Subdivision
| • | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Robert Heinz Abeles | | | Institution: | Brandeis University | | | Year Elected: | 1999 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1926 | | | Death Date: | June 18, 2000 | | | | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. John Abelson | | | Institution: | California Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2001 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | | | | |
John Norman Abelson has made major contributions to our understanding of molecular biology and biochemistry. A pioneer in recombinant DNA technology, he focused early on on mutagenic bacterial viruses and on RNA sequencing. Later he discovered intervening sequences in t-RNA and worked out the mechanisms involved in t-RNA splicing. His laboratory named and characterized the "spliceozyme" required for messenger RNA processing in yeast, and he remains a leader in characterizing the structure and function of this "molecular machine." Dr. Abelson has served the scientific community in a variety of positions. Since 1995 he has been George Beadle Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. He has received many honors and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1980-81). He earned his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1965. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Peter C. Agre | | | Institution: | Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2004 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1949 | | | | | | |
Peter Agre is a physician-scientist who has spent the last two decades studying the proteins of red blood cells, including those of the red cell membrane that determine blood type. Along with other workers in Paris and England, he solved the old puzzle of whether the Rh blood type is determined by one gene or by two or more closely linked genes. He isolated a novel protein of the red cell membrane that proved to be the specific protein for a channel involved in transfer of water across the cell membrane. He found that this channel, which he called aquaporin-1, is present in many other types of cells, such as the kidney and lung, where he could show physiologic significance. Furthermore, he showed that the previously known Colton blood type was determined by variation in the aquaporin-1 protein. He found that aquaporin-1 is the archetypic member of a family of cell membrane proteins. In 2003 Dr. Agre was awarded the Nobel Prize for these discoveries. He has been Professor of Biological Chemistry and Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine since 1993. In February 2009 he became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Sidney Altman | | | Institution: | Yale University | | | Year Elected: | 1990 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1939 | | | Death Date: | April 5, 2022 | | | | | | |
Born in Montreal in 1939, Sidney Altman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 for making one of the most original and important discoveries in molecular biology. After discovering the t-RNA precursor molecules, he systematically explored their enzymatic conversion to a functional state. This led him to the realization that the catalysis is carried out by the RNA portion of the enzyme nucleoprotein. The importance of this contribution cannot be overstated; it has caused a reevaluation of the previous view that all enzymes are proteins and has provided the explanation of a number of previously observed phenomena. Dr. Altman joined the faculty at Yale University as an assistant professor in 1971, subsequently becoming a professor in 1980 and chairman of the department in 1983. Dr. Altman also served as Dean of Yale College from 1985-89, helping to bridge the gap between the humanities and the sciences. A man of wide cultural interests and an admired teacher, Dr. Altman is currently Sterling Professor of Biology and Chemistry at Yale. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Christian B. Anfinsen | | | Institution: | Johns Hopkins University | | | Year Elected: | 1975 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1916 | | | Death Date: | 5/14/95 | | | | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Paul Berg | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 1983 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1926 | | | Death Date: | February 15, 2023 | | | | | | |
Paul Berg is an acknowledged leader in the study of gene transfer from bacteria to viruses to cells of higher organisms. He witnessed firsthand the history of recombinant DNA research and regulation, having been in the forefront of both movements since he was a young man. He became a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1959, when he was 33. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences before the age of 40, and he gained early recognition and influence when he delineated the key steps in which DNA produces proteins. Dr. Berg was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980 for his work with DNA. In the mid-1970s, the National Academy of Sciences asked him to explore the safety of recombinant DNA technology. He responded with the historic "Berg letter," calling for a moratorium on recombinant DNA research until safety issues could be addressed. He was one of the key organizers of the international forum on recombinant DNA technology, the Asilomar Conference, which took place in February of 1975. One hundred leading scientists met at the conference to discuss the potential risks of gene-splicing experiments. The ensuing dialogue resulted in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines published a year later, a milestone of responsible self-regulation in science. Dr. Berg's laboratory continued to work with recombinant DNA techniques throughout the 1980s. In 1985, he became director of the New Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. In 1991, Dr. Berg was named head of the NIH's influential Human Genome Project. | |
| 7 | Name: | Dr. J. Michael Bishop | | | Institution: | University of California, San Francisco | | | Year Elected: | 1995 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1936 | | | | | | |
J. Michael Bishop is one of the pioneers of research on molecular biology of tumor viruses, and with H.E. Varmus he made the key discovery that cancer-causing genes (oncogenes) of a major class of tumor-causing viruses are present as normal components of the chromosomes of vertebrates, including humans. By focusing attention on the possible role of aberrantly expressed normal genes and the proteins that they encode, this work stimulated the search and discovery of changes in cellular oncogenes in human cancer. For his work in microbiology, Dr. Bishop received the Lasker Prize in 1982 and the Nobel Prize in 1989. In 2003 he was awarded the National Medal of Science and his book, How to win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science, was published. After many years as a professor of microbiology, immunology and biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, he served as Chancellor of that institution until 2009. A scientist of broad culture, Dr. Bishop has reflected and lectured widely on the malaise that exists between science and society and has been active in efforts to improve science teaching in schools. | |
| 8 | Name: | Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn | | | Institution: | University of California, San Francisco | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1948 | | | | | | |
Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn is a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research and has made key discoveries in different aspects of telomere function and biology. In 1985, she discovered the ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase, and since that time, hers has become a lead laboratory in manipulating and studying telomerase activity in cells. Having amassed considerable knowledge and experience in the effects this has on cells, Dr. Blackburn and her research team at the University of California, San Francisco worked with a variety of organisms and human cells, especially cancer cells, with the goal of understanding telomerase and telomere biology. Her work on telomeres and telomerase has been published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Blackburn earned her B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge in England. She did her postdoctoral work in molecular and cellular biology from 1975-77 at Yale University. In 1978, Dr. Blackburn joined the department of molecular biology at the University of California Berkeley. In 1990, she joined the departments of microbiology and immunology, and biochemistry and biophysics, at the University of California, San Francisco, and she was department chair of the department of microbiology and immunology from 1993-99, and the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF as well as a non-resident fellow of the Salk Institute. In January 2016 Dr. Blackburn became professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco, and was President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies until 2018.
Throughout her career, Dr. Blackburn has been honored by her peers as the recipient of many prestigious awards. These include the Eli Lilly Research Award for Microbiology and Immunology (1988), the National Academy of Science Award in Molecular Biology (1990), and honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University (1991), the University of Pennsylvania (2004), Bard College (2004), Brandeis University (2004), and the University of Chicago (2004). She was a Harvey Society Lecturer at the Harvey Society in New York (1990) and recipient of the UCSF Women's Faculty Association Award (1995). Most recently, she was awarded the Australia Prize (1998), the Harvey Prize (1999), the Keio Prize (1999), the American Association for Cancer Research-G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award (2000), the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2000), the AACR-Pezcoller Foundation International Award for Cancer Research (2001), the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Award (2001), the Bristol Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Cancer Research (2003), the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2004), the Kirk A. Landon-American Association for Cancer Research Prize for Basic Cancer Research (2005), the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science (2005), and the Nobel Prize in Medicine (2009). She was named California Scientist of the Year in 1999 and was elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology for the year 1998. Dr. Blackburn is an elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1993) and an elected Member of the Institute of Medicine (2000). She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000). She was elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993 and was elected as a Member of the Institute of Medicine in 2000. She was awarded the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Basic Medical Research (2006). In 2007 she was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, and she is the 2008 North American Laureate for L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science. | |
| 9 | Name: | Dr. Konrad E. Bloch | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1966 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1912 | | | Death Date: | October 15, 2000 | | | | |
| 10 | Name: | Dr. James Bonner | | | Institution: | California Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 1966 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1910 | | | Death Date: | 9/13/96 | | | | |
| 11 | Name: | Dr. David Botstein | | | Institution: | Princeton University; Calico | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | 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. | |
| 12 | Name: | Dr. Paul D. Boyer | | | Institution: | University of California, Los Angeles | | | Year Elected: | 1998 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1918 | | | Death Date: | June 2, 2018 | | | | | | |
Paul Delos Boyer was born July 31, 1918 in Provo, Utah. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1939 and a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1943. He served at Stanford University with a war research project on stabilization of human serum albumin from 1943-45 and with the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, MD in 1946. From 1946-63 he was a faculty member at the University of Minnesota and from 1963 to 1999 a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles, becoming emeritus in 1999. In 1965 he became founding director of UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute. Dr. Boyer received the American Chemical Society Award in Enzyme Chemistry in 1955 and during that year he was a Guggenheim Fellow for studies in Sweden. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1968) and the National Academy of Sciences (1970). He has received the Rose Award of the American Society of Biochemistry (1989) and honorary doctorates from the University of Stockholm (1974), the University of Minnesota (1996) and the University of Wisconsin (1998). In 1997 he shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walker and Skou for their studies with ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Throughout nature ATP serves for the capture and use of energy. Dr. Boyer also served as editor of the 18-volume treatise "The Enzymes" (1971-90) and has published over 300 papers, mostly about enzymes. About half of these relate to the mechanism of the complex membrane-bound ATP synthase. With his associates Boyer discovered that during ATP synthesis the three catalytic sites, even though they have identical amino acid sequences, proceed sequentially through strikingly different conformations. They obtained the first evidence that this occurs by a novel rotational catalysis. The rotational movement of a multi-subunit portion in the membrane drives the rotation of a single subunit in the center of the catalytic site cluster, resulting in the sequential conformational changes necessary for the binding, formation, and release of ATP. Dr. Paul D. Boyer died June 2, 2018, at the age of 99 at home in Los Angeles, California. | |
| 13 | Name: | Dr. Michael S. Brown | | | Institution: | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | | | Year Elected: | 1987 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1941 | | | | | | |
Michael S. Brown received a B.A. degree in chemistry in 1962 and an M.D. degree in 1966 from the University of Pennsylvania. He was an intern and resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a post doctoral fellow with Dr. Earl Stadtman at the National Institutes of Health. In 1971, he moved to the University of Texas in Dallas, where he rose through the ranks to become a professor in 1976. He is currently Paul J. Thomas Professor of Molecular Genetics and Director of the Jonsson Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Dr. Brown and his long-time colleague, Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, together discovered the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, which controls the level of cholesterol in blood and in cells. They showed that mutations in this receptor cause Familial Hypercholesterolemia, a disorder that leads to premature heart attacks in one out of every 500 people in most populations. They have received many awards for this work, including the U.S. National Medal of Science and the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology. | |
| 14 | Name: | Dr. Robert H. Burris | | | Institution: | University of Wisconsin, Madison | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1914 | | | Death Date: | May 11, 2010 | | | | | | |
For forty years Robert H. Burris was a professor in the University of Wisconsin's department of biochemistry. After receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from South Dakota State University, he arrived at Wisconsin in 1936 and completed a Ph.D. in bacteriology in 1940. He conducted penicillin studies and taught plant biochemistry prior to joining the biochemistry department as an assistant professor in 1944. Around this time he began his research on biological nitrogen fixation, work which would be of great importance to agriculture and humankind. Marked by imagination, painstaking analysis and innovative use of methodologies, many of which were of his own devising, Dr. Burris conducted studies using radioactive isotopes and mass spectrometers, working primarily on photosynthesis and respiratory enzymes in addition to biological nitrogen fixation. Between 1958 and 1970 Dr. Burris was chair of the department, training many doctoral and post-doctoral students and authoring hundreds of research papers. A member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, and former president of the American Society of Plant Physiologists, Dr. Burris retired from the University of Wisconsin in 1984. He continued to conduct research and publish scientific papers long past his retirement. He died on May 11, 2010, at age 96. | |
| 15 | Name: | Dr. Thomas R. Cech | | | Institution: | University of Colorado, Boulder; Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2001 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1947 | | | | | | |
Tom Cech is one of the world's leading biochemists and the discoverer of the enzymatic activity of RNA, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989. He is a marvelous teacher, dedicated to education at all levels, and a distinguished spokesman for science. President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from 2000-2009, Dr. Cech is presently an HHMI investigator serving on the faculties of the University of Colorado (since 1978) and the Health Sciences Center, Denver (since 1988). He is the recipient of the Gairdner Foundation International Award (1988); the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1988); the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (1988); and the National Medal of Science (1995) and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1987); the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1988); and the Institute of Medicine (2000). | |
| 16 | Name: | Dr. Britton Chance | | | Institution: | University of Pennsylvania | | | Year Elected: | 1958 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1913 | | | Death Date: | November 16, 2010 | | | | | | |
Britton Chance had been Eldridge Reeves Johnson University Professor Emeritus of Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine since 1983. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennyslvania in 1940 and was affiliated with the university for over 65 years, primarily in its biophysics and biochemistry departments. During the war years he led advances in radar and automatic ship steering and later designed experiments which demonstrated a mastery of cellular physiology. Using revolutionary methods he also made fundamental discoveries in the complex interrelations of substrate-enzyme systems. Dr. Chance's recent research interests included the study of the basic theory of photon migration through tissues; the use of picosecond pulsed and high frequency modulation of near infrared (NIR) light in human brain, breast and muscle, to characterize tissue optical properties; the use of imaging systems to detect breast tumors and hemorrhage deep within tissues; and human brain function in cognitive activity. Dr. Chance was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1954) and American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1955) and has over 1,300 original scientific publications to his credit. In 1990 Dr. Chance was presented with the American Philosophical Society's Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences. The citation described Dr. Chance as "a monumental figure in biology and the medical sciences, whose unequalled productivity and energy have advanced, for more than half a century, the frontiers of basic research and clinical medicine." Britton Chance died November 16, 2010, at age 97, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | |
| 17 | Name: | Dr. Erwin Chargaff | | | Institution: | Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 1979 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1905 | | | Death Date: | June 20, 2002 | | | | |
| 18 | Name: | Dr. Mildred Cohn | | | Institution: | University of Pennsylvania | | | Year Elected: | 1972 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1913 | | | Death Date: | October 12, 2009 | | | | | | |
Mildred Cohn was Benjamin Rush Professor Emerita of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School at the time of her death at age 96. She received her B.A. from Hunter College and her Ph.D. from Columbia University. During her career she served on the faculties of Cornell University Medical College, Washington University School of Medicine, and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. She is known for her work using isotopes to understand the mechanisms of enzymatic reactions and for pioneering studies in NMR spectroscopy. In a lifetime of biochemical research, Dr. Cohn had seriously advanced the myriad of fields which had attracted her attention. She received the Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Women in Science Award of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Distinguished Service Award of the College of Physicians, the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society, the Stein and Moore Award for lifetime achievement from the Protein Society, the Humboldt Award, and, in 1982, the National Medal of Science. Dr. Cohn was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1972 and served with impeccable style and distinction as the Society's Vice President 1994 to 2000. | |
| 19 | Name: | Dr. James E. Darnell | | | Institution: | Rockefeller University | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1930 | | | | | | |
Born in Columbus, MS in 1930 Darnell attended local schools and the University of Mississippi, graduating in January 1951. He entered Washington University St. Louis School of Medicine, a "science-based" medical school in 1951, and by 1952 was engaged in microbiological research. After a one year internship he joined the laboratory of Harry Eagle, a pioneer in culturing human cells in culture at the National Institutes of Heath. At NIH he began an early career in animal virology, using cultured cells. An interlude of 11 months with Francois Jacob in 1960-61 taught him about the maturing state of molecular biology, especially the importance of the new discovery of messenger RNA. On returning to his first independent position at MIT in June 1961, he began the study of human (mammalian) cell RNA which he has continued for over 50 years.
His research discovered the first cases of RNA processing in ribosomal and transfer RNA. First, a longer primary transcript is copied from DNA and then processed into shorter molecules that function in the cell cytoplasm to direct the synthesis of specific proteins. Studies on the primary nuclear transcript of precursor mRNAs produced during adenovirus infection supplied much of the original evidence that in the nucleus cells process adenovirus pre-mRNA into mRNA paving the way for the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of RNA splicing by Phillip Sharp, Richard Roberts and their colleagues. In the 1980s he began the study of DNA binding transcriptional factors including those activated by reception of signals from cell surface proteins. The far-reaching results from these later experiments culminated in the description of the first complete cell surface to nucleus signal transduction pathway: the JAK-STAT pathway.
Dr. Darnell has had academic appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Columbia University. In 1974 Dr. Darnell joined Rockefeller as Vincent Astor Professor, and from 1990 to 1991 he was vice president for academic affairs. He was instrumental in the 1980s and 1990s in establishing a new focus in hiring young independent faculty, a now accepted mechanism in university practice.
Dr. Darnell has received numerous awards, including the 2012 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the 2003 National Medal of Science, the 2002 Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science, the 1997 Passano Award, the 1994 Paul Janssen Prize in Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the 1986 Gairdner Foundation International Award. He has received honorary degrees from Washington University (1996), Albany Medical College (2000) and The Rockefeller University (2012)
He is the author of the recently published RNA: Life’s Indispensable Molecule. He is also coauthor, with S.E. Luria, of General Virology, and a founding author of Molecular Cell Biology, now in its seventh edition. Dr. Darnell is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1973), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1973), a foreign member of The Royal Society of London (1986), and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2004). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 20 | Name: | Dr. Jack E. Dixon | | | Institution: | University of California, San Diego | | | Year Elected: | 2010 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
Jack E. Dixon is a leading American biochemist, born in Nashville, Tennessee on June 16, 1943. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology, Cellular & Molecular Medicine, and Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. He also served as Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer from 2007 to 2013. Dixon's laboratory has pioneered the study of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPases), the enzymes that remove phosphate from proteins. His work on the catalytic mechanism of these enzymes included the demonstration that they function via a novel cysteine-phosphate intermediate. In an unexpected development, Dixon also showed that the bacterium responsible for the plague or "black death", Yersinia pestis, harbors the most active PTPase ever described. Dixon, in collaboration with Stanley Falkow, went on to demonstrate that this PTPase is essential for pathogenesis. In fact, this PTPase functions as a "lethal weapon" which is "injected" into mammalian cells to block the immune response. This was the first conclusive demonstration of a widely used strategy for pathogenic bacteria to disarm the host immune system. Dixon's interest in phosphatases led his laboratory to determine the function of the tumor suppressor protein, PTEN, which shares sequence identity with the PTPases. Although most PTPases function to dephosphorylate phosphoproteins, PTEN dephosphorylates a lipid, phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphate (PIP33). The loss of the PTEN gene elevates PIP3 levels causing cells to survive and become oncogenic. The insightful determination of how PTEN functions has radically altered thinking about this tumor suppressor gene.
Jack Dixon has received numerous awards including the Michigan Scientist of the Year, the William Rose and Merck Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Jack Dixon is married to Claudia M. Kent, a retired professor of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Kent is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. | |
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