Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Stanley N. Cohen | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 207. Genetics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1935 | | | | | | |
In the early 1970s, Stanley N. Cohen and Herbert W. Boyer discovered a multi-step methodology for isolating individual genes by cloning them in live cells, and showed that genetic material can be propagated and expressed in biological species other than its natural host. They thus invented DNA cloning, also known as "recombinant DNA" or "genetic engineering", a singularly important advance that forms the foundation for much of contemporary biological research, has revolutionized biotechnology, and has led directly to the extraordinary progress currently being made in the field of medicine. In 1978, Dr. Cohen achieved the first production of a biologically active eukaryotic protein encoded by DNA transferred into bacteria from mammalian cells, yet another crucial contribution that underlies modern biomedical research. Cohen's laboratory continues to be a major leader both in microbiological studies (which his early work has literally transformed) and in studies of growth control and chromosome dynamics in mammalian cells. Since 1993 he has been Kwoh-Ting Li Professor of Genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, on whose faculty he has served since 1968. Dr. Cohen has won the Mattia Award (1977) and the National Medal of Science (1988) as well as election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1978), the National Academy of Sciences (1979) and the Institute of Medicine (1988). He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1960. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Tony Hunter | | | Institution: | The Salk Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
Tony Hunter was born in Ashford, Kent, England. He attended Caius College at the University of Cambridge, receiving his B.A. in 1965. Subsequently, he did his graduate studies in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Asher Korner, receiving his Ph.D. in 1969 for work on mammalian protein synthesis. In 1968 he was appointed as a Research Fellow of Christ's College at the University of Cambridge, and then worked for three years in the Department of Biochemistry doing independent research on the initiation of protein synthesis in eukaryotes. In 1971 he joined the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, as a Research Associate working under Walter Eckhart on polyoma virus DNA synthesis. He spent 1973-75 back at the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge where he discovered how tobacco mosaic virus expresses its coat protein, before joining the Salk Institute as an assistant professor in 1975. At that time he set out to identify tumor virus transforming gene products, starting with the tumor (T) antigens of polyoma virus and then turning his attention to Rous sarcoma virus (RSV). In the course of studying the polyoma virus middle T antigen and the RSV v-src gene product, he discovered that these proteins both exhibit a previously unknown protein kinase activity that phosphorylates tyrosine. He has spent most of the last thirty years studying tyrosine kinases and their role in cell growth, oncogenesis and the cell cycle. A major current research interest is to elucidate mechanisms of transmembrane signaling by tyrosine kinases and phosphatases. His group also studies the cyclin-dependent protein kinases and other protein kinases that regulate progression through the cell cycle, and how protein ubiquitylation and degradation is used as a means of regulating signaling pathways and the cell cycle. He is currently a professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute, the director of the Salk Institute Cancer Center, and an adjunct professor in the Division of Biology at the University of California, San Diego. Currently he is on the editorial boards of several journals, including Cell, Molecular Cell, the EMBO Journal and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves on a number of scientific review and advisory committees. He has been an organizer for many scientific meetings. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1987, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1992, an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 1992, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and a member of the Institute of Medicine in 2004. He was appointed as an American Cancer Society Research Professor in 1992. He has received a number of awards for his work in the area of growth control, oncogenesis and protein phosphorylation, including the 1994 General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Mott Prize, a 1994 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Biochemical Society 1994 Hopkins Memorial Lectureship and Medal, the 2001 Keio Medical Science Prize, the 2003 Sergio Lombroso Award in Cancer Research, the 2003 City of Medicine Award, the 2004 American Cancer Society Medal of Honor, the 2004 Kirk A. Landon-AACR Prize for Basic Cancer Research, the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research, 2004, the 2004 Louia Gross Horwitz Prize, the 2005 Wolf Prize in Medicine, the 2006 Pasarow Award in Cancer Research, in 2017 the inaugural Sjoeberg Prize cancer research; the 2018 Pezcoller-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research, and the 2018 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science. His hobbies include white water rafting and desert camping. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Gene E. Likens | | | Institution: | Institute of Ecosystem Studies | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1935 | | | | | | |
Gene Likens' work established some of the key concepts, methods, and findings of ecosystem ecology. He founded the Institute for Ecosystem Studies in 1983 and led it through 2007, serving as Director, President and G. Evelyn Hutchinson Chair in Ecology. Dr. Likens' research focuses on the biogeochemistry of forest and aquatic ecosystems. His long-term studies at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, which he co-founded in 1963, have shed light on critical links between ecosystem functions and land use practices. He and his colleagues were the first scientists to document the link between the fossil fuel combustion and an increase in the acidity of precipitation in North America. His findings have influenced policy makers, motivated scientific studies, and increased public awareness of Human-Accelerated Environmental Change. Winner of the 2001 National Medal of Science, Dr. Likens is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1979) and the National Academy of Sciences (1981). He has been awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology and the Franklin Institute's 2019 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1962. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Lubert Stryer | | | Institution: | Stanford University School of Medicine | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 206. Physiology, Biophysics, and Pharmacology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | | | | |
Lubert Stryer is Winzer Professor of Cell Biology Emeritus in the Department of Neurobiology of the Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his B.S. degree in 1957 from the University of Chicago and his M.D. degree in 1961 from Harvard. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and then at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England. In 1964, Dr. Stryer joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford. In 1969, he moved to Yale, and in 1976, returned to Stanford to head a new department. His research over more than four decades has dealt with the interplay of light and life. Dr. Stryer's laboratory discovered the primary stage of amplification in vision and elucidated the G-protein cascade that generates a neural signal in visual excitation. He has developed new fluorescence techniques for studying biomolecules and cells, as exemplified by the use of fluorescence resonance energy transfer as a spectroscopic ruler. Dr. Stryer is the author of four editions of Biochemistry, a textbook widely used throughout the world for more than twenty-five years and translated into more than ten languages. The interface between the academic and industrial worlds has also attracted Dr. Stryer's interest and involvement. He participated in the founding and development of innovative biotechnology companies - as President and Scientific Director of the Affymax Research Institute, Director of Affymetrix, Inc. and chairman of the Board of Senomyx, Inc. At Affymax and Affymetrix, he played a key role in devising novel optical techniques for generating high-density peptide and DNA arrays. He is a co-inventor of the DNA chip, which makes it possible to read vast amounts of genetic information in a massively parallel way. Dr. Stryer has also participated in national educational affairs as a trustee and advisor. He led the "Bio2010 Study" of National Research Council's Committee on Undergraduate Biology Education and was a Director of the McKnight Neurosciences Endowment and a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Stryer was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1984 and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 1975. His other honors include the National Medal of Science (2006), the American Chemical Society Award in Biological Chemistry (1970), appointment as National Lecturer of the Biophysical Society (1987), Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (1991), the American Association for the Advancement of Science Newcomb-Cleveland Prize (1991), the Alcon Award in Vision Research (1992), an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Chicago (1992), the Distinguished Inventors Award of the Intellectual Property Owners' Association (1993) and the European Inventor of the Year Award (2006), and the Molecular Bioanalytics Award of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2002). | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Inder M. Verma | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 209. Neurobiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1947 | | | | | | |
Inder Verma has made many sustained contributions to biological sciences in the last 30 years. In 1972, while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Verma carried out the first complementary DNA (cDNA) synthesis to eukaryotic messenger RNA using reverse transcriptase, which is one of the basic tenets of modern biotechnology. Starting in 1974 at The Salk Institute, Dr. Verma characterized the biochemical properties of the seminal enzyme, reverse transcriptase - a set of studies that are now in biology textbooks. In early 1980, Dr. Verma's laboratory began to study the molecular architecture of RNA tumor viruses. His laboratory determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the first transforming virus and identified the transforming gene. More importantly the sequence revealed the molecular mechanism of how normal cellular sequences (proto-oncogenes) can be acquired by seemingly innocuous viruses to become cancer genes (oncogenes). Dr. Verma's laboratory also discovered a new transforming gene, Fos, which turned out to be a transcriptional factor, essential for the induction of a wide variety of genes in response to a plethora of external signals. These studies established the principle that acquisition of cellular genes capable of transcription of other genes is an important mechanistic event to subvert the normal cellular transcriptional machinery. These studies were extended to novel transcription factors like NF-KB and their role in the neoplastic transformation of the cell. More recently Dr. Verma's laboratory has cleverly exploited the use of mouse genetics to pinpoint the role of many of these oncogenes/transcription factors in normal cellular growth, differentiation, and development. Dr. Verma's laboratory in 1983 developed the first viral delivery system to transfer therapeutic genes to cells and animals. Dr. Verma's laboratory laid the basis for the use of mouse RNA tumor viruses as delivery vehicle, which has become the mainstay of the field of gene therapy. Dr. Verma's laboratory over the last 15 years has continuously refined the use of viral vectors for successful gene delivery. His laboratory has shown that mice and dogs suffering from hemophilia (a clotting disorder) due to deficiency of factor IX gene product, can be cured by a single injection of viral vectors making factor IX gene product. These results have formed the basis of current clinical trials with hemophiliacs. In his quest for an efficient, safe, and versatile delivery system, Dr. Verma's laboratory has tamed the dreaded AIDS virus (HIV) to become an efficient and safe delivery vehicle. His pioneering work in this area has lead to the generation of a highly efficient and versatile gene delivery system to cure a wide variety of genetic diseases. Dr. Verma, though a basic scientist, has been an ardent supporter of translational research, "bench to bedside". He was a founder of one of the first gene therapy related biotech companies in the world, Cell Genesys. Presently he serves on the board of this company and chairs their scientific advisory board. Cell Genesys is presently embarking upon seven cancer related clinical trials, and is gearing up to treat hemophiliacs. Dr. Verma has been on the editorial boards of a number of international scientific journals, including serving as editor-in-chief of Molecular Therapy, a journal specializing in gene therapy. He is also handling editor for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). Exploiting the knowledge in the area of signal transduction, Dr. Verma founded another biotech company, Signal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now CellGene) to try to identify small molecules capable of interfering with diseases like cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation, etc. Dr. Verma firmly believes that a rational drug design based on the precise knowledge developed by working on model systems is the way of future molecular medicine. Because of his pioneering work in the biotechnology arena, Dr. Verma is on the scientific advisory boards of several biotech companies. More recently Dr. Verma has been helping a number of Indian information technology (IT) companies to enter the field of biotechnology to begin to mine enormous biological information. Dr. Verma has had a long-standing association with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and has helped it to formulate its cherished goal of starting a biotechnology revolution in India. Dr. Verma's scientific contributions have been widely recognized by a number of honors, which include the American Cancer Society Professorship (lifetime), an Outstanding Investigator Award from the NIH, membership in the Third World Academy of Science, the National Academy of Science, India, the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and an associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Dr. Verma has also received numerous awards, including the 2008 Vilcek Foundation Prize, and invited lectureships at various national and international organizations. Dr. Verma combines the best of basic science with its applications to medicine. He has, by example and as a spokesman, championed the cause of biotechnology for the benefit of the common man. Dr. Verma strongly believes that the purpose of science in the long run is to improve the quality of life of humankind. | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Paul C. Zamecnik | | | Institution: | Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1912 | | | Death Date: | October 27, 2009 | | | | | | |
Paul Zamecnik is a senior scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. He has been affiliated with both institutions for over fifty years and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1936. Dr. Zamecnik's first great scientific contribution was elucidating important aspects of the biochemistry of protein synthesis. He showed that ATP is necessary for peptide bond formation, which therefore is not a reversal of proteolysis; in the cell free system, he devised the ribosome is the site of these reactions; and tRNAs translate sequences of DNA to protein. Early, he performed RNA sequencing that showed 3'-poly A in Rous sarcoma virus RNA, and a prior sequence identical to that at the 5' end, indicating circular structure. His second greatest contribution was the conception of competitive antisense nucleotides. These blocked virus replication by inhibition of translation. He demonstrated the antisense effect with hemoglobin protein synthesizing cells showing that this depends on the ability of deoxynucleotides to enter intact cells and on Watson-Crick base pairing. He has also applied the concept to medicine, targeting the tuberculosis bacterium and the defective cystic fibrosis gene. A three-time winner of the John Collins Warren Triennial Prize, (1946, 1950, 1999) as well as the Presidential Medal of Science (1991), the Lasker Award (1995) and the Institute of Virology's Lifetime Achievement Award (2004), Dr. Zamecnik was elected to the membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1954, the National Academy of Sciences in 1968 and the American Philosophical Society in 2006. | |
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