Subdivision
| • | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Carol W. Greider | | | Institution: | University of California Santa Cruz | | | Year Elected: | 2016 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1961 | | | | | | |
Carol Greider, Ph.D. received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984, working together with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, she discovered telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomeres, or chromosome ends. In 1988, Dr. Greider was recruited to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as an independent Cold Spring Harbor Fellow, where she cloned and characterized the RNA component of telomerase. In 1990, Dr. Greider was appointed as an assistant investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, followed later by appointment to Investigator in 1994. She expanded the focus of her telomere research to include the role of short telomeres in cellular senescence, cell death and in cancer. In 1997, Dr. Greider moved her laboratory to the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 2003, she was appointed as the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. Dr. Greider’s group continued to study the biochemistry of telomerase and determined the secondary structure of the human telomerase RNA. In addition, she characterized the loss of telomere function in mice, which allowed an understanding of human diseases that make up the short telomere syndromes. Dr. Greider shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 with Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak for their work on telomeres and telomerase. In 2014, Dr. Greider was appointed as a Blooomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Greider directs a group of scientists studying both the role of short telomeres in age-related disease and cancer as well as the regulatory mechanism that maintain telomere length. In 2020 she became Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental (MCD) Biology at University of California Santa Cruz. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Michael A. Marletta | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 2016 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1951 | | | | | | |
Michael A. Marletta is on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley where he holds the CH and Annie Li Chair in the Molecular Biology of Diseases. He is also Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkeley. Marletta is a biochemist whose creative work begins with a dissection of a biological question into a molecular framework for study. His primary research interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology with emphasis on the study of protein function and enzyme reaction mechanisms. His work has demonstrated uncommon creativity and led to remarkable discoveries when asking chemical questions about complex biological phenomena. His work on the enzymes nitric oxide synthase and guanylate cyclase provided many of the fundamental details of nitric oxide signaling that have now become a paradigm for cellular communication involving gases. He has also discovered novel enzymes involved in biomass degradation that also play a role in pathogenesis in humans and plants. Marletta has been recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship (1995), election to the National Academy of Medicine (1999), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001), and the National Academy of Sciences (2006). He has received many awards that recognize his accomplishments including the Harrison Howe Award (2004), the Repligen Award for Chemistry of Biological Processes given by the Biological Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (2007), the Emil T. Kaiser Award from the Protein Society (2007), the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest, Northeastern Section, American Chemical Society (2007), the American Association of State Colleges and Universities AASCU Distinguished Alumnus Award (2014), the Alfred Bader Award for Bioinorganic/Bioorganic Chemistry (2015), and the UCSF 150th Anniversary Alumni Excellence Award (2015). Marletta serves on editorial boards including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA and is a member of the Foundation Board at Fredonia, State University of New York. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2016. | |
| |