Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
Subdivision
| • | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | [X] |
| | 21 | 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. | |
| 22 | 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. | |
| 23 | 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. | |
| 24 | Name: | Dr. Paul Mead Doty | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1970 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1920 | | | Death Date: | December 5, 2011 | | | | | | |
Paul M. Doty was professor of public policy and Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry Emeritus at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was also the founder and Director Emeritus of the Center for Science and International Affairs and an emeritus member of the BCSIA Board of Directors. During his 42 years on the Harvard University faculty, Dr. Doty embraced two careers: one in biochemistry, where he founded the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the other in science policy and international security studies, where he founded the Center for Science and International Affairs in 1974. From 1960-64 he was a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee and from 1961-67 he also served as a consultant to the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The recipient of awards including the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry, Dr. Doty was the author of numerous articles in scientific journals and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1970.
Paul Doty died on December 5, 2011, at age 91 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | |
| 25 | Name: | Dr. André A. Lwoff | | | Year Elected: | 1967 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1902 | | | Death Date: | 9/30/94 | | | | |
| 26 | Name: | Professor Raymond A. Dwek | | | Institution: | Institute of Biology; Glycobiology Institute, University of Oxford | | | Year Elected: | 2006 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1941 | | | | | | |
Raymond Dwek was born on November 10, 1941 in Manchester, England and studied at Manchester University, where he obtained his B.Sc. degree in 1963 and his M.Sc. degree in 1964. Dr. Dwek received his D.Phil. degree from Lincoln College, Oxford. He was awarded a D.Sc from Oxford University in 1985. Raymond Dwek's early research work (1963-73) was concerned with novel applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to Physical, Inorganic and Biochemistry summarised in his book in 1973. He pioneered the application of magnetic resonance to antibody molecules. His subsequent work on the antibody molecule focused on the structural and functional roles of the conserved carbohydrates. This led to the concept that glycoproteins exist in many glycosylated variants, or glycoforms. In 1988, in a seminal review, he introduced the term 'Glycobiology' which entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1991. Early in his career, Dr. Dwek pioneered industrial-academic partnerships. In 1982, he secured a grant with Monsanto Company, the first major interaction Oxford University had with an industrial company in its 800 year history. As a result, Dr. Dwek and his colleagues were able to develop technology for studying sugar attached to proteins. This led to opportunities for drug discovery which eventually led to worldwide approval of a drug for Gaucher Disease and new approaches for anti-viral agents for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C viral infection and HIV. In 1988, he founded Oxford GlycoSciences, Oxford University's first ever spin-off company, using the technology emerging from his laboratory. In 1991 he founded the Glycobiology Institute at Oxford University of which he became Director. He also was Head of the Department of Biochemistry at Oxford University from 2000-2007 and Institute Professor at the Scripps Research Institute in 2008. He was elected in 2008 to a three year term as President of the Institute of Biology. Dr. Dwek has served on a number of institutional and corporate boards including United Therapeutics, USA. His scientific positions include Personal Special Advisor on Biotechnology to the President of Ben Gurion University, Israel where he has been involved in helping to build a National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev. In 2007 he was appointed Chair of Technology and Society in the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. His honors and awards include the Seventh Wellcome Trust Award for Research in Biochemistry Related to Medicine in 1994, the First Scientific Leadership Award from the Hepatitis B Foundation in 1997, the Institute of Biology's Huxley Medal in 2007 and the Romanian Order of Merit with rank of commander in 2000 for his major contribution to Romanian-British co-operation in biochemistry and molecular biology. He has received honorary doctorates from The Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium and Ben Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, Israel, The Scripps Institute, La Jolla, USA and Cluj University, Romania. He is an Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and of the Royal Institute of Physicians, London. Dr. Dwek was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1998 for his "fundamental work in glycobiology, [and] for technical development and research allowing knowledge of oligosaccharides to be placed beside that of proteins and DNA." He is a Fellow of EMBO (The European Molecular Biology Organisation). The author of three books, over 500 scientific articles, and a large number of editorials for both scientific and general audiences, Dr. Dwek is a co-inventor on over 70 patents. | |
| 27 | Name: | Dr. John T. Edsall | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1955 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1902 | | | Death Date: | June 12, 2002 | | | | |
| 28 | Name: | Dr. Erin K. O'Shea | | | Institution: | Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2019 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1965 | | | | | | |
Erin O’Shea is president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), a top biomedical philanthropy. HHMI is known for driving science forward by investing in scientists, educators and students with the potential to make transformative change. O’Shea is the first woman to lead HHMI.
A leader in the scientific fields of gene regulation, signal transduction, and systems biology, O’Shea maintains a research lab at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus. She previously served as the Institute’s Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer and has been an HHMI investigator since 2000.
Prior to joining HHMI, O’Shea was the director of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Center for Systems Biology and its Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Chemistry and Chemical Biology. O’Shea has also served on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco. She earned a PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Smith College.
O’Shea is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2017, Washingtonian magazine named her "one of Washington’s 100 most powerful women." | |
| 29 | Name: | Dr. Donald A. Glaser | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 1997 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1926 | | | Death Date: | February 28, 2013 | | | | | | |
Donald Glaser had been an institution at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Professor of Physics and Professor of Neurobiology in the Graduate School. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the bubble chamber detector of subatomic particles. This device played a critical role in the flowering of experimental particle physics in the sixties and seventies. In later years Dr. Glaser turned his research interests to the psychophysics of visual perception, to which he has made several significant contributions. His research goal was to construct computational models of the human visual system that explain its performance in terms of its physiology and anatomy. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, Dr. Glaser was a man with broad scientific and cultural interests, not least among them being, as a former member of the Cleveland Orchestra's string section, his professional-level musicianship.
Donald Glaser died February 28, 2013, at the age of 86 at his home in Berkeley, California. | |
| 30 | Name: | Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein | | | 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: | 1940 | | | | | | |
Joseph Goldstein is currently Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and Julie and Louis A. Beecherl, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Research and Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine. In 1985, he was named Regental Professor of the University of Texas. Together with his colleague Dr. Michael S. Brown, Dr. Goldstein has received a number of awards for their discovery of receptors that control cholesterol metabolism, including the Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research (1985), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1985), National Medal of Science (1988) and Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2003). Dr. Goldstein is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, and the Institute of Medicine. He is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (London) and has received Doctor of Science honorary degrees from numerous institutions, including University of Chicago, University of Paris and The Rockefeller University. Dr. Goldstein is a past president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1985-86) and was a member of the Governing Council of the U.S. National Academy of Science (1991-94). He was also a Non-Resident Fellow of the Salk Institute (1983-1994) and served as Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1995-2002). He has also served as a member of the editorial boards of Cell, Annual Review of Genetics, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Arteriosclerosis, Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Dr. Goldstein is currently Chairman of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury and is a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and The Rockefeller University. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Welsh Foundations, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Van Andel Institute, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He also currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several biotechnology companies (Genentech, Armgo, Five Prime) and is a member of the Board of Directors of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. | |
| 31 | 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. | |
| 32 | Name: | Dr. Marianne Grunberg-Manago | | | Institution: | Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1921 | | | Death Date: | January 4, 2013 | | | | | | |
French biologist Marianne Grunberg-Manago had a profound effect on the development of molecular biology. She discovered polynucleotide phosphorylase, the first enzyme capable of synthesizing macromolecules with nucleic acid-like structures, which was subsequently used to elucidate the genetic code. In extending this work, Dr. Grunberg-Manago contributed to the understanding of the translation of the genetic code in the synthesis of protein, in particular as pertains to the role of initiation factors and the dynamic role of ribosomes. She opened a new field of investigation concerning the mechanisms responsible for the initiation of protein synthesis, eludicating the role of several essential protein factors involved in selection of initiation codons. Not only was her research of international stature, but her activities were international in scope as president of the International Union of Biochemistry, president of the French delegation of the French-Soviet Exchanges, a member of the A.S.I. committee of NATO and a Fogarty scholar at the National Institutes of Health, to name a few. Dr. Grunberg-Manago was the first woman to direct the International Union of Biochemistry and was a member of the French Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1992. She had been Emeritus Director of Research at the French National Center for Scientific Research at the time of her death on January 4, 2013, at age 91. | |
| 33 | 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? : |
Living
| | | 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. | |
| 34 | Name: | Dr. Avram Hershko | | | Institution: | Technion-Israel Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1937 | | | | | | |
Avram Hershko was born in 1937 in Karcag, Hungary and emigrated with his family to Israel in 1950. He gained his M.D. (1965) and Ph.D. (1969) from the Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical School of Jerusalem, a period which included service as a physician in the Israel Defence Forces (1965-67). After a post-doctoral fellowship with Gordon Tomkins at the University of San Francisco (1969-72), he joined the faculty of the Haifa Technion, becoming professor in 1980. He is now Distinguished Professor in the Unit of Biochemistry in the B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine of the Technion. His main research interests concern the mechanisms by which cellular proteins are degraded, a formerly neglected field of study. Dr. Hershko and his colleagues showed that cellular proteins are degraded by a highly selective proteolytic system. This system tags proteins for destruction by linkage to a protein called ubiquitin, which had previously been identified in many tissues, as the name suggests, but whose function was previously unknown. Subsequent work in Dr. Hershko's and many other laboratories has shown that the ubiquitin system has a vital role in controlling a wide range of cellular processes, such as the regulation of cell division, signal transduction and DNA repair. Abnormalities in the ubiquitin system result in diseases such as certain types of cancer. The full range of functions of the ubiquitin system in health and disease has still to be elucidated. Dr. Hershko was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2004) jointly with his former Ph.D. student Aaron Ciechanover and their colleague Irwin Rose. His many honors include the Israel Prize for Biochemistry (1994), the Gardner Award (1999), the Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research (2000), the Wolf Prize for Medicine (2001) and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Award (2001). Dr. Hershko is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences (2000) and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (2003). | |
| 35 | Name: | Dr. Leroy Hood | | | Institution: | Phenome Health; Institute for Systems Biology | | | Year Elected: | 2000 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | | | | |
Leroy E. Hood is the President and Director of the Institute for Systems Biology, a not-for-profit institution he recently established. He has helped start more than half a dozen companies, including Amgen, the largest biotech company, and Applied Biosystems, the leading maker of genetic analysis equipment. He received an M.D. at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1964 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry at California Institute of Technology in 1968. A member of the faculty of the California Institute of Technology for twenty-two years, he was also director of the Cancer Center, 1981-90, and director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Molecular Biotechnolgy, 1989-92. From 1992-2000 he was the Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington, as well as William Gates III Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biotechnology, professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Immunology, and an adjunct professor in the Departments of Medicine and Computer Science. Leroy Hood played a central role in deciphering the mechanisms of immunological diversity by being among the first to clone and characterize genes encoding antibodies, genes of the major histocompatibility complex, and T-cell receptors. His laboratory also developed four instruments widely used to synthesize and sequence genes and proteins. Dr. Hood also played a pioneering role in the Human Genome Project and co-edited The Code of Codes, covering the scientific, legal, and ethical aspects of the Human Genome Project. Dr. Hood initiated major programs for bringing hands-on, inquiry-based science to all levels of teachers in Seattle. Dr. Hood is the recipient of many awards, including the Louis Pasteur Award, Dickson Prize, Lasker Award, Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize of Hebrew University, the American College of Physicians Award, the NAE's Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, and the National Medal of Science (2012). In January 2017 he was awarded the National Academy of Sciences' Award for Chemistry in Service to Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts & Sciences and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2000. | |
| 36 | Name: | Dr. Susan Band Horwitz | | | Institution: | Albert Einstein College of Medicine | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1937 | | | | | | |
Dr. Susan Band Horwitz was born in Boston where she grew up and attended public high school. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College, she attended Brandeis University where she received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Departments of Pharmacology at Tufts University Medical School, Emory University Medical School and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She joined the faculty at Albert Einstein in 1970 and is presently the Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research, Co-Chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and the Associate Director for Therapeutics at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center.
Dr. Horwitz has had a continuing interest in natural products as a source of new drugs for the treatment of cancer. Her contributions span several decades of research and encompass agents which have served as prototypes for some of our most important drugs that are currently in clinical use. She made major contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms of action of camptothecin, the epipodophyllotoxins and bleomycin. However, Dr. Horwitz’ most seminal research contribution has been in the development of Taxol, a drug isolated from the yew plant, Taxus brevifolia. Although no one was interested in Taxol when she began her studies, today it is an important antitumor drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of ovarian, breast and lung carcinomas. The drug has been given to over a million patients. Dr. Horwitz' research played an important role in encouraging the development of Taxol by the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Horwitz is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received numerous honors and awards including the Cain Memorial Award of the AACR, the ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics, the C. Chester Stock Award from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize from Harvard Medical School, The American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor -Clinical Research Award, The Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science & Technology, the Barnard Medal of Distinction, and the 2014 John Scott Science Award. In 2011, Dr. Horwitz received the AACR Lifetime Achievement Award in Cancer Research and The New York Academy Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Biomedical Science. She served as president (2002-2003) of the American Association of Cancer Research. Susan Horwitz was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 37 | 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. | |
| 38 | Name: | Dr. Louis J. Ignarro | | | Institution: | University of Callifornia, Los Angeles | | | Year Elected: | 2007 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1941 | | | | | | |
Louis J. Ignarro is a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine and winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his groundbreaking discovery of the importance of nitric oxide in cardiovascular health. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Ignarro has also received numerous other special awards for his research, including the Basic Research Prize of the American Heart Association, the CIBA award for Hypertension Research, and the Roussel Uclaf Prize for Cell Communication and Signaling. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and has published over 500 scholarly articles in his career. For nearly 30 years Dr. Ignarro's research has focused on the role of nitric oxide in the cardiovascular system. Among the most significant contributions from Dr. Ignarro's wealth of research is the discovery that nitric oxide is produced in the blood vessels and controls the flow of blood by signaling the vessels to expand and contract. A shortage of nitric oxide production, caused by poor diet and lack of physical activity, leads to the onset and increasing severity of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack, stroke, and high cholesterol. In addition, Dr. Ignarro's experiments in 1990 led to the discovery that nitric oxide is the neurotransmitter responsible for penile erection. The discovery made it possible to develop and market Viagra, the first oral medication for the effective treatment of erectile dysfunction. As a result of his role in this blockbuster drug, Dr. Ignarro is sometimes known as "the father of Viagra". In addition to continuing to lead an active team of researchers in his lab at UCLA, Dr. Ignarro now focuses on communicating the benefits of enhanced nitric oxide production to the general public. His goal is to wipe out heart disease using the scientific knowledge he has created. His work proves that almost all cardiovascular disease is preventable. Louis J. Ignarro was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941, the son of uneducated Italian immigrants. He received a B.Sc. in chemistry and pharmacy from Columbia University in 1962, a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota in 1966, and postdoctoral training in the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology at the National Institutes of Health in 1966-68. | |
| 39 | Name: | Professor François Jacob | | | Institution: | Collège de France & Institut Pasteur | | | Year Elected: | 1969 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1920 | | | Death Date: | April 19, 2013 | | | | | | |
French geneticist François Jacob, in close association with Jacques Monod, conducted groundbreaking research on genetic replication, transcription and translation in bacteria. They originated the idea that control of enzyme levels in all cells happens through feedback on transcription, and also proposed the existence of an RNA messenger, a partial copy of the gene substance deoxyribonucleic acid that carries genetic information to other parts of the cell. For his work concerning regulatory activities in bacteria, Dr. Jacob, together with Monod and Andres Lwoff, was awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. After earning his D. Sci. from Faculty of Science, Paris in 1954, Dr. Jacob served as research assistant at the Pasteur Institute. In 1960 he became head of the department of cellular genetics there, and in 1965 he was named Professor of Cellular Genetics at the Collège de France. He was Professor Emeritus at both institutions at the time of his death on April 19 at the age of 92 in Paris. Dr. Jacob had been awarded several French scientific prizes, including the Charles Leopold Mayer Prize of the Academy of Sciences (1962), and he was foreign member of both the Academie Royale des Lettres et Sciences du Danemark (1962) and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1964). He was elected a member of the Academie Française in 1996. Dr. Jacob is also the author of an autobiography, The Statue Within, which was published in France in 1987 and translated into English a year later. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1969. | |
| 40 | Name: | Dr. William P. Jencks | | | Institution: | Brandeis University | | | Year Elected: | 1995 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1927 | | | Death Date: | January 3, 2007 | | | | |
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