George M. Martin Explained

George M. Martin
Birth Date:June 30, 1927
Birth Place:New York, New York, United States
Death Place:Seattle, Washington, United States
Fields:Gerontology
Alma Mater:University of Washington (BS, 1949)
University of Washington School of Medicine (MD, 1952)
Workplaces:University of Washington

George M. Martin (June 30, 1927 – December 17, 2022) was an American biogerontologist. He was a faculty member at the University of Washington from 1957 until the end of his career. Martin was a professor emeritus in the Department of Pathology, adjunct professor of genome sciences, and director emeritus of the University of Washington's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.[1] [2]

Martin is best known as one of the founders of modern biogerontology.

Biography

Martin was born in New York City, the son of a police officer.[3] Martin attended less than a year at the Cooper Union School of Engineering, and one year at the College of the City of New York before serving in the US Navy from 1945 to 1946.[4] He moved to Alaska at age 19, and held various jobs including playing trumpet in a jazz band and working for a railroad company.[5] After two years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Martin completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of Washington in 1949 before completing his medical doctorate from the same institution in 1952. He subsequently completed his internship at the Montreal General Hospital, followed by a residency in anatomic pathology at the University of Chicago. In 1957, Martin accepted a faculty position at the University of Washington in the Department of Pathology,[6] where he founded the Clinical Cytogenetics Laboratory. Martin became the founding director of the University of Washington Medical Scientist Training Program in 1970.[7]

Martin served as the Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research and as president of the Tissue Culture Association and the Gerontological Society of America. He served as a scientific editor and served on editorial boards of many scholarly journals, including Science, Age and Ageing, Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, Aging Cell, Ageing Research Reviews, Geriatrics and Gerontology International and Alzheimer's Disease Review. Martin was also the chairman of the scientific advisory board for The Ellison Biomedical Foundation.

Career

Martin's early work focused on the neurobiology of Wilson's disease and the function of caeruloplasmin, the underlying gene responsible for this disorder.[8] [9] This work served as a catalyst for Martin to learn about genetics, as supported by Arno Motulsky, founder of the University of Washington department of Medical Genetics. Martin also contributed to early work surrounding the techniques and use of human cell culture,[10] [11] including describing donor covariates that contributed to replicative limits in culture.[12]

Martin's major research focus involved using genetic approaches to elucidate the pathobiology of aging and age-related diseases. Martin's work provided important insights into multiple topics in the field of geroscience. His group conducted genetic linking studies identifying loci associated with familial forms of Alzheimer's disease,[13] [14] a discovery that led to the recognition of amyloid beta (Aβ) in the pathology of that disorder.[15] Martin's group separately identified the genetic defect causing the aging disease Werner syndrome,[16] [17] and its underlying contributory mechanisms to the disorder.[18] [19] His studies provided the first evidence that epithelial cells from arteries, especially from parts that develop severe atherosclerosis, have limited potential to divide.[20] [21] He and colleagues demonstrated that senescent cells cannot be returned to a replicative state when their cytoplasm is combined with cytoplasm from normal, young cells.[22] [23] Martin's laboratory was the first to demonstrate the accumulation of somatic mutations in human epithelial cells during the aging process.[24] His later research used genetic engineering in mice to elucidate mechanisms of aging and Alzheimer's disease.[25]

Martin was not as well known as a futurist, but some of Martin's ideas predate predictions of better known futurists such as Ray Kurzweil and Vernor Vinge, and are similar to those eventually championed in the field. In 1971,[26] for example, Martin described a process for achieving a condition equatable to immortality using a scientific process now termed mind uploading:

Honors

Source:

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.pathology.washington.edu/research/labs/Martin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Washington
  2. Web site: Happy 90th Birthday to Dr. George Martin - Memory and Brain Wellness Center . 2023-08-27 . depts.washington.edu.
  3. Austad . Steven N. . 2023-06-01 . George M. Martin: tribute and personal remembrance . GeroScience . en . 45 . 3 . 2085–2086 . 10.1007/s11357-023-00747-z . 2509-2723 . 10400482 . 36745353.
  4. Web site: Martin . George . 2019-04-08 . George M. Martin, M.D. Curriculum Vita . 2023-08-27.
  5. Rabinovitch . Peter S . Disteche . Christine . Kaeberlein . Matt . Martin . Kelsey C . Monnat . Raymond J . Oshima . Junko . Promislow . Daniel . 2023-01-04 . In Memory of George M. Martin . The Journals of Gerontology: Series A . 78 . 4 . 619–620 . 10.1093/gerona/glac257 . 36609876 . 1079-5006. free .
  6. Web site: An Interview with the ADRC's Founding Director - Memory and Brain Wellness Center . 2023-08-27 . depts.washington.edu.
  7. Web site: UW MSTP History Medical Scientist Training Program . 2023-08-27.
  8. McALISTER . R. . Martin . G. M. . Benditt . E. P. . June 1961 . Evidence for Multiple Cæruloplasmin Components in Human Serum . Nature . en . 190 . 4779 . 927–929 . 10.1038/190927b0 . 13773713 . 1961Natur.190..927M . 4251125 . 1476-4687.
  9. Martin . G. M. . Derr . M. A. . Benditt . E. P. . Ceruloplasmins of Several Animal Species. Comparison of Electrophoretic Mobilities and Substrate Specificity . March 1964 . Laboratory Investigation; A Journal of Technical Methods and Pathology . 13 . 282–287 . 0023-6837 . 14127032.
  10. Martin . G. M. . Tuan . A. . October 1966 . A definitive cloning technique for human fibroblast cultures . Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine . 123 . 1 . 138–140 . 10.3181/00379727-123-31423 . 0037-9727 . 5924411. 34390842 .
  11. Martin . G. M. . Sprague . C. . Bryant . J. S. . 1967-05-06 . Mitotic nondisjunction in cultivated human cells . Nature . 214 . 5088 . 612–613 . 10.1038/214612a0 . 0028-0836 . 4226946. 1967Natur.214..612M . 4155643 .
  12. Martin . G. M. . Sprague . C. A. . Epstein . C. J. . July 1970 . Replicative life-span of cultivated human cells. Effects of donor's age, tissue, and genotype . Laboratory Investigation; A Journal of Technical Methods and Pathology . 23 . 1 . 86–92 . 0023-6837 . 5431223.
  13. Schellenberg . G. D. . Bird . T. D. . Wijsman . E. M. . Orr . H. T. . Anderson . L. . Nemens . E. . White . J. A. . Bonnycastle . L. . Weber . J. L. . Alonso . M. E. . 1992-10-23 . Genetic linkage evidence for a familial Alzheimer's disease locus on chromosome 14 . Science . 258 . 5082 . 668–671 . 10.1126/science.1411576 . 0036-8075 . 1411576. 1992Sci...258..668S .
  14. Schellenberg GD, Deeb SS, Boehnke M, etal . April 1987 . Association of an apolipoprotein CII allele with familial dementia of the Alzheimer type . Journal of Neurogenetics . 4 . 2–3 . 97–108 . 10.3109/01677068709102337 . 2885403.
  15. Guo . Q. . Furukawa . K. . Sopher . B. L. . Pham . D. G. . Xie . J. . Robinson . N. . Martin . G. M. . Mattson . M. P. . 1996-12-20 . Alzheimer's PS-1 mutation perturbs calcium homeostasis and sensitizes PC12 cells to death induced by amyloid beta-peptide . NeuroReport . 8 . 1 . 379–383 . 10.1097/00001756-199612200-00074 . 0959-4965 . 9051814. 11404496 .
  16. Oshima J, Yu CE, Boehnke M, etal . Integrated mapping analysis of the Werner syndrome region of chromosome 8 . Genomics . 23 . 1 . 100–13 . September 1994 . 7829057 . 10.1006/geno.1994.1464. 2027.42/31345 . free .
  17. Yu . C. E. . Oshima . J. . Fu . Y. H. . Wijsman . E. M. . Hisama . F. . Alisch . R. . Matthews . S. . Nakura . J. . Miki . T. . Ouais . S. . Martin . G. M. . Mulligan . J. . Schellenberg . G. D. . 1996-04-12 . Positional cloning of the Werner's syndrome gene . Science . 272 . 5259 . 258–262 . 10.1126/science.272.5259.258 . 0036-8075 . 8602509. 1996Sci...272..258Y . 18172607 .
  18. Gray . M. D. . Shen . J. C. . Kamath-Loeb . A. S. . Blank . A. . Sopher . B. L. . Martin . G. M. . Oshima . J. . Loeb . L. A. . September 1997 . The Werner syndrome protein is a DNA helicase . Nature Genetics . 17 . 1 . 100–103 . 10.1038/ng0997-100 . 1061-4036 . 9288107. 20587915 .
  19. Balajee . A. S. . Machwe . A. . May . A. . Gray . M. D. . Oshima . J. . Martin . G. M. . Nehlin . J. O. . Brosh . R. . Orren . D. K. . Bohr . V. A. . August 1999 . The Werner syndrome protein is involved in RNA polymerase II transcription . Molecular Biology of the Cell . 10 . 8 . 2655–2668 . 10.1091/mbc.10.8.2655 . 1059-1524 . 25497 . 10436020.
  20. Martin . G. M. . Sprague . C. A. . 1972-12-23 . Clonal senescence and atherosclerosis . Lancet . 2 . 7791 . 1370–1371 . 10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92819-x . 0140-6736 . 4118240.
  21. Book: Martin . G. . Ogburn . C. . Sprague . C. . Senescence and Vascular Disease . Explorations in Aging . 1975 . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/810006 . Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology . 61 . 163–193 . 10.1007/978-1-4615-9032-3_9 . 0065-2598 . 810006. 978-1-4615-9034-7 .
  22. Hoehn . H. . Bryant . E. M. . Johnston . P. . Norwood . T. H. . Martin . G. M. . 1975-12-18 . Non-selective isolation, stability and longevity of hybrids between normal human somatic cells . Nature . 258 . 5536 . 608–610 . 10.1038/258608a0 . 0028-0836 . 1207734. 1975Natur.258..608H . 11467452 .
  23. Norwood . T. H. . Pendergrass . W. R. . Sprague . C. A. . Martin . G. M. . June 1974 . Dominance of the senescent phenotype in heterokaryons between replicative and post-replicative human fibroblast-like cells . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 71 . 6 . 2231–2235 . 10.1073/pnas.71.6.2231 . 0027-8424 . 388425 . 4366757 . 1974PNAS...71.2231N . free .
  24. Martin . G. M. . Ogburn . C. E. . Colgin . L. M. . Gown . A. M. . Edland . S. D. . Monnat . R. J. . February 1996 . Somatic mutations are frequent and increase with age in human kidney epithelial cells . Human Molecular Genetics . 5 . 2 . 215–221 . 10.1093/hmg/5.2.215 . 0964-6906 . 8824877. free .
  25. Guo . Q. . Sebastian . L. . Sopher . B. L. . Miller . M. W. . Ware . C. B. . Martin . G. M. . Mattson . M. P. . March 1999 . Increased vulnerability of hippocampal neurons from presenilin-1 mutant knock-in mice to amyloid beta-peptide toxicity: central roles of superoxide production and caspase activation . Journal of Neurochemistry . 72 . 3 . 1019–1029 . 10.1046/j.1471-4159.1999.0721019.x . 0022-3042 . 10037473. 221870765 .
  26. Martin . G. M. . 1971 . Brief proposal on immortality: an interim solution . Perspectives in Biology and Medicine . 14 . 2 . 339 . 10.1353/pbm.1971.0015 . 0031-5982 . 5546258. 71120068 .
  27. Web site: EMF: Bio . 2023-08-27 . www.ellison-med-fn.org.
  28. Web site: Awardees . 2023-08-27 . www.geron.org.
  29. Web site: AAIC Lifetime Achievement Awards Alzheimer's Association . 2023-08-27 . AAIC . en.
  30. Web site: 2017-07-24 . The 22nd Longevity Prize of the Fondation IPSEN is Awarded to Andrzej Bartke . 2023-08-28 . www.businesswire.com . en.

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