David Housman Explained

David Housman
Alma Mater:Brandeis University
Fields:Genetics, Cancer Biology
Birth Date:30 July 1946
Doctoral Students:David L. Nelson
James F. Gusella

David E. Housman is an American geneticist. He is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research in the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for his contribution to the discovery of the HTT gene that causes Huntington's disease.

Early life

David Housman was born on July 30, 1946. As a child he was a control in the original Salk polio vaccine trials in New York, an early experience that left him interested in how clinical trials could be more efficiently conducted.[1]

Academic career

Housman received his BA in 1966 and MA in 1971 from Brandeis University.[2] As one of the first postdocs in the lab of Harvey Lodish at MIT, Housman showed that all mammalian proteins begin with a methionine residue transferred from a specific met-initiator tRNA.[3] [4] Between 1973 and 1975 he taught at the University of Toronto and was on the staff of the Ontario Cancer Institute.[5] He joined the MIT faculty in 1975. In his lab at MIT, he mentored Jim Gusella and Daniel Haber.

Housman has co-founded five biotech companies: Integrated Genetics (now part of Genzyme), Somatix Therapy Corp, Viariagenics, Kenna Technologies, and Audacity Therapeutics.

Research

Housman's research is focused on the genetics of hereditary disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. His laboratory studies the WT1 gene, whose mutation causes the Wilms’ tumor in the kidneys, and is exploring it as a therapeutic target for leukemia.[6]

In 1978 Housman received a grant from the Hereditary Disease Foundation to search for the gene behind Huntington's disease using genetic markers, and embarked on this work with Jim Gusella, then a postdoc in his lab at MIT.[7] This led to the discovery of the neighborhood of the gene by Gusella's lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1983.[8] The Housman lab is currently investigating the modifier genes responsible for determining the age of onset for Huntington's.

Awards and honors

Notes and References

  1. Web site: David Housman – Audacity Therapeutics. en. 2020-06-01.
  2. Web site: David E. Housman. FSHD Society. en-US. 2020-06-01.
  3. Web site: Lodish Lab profile. lodishlab.wi.mit.edu. 2020-06-01.
  4. HOUSMAN. DAVID. JACOBS-LORENA. MARCELO. RAJBHANDARY. U. L.. LODISH. HARVEY F.. August 1970. Initiation of Haemoglobin Synthesis by Methionyl-tRNA. Nature. 227. 5261. 913–918. 10.1038/227913a0. 4915406. 1970Natur.227..913H. 4155881. 0028-0836.
  5. Book: Becoming MIT : moments of decision. 2010. MIT Press. Kaiser, David.. 978-0-262-11323-6. Cambridge, Mass.. 495547062.
  6. Web site: The Koch Institute: David E. Housman. ki.mit.edu. 2020-06-01.
  7. Book: Bishop, Jerry E., 1931-. Genome : the story of the most astonishing scientific adventure of our time, the attempt to map all the genes in the human body. 2014. Open Road Integrated Media. Waldholz, Michael, 1950-. 978-1-306-98797-4. New York. 885020256.
  8. Web site: Hunting Down Huntington's. Discover Magazine. en. 2020-06-01.
  9. Web site: Teaching prize recipients. MIT School of Science. en-US. 2020-06-01.
  10. Web site: David Housman. www.nasonline.org. 2020-06-01.
  11. Web site: IOM elects Housman. MIT News. 25 February 1998 . 2020-06-01.