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Jerzy Jurka

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Polish-American biologist (1950–2014)
Jerzy Władysław Jurka
Born(1950-06-04)4 June 1950
Ponikiew, Poland
Died19 July 2014(2014-07-19) (aged 64)
Los Altos, California
NationalityPolish-American
Alma materJagiellonian University (M.Sc. in Chemistry)
University of Warsaw (D.Sc. in Molecular Biology)
Harvard University (Post-doctoral research)
Known forContributions to understanding of transposable elements and repetitive DNA
SpouseElżbieta Jurka
ChildrenMichael Jurka
Matthew Jurka
Timothy Jurka
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
Molecular biology
Computational biology

Jerzy Władysław Jurka (June 4, 1950 – July 19, 2014) was a Polish–American computational and molecular biologist known for his pioneering work on repetitive DNA and transposable elements (TEs) in eukaryotic genomes. He served as the assistant director of research at the Linus Pauling Institute prior to founding and directing the Genetic Information Research Institute (GIRI) in Mountain View, California.

Early life and education

Jurka was born on June 4, 1950, in the village of Ponikiew, Poland. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Jagiellonian University and a D.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Warsaw. After earning his doctorate, Jurka moved to the United States and conducted post-doctoral research at Harvard University.

Career and research

After completing his post-doctoral research, Jurka joined the Linus Pauling Institute in Palo Alto, California, where he eventually served as assistant director of research. During his tenure, he collaborated with several notable scientists, including Linus Pauling, George Irving Bell, Roy Britten, Temple Smith, and Emile Zuckerkandl. In 1994, he founded the Genetic Information Research Institute (GIRI), focusing on the computational analysis of genome sequences and the identification of transposable elements.

Jurka’s team developed Repbase, a widely used reference database of eukaryotic repetitive elements that aids in DNA annotation and comparative genomics. His work on Alu elements, one of the most abundant short interspersed elements in primate genomes, provided insights into their classification, the mechanisms behind their proliferation, and their paternal transmission.

Jurka’s research group discovered and characterized numerous TE families. In collaboration with Vladimir Kapitonov, Jurka identified Helitrons, a family of rolling-circle transposons that influence genomic evolution. In 2006, they reported the discovery of Polinton (also known as Maverick) transposons, self-synthesizing DNA elements found in diverse eukaryotes, providing important clues about the structure and evolution of complex genomes.

Later, Jurka and colleagues linked TE family emergence to processes in classical population genetics, proposing that population subdivision and speciation events could correlate with the distribution and diversification of transposable element families.

Jurka’s Erdős number is 3, tracing a collaboration path through Temple F. Smith and Stanislaw Ulam.

References

  1. ^ "Jerzy Jurka Obituary". Legacy.com / Mercury News. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  2. ^ "In Memoriam: Dr. Jerzy Jurka (1950–2014)". Genetic Information Research Institute. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  3. ^ "An Oral History of the Linus Pauling Institute: Interview with Steven Lawson". Oregon State University. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  4. Jurka J, Kapitonov VV, Pavlicek A, Klonowski P, Kohany O, Jurka MV (2005). "Repbase Update, a database of eukaryotic repetitive elements". Nucleic Acids Research. 33 (Database issue): D142 – D145. doi:10.1093/nar/gki108. PMC 1087437. PMID 15608167.
  5. Jurka J, Smith T (July 1988). "A fundamental division in the Alu family of repeated sequences". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 85 (13): 4775–4778. Bibcode:1988PNAS...85.4775J. doi:10.1073/pnas.85.13.4775. PMC 280518. PMID 3387438.
  6. Jurka J (March 1997). "Sequence patterns indicate an enzymatic involvement in integration of mammalian retroposons". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 94 (5): 1872–1877. Bibcode:1997PNAS...94.1872J. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.5.1872. PMC 20010. PMID 9050872.
  7. Jurka J, et al. (June 2002). "Active Alu elements are passed primarily through paternal germlines". Theoretical Population Biology. 61 (4): 519–530. doi:10.1006/tpbi.2002.1602. PMID 12167372.
  8. Kapitonov VV; Jurka J (October 2007). "Helitrons on a roll: eukaryotic rolling-circle transposons". Trends in Genetics. 23 (10): 521–529. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2007.08.004. PMID 17850916.
  9. Kapitonov VV; Jurka J (March 21, 2006). "Self-synthesizing DNA transposons in eukaryotes". PNAS. 103 (12): 4540–4545. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103.4540K. doi:10.1073/pnas.0600833103. PMC 1450207. PMID 16537396.
  10. Pritham EJ, Putivala T, Feschotte C (April 2007). "Mavericks, a novel class of giant transposable elements widespread in eukaryotes and related to DNA viruses". Gene. 390 (1–2): 3–17. doi:10.1016/j.gene.2006.08.008. PMID 17034960.
  11. Jurka J, Bao W, Kojima K (June 2011). "Families of transposable elements, population structure and the origin of species". Biology Direct. 6 (44): 44. doi:10.1186/1745-6150-6-44. PMC 3183009. PMID 21929767.
  12. "The Erdős Number Project". Oakland University. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
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