, she has led interdisciplinary teams, worked closely with economists and other ecologists and authored or edited influential publications that have given the subject great prominence. She has been involved both in developing the theoretical framework and in applying it to case studies. Her efforts in this area have also led her to create the new discipline of countryside biogeography. Daily organized and is the director of the path-breaking Natural Capital Project, which seeks to align conservation and financial incentives. She has also done important studies of the carrying capacity of Earth, humanity's deteriorating epidemiological environment and the importance of equity in solving human problems. Gretchen Daily has published approximately 150 scientific and popular articles. Her most recent book, coauthored with Katherine Ellison, is The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable (2002). She was presented with the Japanese Cosmos Award in 2009. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2003) and the National Academy of Sciences (2005), she was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Jan-Ake Gustafsson | | | Institution: | Karolinska Institute; University of Houston | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
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| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
Jan-Åke Gustafsson, M.D., Ph.D., has played a pivotal role in discoveries of how nuclear receptors in the cell mediate actions of hormones and nutrients to regulate gene expression. Dr. Gustafsson is Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Novum, Karolinska University Hospital at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Gustafsson first described the three-domain structure of nuclear receptors, defined the function of these domains, and determined how the DNA-binding mechanism mediates nuclear receptor activities in the cell. He also was the first to discover that fatty acids are natural activators of the peroxisome proliferator activated nuclear receptor (PPAR), thus stimulating the investigation of the role of PPARs in lipid metabolism. Furthermore, Dr. Gustafsson discovered a second type of estrogen receptor (ER?) as well as a nuclear receptor that is important in cholesterol metabolism (LXR?). Dr. Gustafsson received his Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1964, his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1968 and his M.D. degree in 1971, all from the Karolinska Institute. He was named a professor of chemistry at the Institute in 1976, and to his current posts in 1979. In 1987, he founded KaroBio AB, a biotechnology company based at the Karolinska Institute, initially supported by pension and government funds. Career/Academic Appointments: 1964 Bachelor of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 1971 Associate Professor in Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet 1976 Professor of Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet 1978 Professor of Chemistry, University of Gothenburg 1979 Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Dept of Medical Nutrition, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet 2006-present Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Dept of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet Among the honors he has received during his career are: The Svedberg Prize in chemistry in 1982, the Fernström Prize of the Karolinska Institute in 1983, the Anders Jahre Prize in 1992, the Gregory Pincus Medal and Award of the Worcester Foundation in 1994, the Söderberg Prize in Medicine in 1998, the European Medal of the British Society for Endocrinology in 2000, the Lorenzini Gold Medal in 2001, the Fred Conrad Koch Award from the Endocrine Society in the U.S. in 2002, the Bristol-Meyers Squibb/Mead Johnson Award for Nutrition Research in 2004, the Geoffrey Harris Prize in 2009, the Award of Merit of the Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund in 2009, the Grand Nordic Fernstrom Prize of the University of Lund in 2009, and the Grand Silver Medal of the Karolinska Institutet in 2011. Dr. Gustafsson was elected to the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1997, to the Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 1998, became a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000 and a foreign honorary member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2002. In 2002 he was Chairman of the Nobel Assemly of the Karolinska Institutet. Jan-Åke Gustafsson was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Roger D. Kornberg | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 206. Physiology, Biophysics, and Pharmacology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
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| | | Birth Date: | 1947 | | | | | | |
Roger Kornberg is Winzer Professor in Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1972 and has been a faculty member there since 1978. His work has been recognized with the Gairdner International Award (2000); the Merck Award (2002); the Sloan Prize in Cancer Research (2005); and the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Roger Kornberg's first paradigm-changing discovery was the demonstration of the flip flop of lipids between two leaflets of a membrane. In 1974 he tackled and solved the age-old mystery of chromatin structure by discovering the nucleosome. That landmark advance stemmed from his insightful application of protein chemistry and a bold leap of reasoning. In the early 1980s, Kornberg combined lateral diffusion and protein chemistry in his invention of two dimensional protein crystallization. This ingenious approach led, ultimately, to the greatest triumph of his career to date, the atomic structure determination of the giant RNA polymerase complex in the act of gene transcription, a monumental achievement that was recognized by the (unshared) Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His discovery of transcriptional mediator is yet another landmark in a career most uncommonly rich in major discoveries. Roger Kornberg is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1998) and the National Academy of Sciences (2003). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Randy Wayne Schekman | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley; Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
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| | | Birth Date: | 1948 | | | | | | |
Dr. Randy Schekman is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He studied the enzymology of DNA replication as a graduate student with Arthur Kornberg at Stanford University. His current interest in cellular membranes developed during a postdoctoral period with S. J. Singer at the University of California, San Diego. At Berkeley, he developed a genetic and biochemical approach to the study of eukaryotic membrane traffic. Among his awards are the Eli Lilly Award in microbiology and immunology, the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award in basic biomedical science, the Gairdner International Award, the Amgen Award of the Protein Society, the Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University and the Dickson Prize in Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2013. He has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Geneva and the University of Regensburg. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1999, he was elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology and was appointed Editor of the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. In 2002, he was elected Chair of the Biochemistry Section of the National Academy of Sciences and was selected as Scientific Director of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Biomedical Research. In 2005, he was elected Chair of the Biology Class of the NAS and in 2006 he was appointed Editor-in Chief of the Proceedings of the NAS. At UC Berkeley, Schekman has assumed a number of leadership positions in Departmental and campus affairs. In addition to serving a five-year term as Biochemistry Division Head, Schekman served as Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Chancellor's Advisory Council on Biology, a virtual College of Biology that represents all 250 life science faculty distributed within the College of Letters and Science, School of Public Health, School of Optometry, School of Engineering, College of Chemistry, and College of Natural Resources. In 2004, he organized a campus-wide stem cell biology center to capitalize on California's investment in the application of human embryonic stem cells to regenerative medicine. Randy Wayne Schekman was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Irving Weissman | | | Institution: | Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
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| | | Birth Date: | 1939 | | | | | | |
Irving Weissman is Professor of Pathology, Professor of Developmental Biology, and Director of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. A major contributor to cellular immunology, virology and oncology, he clarified the thymus's role in producing T-lymphocytes; implicated viral receptors in leukomogenesis; discovered lymphocyte homing receptors for lymph node venules; and characterized cellular recognition in protochordates. Weissman was the first to isolate mammalian stem cells, identifying these blood forming cells in mice and humans and defining the stages of development between stem cells and mature blood cells and cells of the immune system. This has led to important new treatments for leukemia and lymphoma since the stem cells he isolated are the ones that allow successful human bone marrow transplantation. Another important contribution by Weissman and his colleagues was the development of the SCID-hu mouse, which has functional human immune cells. This model allows human disease to be studied in vivo in experimental rodents. Weismann's transplantation of human tissue and cells to an immunodeficient mouse model has allowed him to isolate human hematopoietic stem cells. Most recently, he has isolated human stem cells capable of generating brain neurons. Irving Weissman received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1965 and has served on the university's faculty since 1969. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1989) and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1990) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009). He has been awarded the Linus Pauling Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Science; the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal of the National Academy of Sciences; the E. Donnall Thomas Prize of the American Society of Hematology; and the Robert Koch Award. Irving Weissman was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
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