Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | 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. | |
| 2 | 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. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. J. Craig Venter | | | Institution: | J. Craig Venter Institute; Synthetic Genomics, Inc. | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 207. Genetics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | | | |
J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his numerous invaluable contributions to genomic research. He is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit, research organization with approximately 300 scientists and staff dedicated to human, microbial, plant, synthetic and environmental genomic research, and the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics.
Dr. Venter is also Founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics Inc (SGI), a privately held company dedicated to commercializing genomic-driven solutions to address global needs such as new sources of energy, new food and nutritional products, and next generation vaccines.
Dr. Venter began his formal education after a tour of duty as a Navy Corpsman in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. After earning both a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California at San Diego, he was appointed professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In 1984, he moved to the National Institutes of Health campus where he developed Expressed Sequence Tags or ESTs, a revolutionary new strategy for rapid gene discovery. In 1992 Dr. Venter founded The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, now part of JCVI), a not-for-profit research institute, where in 1995 he and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, using his new whole genome shotgun technique.
In 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics to sequence the human genome using new tools and techniques he and his team developed. This research culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal, Science. He and his team at Celera also sequenced the fruit fly, mouse and rat genomes.
Dr. Venter and his team at JCVI continue to blaze new trails in genomics. They have sequenced and analyzed hundreds of genomes, and have published numerous important papers covering such areas as environmental genomics, the first complete diploid human genome, and the groundbreaking advance in creating the first self- replicating bacterial cell constructed entirely with synthetic DNA.
Dr. Venter is one of the most frequently cited scientists, and the author of more than 250 research articles. He is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, public honors, and scientific awards, including the 2008 United States National Medal of Science, the 2002 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the 2001 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize and the King Faisal International Award for Science. Dr. Venter is a member of numerous prestigious scientific organizations including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society for Microbiology. J. Craig Venter was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Susan R. Wessler | | | Institution: | University of California, Riverside; National Academy of Sciences | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 207. Genetics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1953 | | | | | | |
Susan Wessler is currently University of California President’s Chair at the University of California Riverside and the Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences; the first woman to hold this position. She is a molecular geneticist known for her contributions to the field of transposon biology, specifically on the roles of plant transposable elements in gene and genome evolution. Her laboratory has pioneered the use of computational and experimental analyses in the identification of actively transposing elements. She received her Ph.D. in 1980 in Biochemistry from Cornell University. As a postdoctoral fellow of the American Cancer Society at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore (1980-82) she was involved in the molecular isolation of the Ac and Ds transposable elements that were first discovered by Barbara McClintock almost 40 years earlier in maize. She began her career at the University of Georgia in 1983 where she remained until moving to UC Riverside in 2010.
Wessler has contributed extensively to educational initiatives, including co-authorship of the widely used genetics textbook, Introduction to Genetic Analysis. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor (2006), she adapted her research program for the classroom by developing the Dynamic Genome Courses where incoming freshman can experience the excitement of scientific discovery. She is the recipient of several awards including the the inaugural Distinguished Scientist Award (2007) from the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA), the Stephen Hales Prize (2011) from the American Society of Plant Biologists, and the Excellence in Science Award from FASEB (2012). She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1998), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007), the Royal Society (2017), and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Patricia Chapple Wright | | | Institution: | Stony Brook University; Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments; Centre ValBio Research, Madagascar | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | | | | |
Dr. Patricia Chapple Wright has made major contributions in the biology, ecology, conservation and behavior of living primates. She discovered a new species of lemur, Hapalemur aureus in 1987 and helped establish the Ranomafana National Park to protect it. Her research concerns focus on behavior, scenescence, parasitology, predation, rainforest ecology, climate change and conservation studies of Malagasy lemurs. Patricia Wright earned a BA from Hood College in 1966 and a PhD in Anthropology from City University of New York in 1985. Dr. Wright has led over 40 field expeditions to Peru, Paraguay, East Malaysia, the Philippines and Madagascar. She has held professional appointments at Duke (1983-91) and Stony Brook Universities (1991-2013) and is the Executive Director of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments at Stony Brook (1992-2013) and the Founder and International Director of the Centre ValBio research station in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. In 2019 she was installed as Herrnstein Family Endowed Chair in Conservation Biology. She has authored over 150 scientific publications and is the holder of many high honors. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004) as well as other professional associations. She was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1989-1994), a "Knight of the National Order" in 1995, the Officier Medal in 2003 and the Commandeur Medal in 2012 by the government of Madagascar. Dr. Wright has been the recipient of awards including the Hauptman Woodward Pioneer in Science Medal (2008), Distinguished Primatologist Award from American Society of Primatology (2008), honorary degrees from Hood College and the University of Antananarivo and a Distinguished Alumnae Award from Hood College (2008). In 2012 she was a finalist for the Indianapolis Prize for Conservation and in 2014 she won that same award. Her books include Madagascar: Forests of our Ancestors, Tarsiers: Past, Present and Future, and High Moon over the Amazon: My Quest to Understand the Monkeys of the Night. Dr. Wright was a member of the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration, and is a member of the Board of NGS Conservation Trust, Duke Lemur Center, Madagascar Fauna Group and IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group. Her work has been featured in the film "Me and Isaac Newton" directed by Michael Apted (1999) and "IMAX 3D Madagascar: Lemurs" directed by David Douglas (2014). Dr. Wright was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
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