Misplaced Pages

Robert Lefkowitz

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Robert Joseph Lefkowitz) American physician and biochemist

Robert Lefkowitz
Lefkowitz in Stockholm 2012
BornRobert Joseph Lefkowitz
(1943-04-15) April 15, 1943 (age 81)
The Bronx, New York City, US
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University
Known forG protein coupled receptors
beta-arrestins
Spouse(s)Arna Brandel (divorced)
Lynn Tilley ​(m. 1991)
AwardsNational Medal of Science (2007)
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2009)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2012)
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Notable studentsBrian Kobilka, Jeffrey Benovic, Michel Bouvier, Marc G. Caron, Richard A. Cerione, Henrik Dohlman, Walter J. Koch, Lee Limbird, Martin J. Lohse, Gang Pei, Lewis "Rusty" Williams, R. Sanders Williams

Robert Joseph Lefkowitz (born April 15, 1943) is an American physician (internist and cardiologist) and biochemist. He is best known for his discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Brian Kobilka. He is currently an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Duke University.

Early life

Lefkowitz was born on April 15, 1943, in The Bronx, New York to Jewish parents Max and Rose Lefkowitz. Their families had emigrated to the United States from Poland in the late 19th century.

After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science in 1959, he attended Columbia College from which he received a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry in 1962. At Columbia, Lefkowitz studied under Ronald Breslow.

He graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1966 with an M.D. degree. After serving an internship and one year of general medical residency at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, he served as clinical and research associate at the National Institutes of Health from 1968 to 1970.

Career

Upon completing his medical residency and research and clinical training in 1973, he was appointed associate professor of medicine and assistant professor of biochemistry at the Duke University Medical Center. In 1977, he was promoted to professor of medicine and in 1982 to James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University. He is also a professor of biochemistry and a professor of chemistry. He has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1976 and was an established investigator of the American Heart Association from 1973–1976.

Lefkowitz studies receptor biology and signal transduction and is most well known for his detailed characterizations of the sequence, structure and function of the β-adrenergic and related receptors and for the discovery and characterization of the two families of proteins which regulate them, the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) kinases and β-arrestins.

Lefkowitz made a remarkable contribution in the mid-1980s when he and his colleagues cloned the gene first for the β-adrenergic receptor, and then rapidly thereafter, for a total of 8 adrenergic receptors (receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline). This led to the seminal discovery that all GPCRs (which include the β-adrenergic receptor) have a very similar molecular structure. The structure is defined by an amino acid sequence which weaves its way back and forth across the plasma membrane seven times. Today we know that about 1,000 receptors in the human body belong to this same family. The importance of this is that all of these receptors use the same basic mechanisms so that pharmaceutical researchers now understand how to effectively target the largest receptor family in the human body. Today, as many as 30 to 50 percent of all prescription drugs are designed to "fit" like keys into the similarly structured locks of Lefkowitz' receptors—everything from anti-histamines to ulcer drugs to beta blockers that help relieve hypertension, angina and coronary disease. Lefkowitz is among the most highly cited researchers in the fields of biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine according to Thomson-ISI.

Personal life

Lefkowitz is married to Lynn (née Tilley). He has five children and six grandchildren. He was previously married to Arna Brandel.

In 2021, Lefkowitz published a memoir entitled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm: The Adrenaline-Fueled Adventures of an Accidental Scientist. This book was co-authored by Randy Hall, who was a post-doctoral fellow in the Lefkowitz lab in the 1990's. The book describes Lefkowitz's early life, training as a physician, and tenure in the United States Public Health Service (the "Yellow Berets" of the NIH), which began as a means of fulfilling his draft obligation during the Vietnam War but ultimately ignited a lifelong passion for research. The second half of the book describes Lefkowitz's research career and various adventures both before and after his Nobel Prize win. Upon publication in February 2021, the book was named as "New & Noteworthy" by The New York Times and "one of the week's best science picks" by Nature.

Awards

Lefkowitz has received numerous awards including:

See also

References

  1. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012". NobelPrize.org.
  2. Snyder, Bill. "Nobel in Chemistry reveals VU ties that bind". Vanderbilt University.
  3. Ralph Snyderman (October 3, 2011). "Introduction of Robert J. Lefkowitz". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 121 (10). Jci.org: 4192–4300. doi:10.1172/JCI60816. PMC 3195491. PMID 21965339. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
  4. Jay Price (December 30, 2012). "Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, Nobel in hand, still shapes young researchers". News & Observer. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  5. Newman, Andy (October 10, 2012). "Another Nobel for Bronx Science, This One in Chemistry". New York Times.
  6. ^ "Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, Nobel in hand, still shapes young researchers - Local/State - NewsObserver.com". Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  7. "Columbia College mourns the loss of University Professor Ronald Breslow". Columbia College. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  8. ^ "HHMI Investigators – Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D". Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  9. "Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D. Biography and Interview". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  10. "Pioneers of cell receptor research share America's top prize in medicine". Albany Medical Center Website.
  11. "Highly Cited Research – Research Analytics – Thomson Reuters". Hcr3.webofknowledge.com. December 31, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
  12. "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm". pegasusbooks.com. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  13. "New & Noteworthy, From Food Policy to Communicating With the Dead". The New York Times. February 2, 2021. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  14. Robinson, Andrew (March 17, 2021). "The accidental Nobel laureate, what we owe to our voices and the philosophy of touch: Books in Brief". Nature. 591 (7850): 364. Bibcode:2021Natur.591..364R. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-00661-4.
  15. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  16. "Biomedicine 2009 Robert J. Lefkowitz". BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  17. "North Carolina scientist wins American Heart Association award for discovering receptors' role as specific targets for drug therapy". American Heart Association. November 15, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  18. "Robert Lefkowitz receiving the National Medal of Science". Duke University. September 28, 2008. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved January 14, 2013. – YouTube video of the ceremony
  19. Duke Medicine News and Communications (September 28, 2008). "Duke Medicine Physician-Scientist Receives National Medal of Science". Duke Health.org. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  20. "Announcement and Citation". The Shaw Prize. June 12, 2007. Archived from the original on April 7, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  21. "Albany Medical Center Prize". Albany Medical College. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  22. "Fondation Lefoulon Delalande – Historique des prix". Fondation Lefoulon – Delalande. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  23. "Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  24. "Bristol Myers Squib Achievements". Bristol-Myers Squibb. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  25. "Robert J. Lefkowitz". Gairdner. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  26. "Previous Winners of Society Awards" (PDF). American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Retrieved January 14, 2013.

External links

Awards
Preceded byDan Shechtman Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
2012
With: Brian Kobilka
Succeeded byMichael Levitt
Martin Karplus
Arieh Warshel
Shaw Prize laureates
Astronomy
Life science
and medicine
Mathematical
science
United States National Medal of Science laureates
Behavioral and social science
1960s
1964
Neal Elgar Miller
1980s
1986
Herbert A. Simon
1987
Anne Anastasi
George J. Stigler
1988
Milton Friedman
1990s
1990
Leonid Hurwicz
Patrick Suppes
1991
George A. Miller
1992
Eleanor J. Gibson
1994
Robert K. Merton
1995
Roger N. Shepard
1996
Paul Samuelson
1997
William K. Estes
1998
William Julius Wilson
1999
Robert M. Solow
2000s
2000
Gary Becker
2003
R. Duncan Luce
2004
Kenneth Arrow
2005
Gordon H. Bower
2008
Michael I. Posner
2009
Mortimer Mishkin
2010s
2011
Anne Treisman
2014
Robert Axelrod
2015
Albert Bandura
Biological sciences
1960s
1963
C. B. van Niel
1964
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Marshall W. Nirenberg
1965
Francis P. Rous
George G. Simpson
Donald D. Van Slyke
1966
Edward F. Knipling
Fritz Albert Lipmann
William C. Rose
Sewall Wright
1967
Kenneth S. Cole
Harry F. Harlow
Michael Heidelberger
Alfred H. Sturtevant
1968
Horace Barker
Bernard B. Brodie
Detlev W. Bronk
Jay Lush
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
1969
Robert Huebner
Ernst Mayr
1970s
1970
Barbara McClintock
Albert B. Sabin
1973
Daniel I. Arnon
Earl W. Sutherland Jr.
1974
Britton Chance
Erwin Chargaff
James V. Neel
James Augustine Shannon
1975
Hallowell Davis
Paul Gyorgy
Sterling B. Hendricks
Orville Alvin Vogel
1976
Roger Guillemin
Keith Roberts Porter
Efraim Racker
E. O. Wilson
1979
Robert H. Burris
Elizabeth C. Crosby
Arthur Kornberg
Severo Ochoa
Earl Reece Stadtman
George Ledyard Stebbins
Paul Alfred Weiss
1980s
1981
Philip Handler
1982
Seymour Benzer
Glenn W. Burton
Mildred Cohn
1983
Howard L. Bachrach
Paul Berg
Wendell L. Roelofs
Berta Scharrer
1986
Stanley Cohen
Donald A. Henderson
Vernon B. Mountcastle
George Emil Palade
Joan A. Steitz
1987
Michael E. DeBakey
Theodor O. Diener
Harry Eagle
Har Gobind Khorana
Rita Levi-Montalcini
1988
Michael S. Brown
Stanley Norman Cohen
Joseph L. Goldstein
Maurice R. Hilleman
Eric R. Kandel
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
1989
Katherine Esau
Viktor Hamburger
Philip Leder
Joshua Lederberg
Roger W. Sperry
Harland G. Wood
1990s
1990
Baruj Benacerraf
Herbert W. Boyer
Daniel E. Koshland Jr.
Edward B. Lewis
David G. Nathan
E. Donnall Thomas
1991
Mary Ellen Avery
G. Evelyn Hutchinson
Elvin A. Kabat
Robert W. Kates
Salvador Luria
Paul A. Marks
Folke K. Skoog
Paul C. Zamecnik
1992
Maxine Singer
Howard Martin Temin
1993
Daniel Nathans
Salome G. Waelsch
1994
Thomas Eisner
Elizabeth F. Neufeld
1995
Alexander Rich
1996
Ruth Patrick
1997
James Watson
Robert A. Weinberg
1998
Bruce Ames
Janet Rowley
1999
David Baltimore
Jared Diamond
Lynn Margulis
2000s
2000
Nancy C. Andreasen
Peter H. Raven
Carl Woese
2001
Francisco J. Ayala
George F. Bass
Mario R. Capecchi
Ann Graybiel
Gene E. Likens
Victor A. McKusick
Harold Varmus
2002
James E. Darnell
Evelyn M. Witkin
2003
J. Michael Bishop
Solomon H. Snyder
Charles Yanofsky
2004
Norman E. Borlaug
Phillip A. Sharp
Thomas E. Starzl
2005
Anthony Fauci
Torsten N. Wiesel
2006
Rita R. Colwell
Nina Fedoroff
Lubert Stryer
2007
Robert J. Lefkowitz
Bert W. O'Malley
2008
Francis S. Collins
Elaine Fuchs
J. Craig Venter
2009
Susan L. Lindquist
Stanley B. Prusiner
2010s
2010
Ralph L. Brinster
Rudolf Jaenisch
2011
Lucy Shapiro
Leroy Hood
Sallie Chisholm
2012
May Berenbaum
Bruce Alberts
2013
Rakesh K. Jain
2014
Stanley Falkow
Mary-Claire King
Simon Levin
Chemistry
1960s
1964
Roger Adams
1980s
1982
F. Albert Cotton
Gilbert Stork
1983
Roald Hoffmann
George C. Pimentel
Richard N. Zare
1986
Harry B. Gray
Yuan Tseh Lee
Carl S. Marvel
Frank H. Westheimer
1987
William S. Johnson
Walter H. Stockmayer
Max Tishler
1988
William O. Baker
Konrad E. Bloch
Elias J. Corey
1989
Richard B. Bernstein
Melvin Calvin
Rudolph A. Marcus
Harden M. McConnell
1990s
1990
Elkan Blout
Karl Folkers
John D. Roberts
1991
Ronald Breslow
Gertrude B. Elion
Dudley R. Herschbach
Glenn T. Seaborg
1992
Howard E. Simmons Jr.
1993
Donald J. Cram
Norman Hackerman
1994
George S. Hammond
1995
Thomas Cech
Isabella L. Karle
1996
Norman Davidson
1997
Darleane C. Hoffman
Harold S. Johnston
1998
John W. Cahn
George M. Whitesides
1999
Stuart A. Rice
John Ross
Susan Solomon
2000s
2000
John D. Baldeschwieler
Ralph F. Hirschmann
2001
Ernest R. Davidson
Gábor A. Somorjai
2002
John I. Brauman
2004
Stephen J. Lippard
2005
Tobin J. Marks
2006
Marvin H. Caruthers
Peter B. Dervan
2007
Mostafa A. El-Sayed
2008
Joanna Fowler
JoAnne Stubbe
2009
Stephen J. Benkovic
Marye Anne Fox
2010s
2010
Jacqueline K. Barton
Peter J. Stang
2011
Allen J. Bard
M. Frederick Hawthorne
2012
Judith P. Klinman
Jerrold Meinwald
2013
Geraldine L. Richmond
2014
A. Paul Alivisatos
Engineering sciences
1960s
1962
Theodore von Kármán
1963
Vannevar Bush
John Robinson Pierce
1964
Charles S. Draper
Othmar H. Ammann
1965
Hugh L. Dryden
Clarence L. Johnson
Warren K. Lewis
1966
Claude E. Shannon
1967
Edwin H. Land
Igor I. Sikorsky
1968
J. Presper Eckert
Nathan M. Newmark
1969
Jack St. Clair Kilby
1970s
1970
George E. Mueller
1973
Harold E. Edgerton
Richard T. Whitcomb
1974
Rudolf Kompfner
Ralph Brazelton Peck
Abel Wolman
1975
Manson Benedict
William Hayward Pickering
Frederick E. Terman
Wernher von Braun
1976
Morris Cohen
Peter C. Goldmark
Erwin Wilhelm Müller
1979
Emmett N. Leith
Raymond D. Mindlin
Robert N. Noyce
Earl R. Parker
Simon Ramo
1980s
1982
Edward H. Heinemann
Donald L. Katz
1983
Bill Hewlett
George Low
John G. Trump
1986
Hans Wolfgang Liepmann
Tung-Yen Lin
Bernard M. Oliver
1987
Robert Byron Bird
H. Bolton Seed
Ernst Weber
1988
Daniel C. Drucker
Willis M. Hawkins
George W. Housner
1989
Harry George Drickamer
Herbert E. Grier
1990s
1990
Mildred Dresselhaus
Nick Holonyak Jr.
1991
George H. Heilmeier
Luna B. Leopold
H. Guyford Stever
1992
Calvin F. Quate
John Roy Whinnery
1993
Alfred Y. Cho
1994
Ray W. Clough
1995
Hermann A. Haus
1996
James L. Flanagan
C. Kumar N. Patel
1998
Eli Ruckenstein
1999
Kenneth N. Stevens
2000s
2000
Yuan-Cheng B. Fung
2001
Andreas Acrivos
2002
Leo Beranek
2003
John M. Prausnitz
2004
Edwin N. Lightfoot
2005
Jan D. Achenbach
2006
Robert S. Langer
2007
David J. Wineland
2008
Rudolf E. Kálmán
2009
Amnon Yariv
2010s
2010
Shu Chien
2011
John B. Goodenough
2012
Thomas Kailath
Mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences
1960s
1963
Norbert Wiener
1964
Solomon Lefschetz
H. Marston Morse
1965
Oscar Zariski
1966
John Milnor
1967
Paul Cohen
1968
Jerzy Neyman
1969
William Feller
1970s
1970
Richard Brauer
1973
John Tukey
1974
Kurt Gödel
1975
John W. Backus
Shiing-Shen Chern
George Dantzig
1976
Kurt Otto Friedrichs
Hassler Whitney
1979
Joseph L. Doob
Donald E. Knuth
1980s
1982
Marshall H. Stone
1983
Herman Goldstine
Isadore Singer
1986
Peter Lax
Antoni Zygmund
1987
Raoul Bott
Michael Freedman
1988
Ralph E. Gomory
Joseph B. Keller
1989
Samuel Karlin
Saunders Mac Lane
Donald C. Spencer
1990s
1990
George F. Carrier
Stephen Cole Kleene
John McCarthy
1991
Alberto Calderón
1992
Allen Newell
1993
Martin David Kruskal
1994
John Cocke
1995
Louis Nirenberg
1996
Richard Karp
Stephen Smale
1997
Shing-Tung Yau
1998
Cathleen Synge Morawetz
1999
Felix Browder
Ronald R. Coifman
2000s
2000
John Griggs Thompson
Karen Uhlenbeck
2001
Calyampudi R. Rao
Elias M. Stein
2002
James G. Glimm
2003
Carl R. de Boor
2004
Dennis P. Sullivan
2005
Bradley Efron
2006
Hyman Bass
2007
Leonard Kleinrock
Andrew J. Viterbi
2009
David B. Mumford
2010s
2010
Richard A. Tapia
S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan
2011
Solomon W. Golomb
Barry Mazur
2012
Alexandre Chorin
David Blackwell
2013
Michael Artin
Physical sciences
1960s
1963
Luis W. Alvarez
1964
Julian Schwinger
Harold Urey
Robert Burns Woodward
1965
John Bardeen
Peter Debye
Leon M. Lederman
William Rubey
1966
Jacob Bjerknes
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Henry Eyring
John H. Van Vleck
Vladimir K. Zworykin
1967
Jesse Beams
Francis Birch
Gregory Breit
Louis Hammett
George Kistiakowsky
1968
Paul Bartlett
Herbert Friedman
Lars Onsager
Eugene Wigner
1969
Herbert C. Brown
Wolfgang Panofsky
1970s
1970
Robert H. Dicke
Allan R. Sandage
John C. Slater
John A. Wheeler
Saul Winstein
1973
Carl Djerassi
Maurice Ewing
Arie Jan Haagen-Smit
Vladimir Haensel
Frederick Seitz
Robert Rathbun Wilson
1974
Nicolaas Bloembergen
Paul Flory
William Alfred Fowler
Linus Carl Pauling
Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer
1975
Hans A. Bethe
Joseph O. Hirschfelder
Lewis Sarett
Edgar Bright Wilson
Chien-Shiung Wu
1976
Samuel Goudsmit
Herbert S. Gutowsky
Frederick Rossini
Verner Suomi
Henry Taube
George Uhlenbeck
1979
Richard P. Feynman
Herman Mark
Edward M. Purcell
John Sinfelt
Lyman Spitzer
Victor F. Weisskopf
1980s
1982
Philip W. Anderson
Yoichiro Nambu
Edward Teller
Charles H. Townes
1983
E. Margaret Burbidge
Maurice Goldhaber
Helmut Landsberg
Walter Munk
Frederick Reines
Bruno B. Rossi
J. Robert Schrieffer
1986
Solomon J. Buchsbaum
H. Richard Crane
Herman Feshbach
Robert Hofstadter
Chen-Ning Yang
1987
Philip Abelson
Walter Elsasser
Paul C. Lauterbur
George Pake
James A. Van Allen
1988
D. Allan Bromley
Paul Ching-Wu Chu
Walter Kohn
Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.
Jack Steinberger
1989
Arnold O. Beckman
Eugene Parker
Robert Sharp
Henry Stommel
1990s
1990
Allan M. Cormack
Edwin M. McMillan
Robert Pound
Roger Revelle
1991
Arthur L. Schawlow
Ed Stone
Steven Weinberg
1992
Eugene M. Shoemaker
1993
Val Fitch
Vera Rubin
1994
Albert Overhauser
Frank Press
1995
Hans Dehmelt
Peter Goldreich
1996
Wallace S. Broecker
1997
Marshall Rosenbluth
Martin Schwarzschild
George Wetherill
1998
Don L. Anderson
John N. Bahcall
1999
James Cronin
Leo Kadanoff
2000s
2000
Willis E. Lamb
Jeremiah P. Ostriker
Gilbert F. White
2001
Marvin L. Cohen
Raymond Davis Jr.
Charles Keeling
2002
Richard Garwin
W. Jason Morgan
Edward Witten
2003
G. Brent Dalrymple
Riccardo Giacconi
2004
Robert N. Clayton
2005
Ralph A. Alpher
Lonnie Thompson
2006
Daniel Kleppner
2007
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove
Charles P. Slichter
2008
Berni Alder
James E. Gunn
2009
Yakir Aharonov
Esther M. Conwell
Warren M. Washington
2010s
2011
Sidney Drell
Sandra Faber
Sylvester James Gates
2012
Burton Richter
Sean C. Solomon
2014
Shirley Ann Jackson
Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1901–1925
1926–1950
1951–1975
1976–2000
2001–present
2012 Nobel Prize laureates
Chemistry
Literature (2012)
Peace (2012)
Physics
Physiology or Medicine
Economic Sciences
Nobel Prize recipients
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Categories: