H. Robert Horvitz Explained

H. Robert Horvitz
Birth Date:May 8, 1947[1]
Birth Place:Chicago, Illinois, US
Birth Name:Howard Robert Horvitz
Field:Biology
Work Institutions:MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis Title:Modifications of the host RNA polymerase induced by coliphage T4
Thesis Year:1974
Thesis Url:https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/76987195
Doctoral Advisors:Walter Gilbert
James D. Watson
Notable Students:
Known For:Apoptosis research
Spouse:Martha Constantine-Paton

Howard Robert Horvitz ForMemRS NAS AAA&S APS NAM (born May 8, 1947) is an American biologist whose research on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans,[2] was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston, whose "seminal discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death" were "important for medical research and have shed new light on the pathogenesis of many diseases".[3]

Early life and education

Horvitz was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Jewish parents,[1] the son of Mary R. (Savit), a school teacher, and Oscar Freedom Horvitz, a GAO accountant. He majored in mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi and spent his summers working for IBM, at first wiring panels for accounting machines and then in his final summer helping to develop IBM's Conversational Programming System.

During his senior year, Horvitz took his first courses in biology and was encouraged by his professors to continue to study biology in graduate school, despite his limited coursework in the field. After he completed his undergraduate studies in 1968, he enrolled in graduate studies in biology at Harvard University, where he studied T4-induced modifications of E. coli RNA polymerase under the direction of Walter Gilbert and James Watson. He completed his PhD in 1974.[4]

Career

In 1974, Horvitz took a postdoctoral position at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, England, where he worked with his future Nobel prize co-winners Sydney Brenner and John Sulston on the genetics and cell lineage of C. elegans. In 1978, Horvitz was offered a faculty position at MIT, where he is currently Professor of Biology and a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Horvitz serves as the chair of the board of trustees for Society for Science & the Public and is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.[5]

Research

At LMB, Horvitz worked with Sulston to track every non-gonadal cell division that occurred during larval development, and published a complete description of these lineages in 1977.[6] Later, in cooperation with Sulston and Martin Chalfie, Horvitz began investigations first characterizing several cell lineage mutants[7] [8] and then seeking genes that controlled cell lineage or that controlled specific lineages. In 1981, they identified and characterized the gene lin-4, a "heterochronic" mutant that changes the timeline of cell fates.[9]

In his early work at MIT, Horvitz continued his work on cell lineage and cell fate, using C. elegans to investigate whether there was a genetic program controlling cell death, or apoptosis. In 1986, he identified the first "death genes", ced-3 and ced-4. He showed that functional ced-3 and ced-4 genes were a prerequisite for cell death to be executed.[10] He went on to show that another gene, ced-9, protects against cell death by interacting with ced-4 and ced-3, as well as identifying a number of genes that direct how a dead cell is eliminated. Horvitz showed that the human genome contains a ced-3-like gene.[11] [12]

Horvitz's later research continued to use C. elegans to analyze the genetic control of animal development and behavior, as well as to link discoveries in the nematode to human diseases, particularly cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He made further advancements in defining the molecular pathway of programmed cell death, and has identified several key components, including: EGL-1, a protein which activates apoptosis by inhibiting CED-9;[13] transcription factors ces-1 and ces-2,[14] [15] and ced-8, which controls the timing of cell death.[16] He continued working on heterochronic mutants and other aspects of cell lineage, and established lines of research in signal transduction, morphogenesis, and neural development. Horvitz has collaborated with Victor Ambros and David Bartel on a project to characterize the complete set of the more than 100 microRNAs in the C. elegans genome.[17]

Works

Horvitz has over 255 publications, has been cited over 49,000 times and has an h-index of 108.[18]

Awards and honors

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Green. David B.. Biologist who discovered death genes' through worm research is born. September 18, 2015. This Day in Jewish History. Haaretz. May 8, 2015.
  2. Web site: H. Robert . Horvitz . Genetic Control of Nematode Development and Behavior . Our scientists . Howard Hughes Medical Institute . May 30, 2012 . September 18, 2015 . June 10, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120610032634/http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/horvitz.html . dead .
  3. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2002/press-release/ Press Release
  4. Web site: H. Robert Horvitz - Biographical. www.nobelprize.org. 2016-01-26.
  5. Web site: USA Science and Engineering Festival - Advisors . Usasciencefestival.org . 2013-04-23 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100421005310/http://www.usasciencefestival.org/about/advisors/ . 2010-04-21 .
  6. Post-embryonic Cell Lineages of the Nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. Sulston. J.E.. 1977. Developmental Biology. 26 January 2016. Horvitz. H.R.. 56. 1. 110–156. 10.1016/0012-1606(77)90158-0. 838129.
  7. Isolation and genetic characterization of cell-lineage mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1980-10-01. 0016-6731. 1214309. 7262539. 435–454. 96. 2. H. R.. Horvitz. J. E.. Sulston. 10.1093/genetics/96.2.435.
  8. Abnormal cell lineages in mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Developmental Biology. 1981-02-01. 41–55. 82. 1. 10.1016/0012-1606(81)90427-9. 7014288. John E.. Sulston. H. Robert. Horvitz.
  9. Mutations that lead to reiterations in the cell lineages of C. elegans. Cell. 1981-04-01. 0092-8674. 7237544. 59–69. 24. 1. M.. Chalfie. H. R.. Horvitz. J. E.. Sulston. 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90501-8. 33933388.
  10. Genetic control of programmed cell death in the nematode C. elegans. Cell. 1986-03-28. 817–829. 44. 6. 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90004-8. Hilary M.. Ellis. H. Robert. Horvitz. 3955651. 44031839.
  11. Mechanisms and Functions of Cell Death. Annual Review of Cell Biology. 1991-01-01. 1809356. 663–698. 7. 1. 10.1146/annurev.cb.07.110191.003311. Ronald E.. Ellis. Junying. Yuan. H. Robert. Horvitz.
  12. Web site: MIT's Horvitz shares Nobel Prize in physiology. MIT News. 2016-01-26.
  13. The C. elegans protein EGL-1 is required for programmed cell death and interacts with the Bcl-2-like protein CED-9. Cell. 1998-05-15. 0092-8674. 9604928. 519–529. 93. 4. B.. Conradt. H. R.. Horvitz. 10.1016/s0092-8674(00)81182-4. 1668835. free.
  14. The C. elegans cell death specification gene ces-1 encodes a snail family zinc finger protein. Molecular Cell. 1999-09-01. 1097-2765. 10518212. 309–319. 4. 3. M. M.. Metzstein. H. R.. Horvitz. 10.1016/s1097-2765(00)80333-0. free.
  15. Transcriptional regulator of programmed cell death encoded by Caenorhabditis elegans gene ces-2. Nature. 1996-08-08. 545–547. 382. 6591. 10.1038/382545a0. en. Mark M.. Metzstein. Michael O.. Hengartner. Nancy. Tsung. Ronald E.. Ellis. H. Robert. Horvitz. 8700229. 1996Natur.382..545M. 4307474.
  16. The ced-8 gene controls the timing of programmed cell deaths in C. elegans. Molecular Cell. 2000-03-01. 1097-2765. 10882128. 423–433. 5. 3. G. M.. Stanfield. H. R.. Horvitz. 10.1016/s1097-2765(00)80437-2. free.
  17. Web site: The Horvitz Laboratory. web.mit.edu. 2016-01-26.
  18. Web site: Web of Science. Thomson Reuters. 19 September 2015.
  19. Web site: H. Robert Horvitz . The Gruber Foundation . January 13, 2018.
  20. Web site: NAS award in molecular biology. National Academy of Sciences. 20 May 2016.
  21. Web site: Horvitz receives Roche's Mattia Award . MIT News . Massachusetts Institute of Technology . 17 October 2022 . November 3, 1993.
  22. Web site: Hans Sigrist Prize Winners. University of Bern. 20 May 2016.
  23. Web site: Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center - Past Winners . brandeis.edu . Brandeis University . 17 October 2022.
  24. Web site: recipients of the passano laureate and physician scientist awards . The Passano Foundation, Inc. . Passano Foundation . 17 October 2022.
  25. Web site: In recognition of their pioneering contribution to our understanding of apoptosis. . gairdner.org . the Canada Gairdner Foundation . 17 October 2022.
  26. Web site: Prize Winners of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize . goethe-university-frankfurt.de . The Paul Ehrlich Foundation . 17 October 2022.
  27. Web site: MARCH OF DIMES PRIZE IN DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY RECIPIENT LIST . marchofdimes.org . 17 October 2022.
  28. Horwitz Prize Goes To MIT's Horvitz, Harvard's Korsmeyer. 26. 8. 19 September 2015. Columbia University Record. 30 October 2000.
  29. The Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research, 2001: H. Robert Horvitz, PhD . The Neuroscientist . 17 October 2022 . December 2001. 7 . 6 . 551 . 10.1177/107385840100700611 . 11765132 . 41177724 .
  30. Web site: The 2001 Genetics Society of America Medal: H. Robert Horvitz . Genetics Society of America . 17 October 2022.
  31. Web site: H. Robert Horvits. Superstars of Science. 18 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20140810140305/http://superstarsofscience.com/scientist/h-robert-horvitz. 2014-08-10. dead.
  32. Web site: The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences . John Wiley & Sons, Inc. . 17 October 2022.
  33. Web site: 2002 Genetics Prize: H. Robert Horvitz. Gruber prizes. The Gruber Foundation. 20 May 2016.
  34. Web site: American Philosophical Society Member History . amphilsoc.org.
  35. Web site: Mendel Medal . The Genetics Society . 17 October 2022.
  36. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20150316060617/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/. 2015-03-16. Fellows of the Royal Society. Royal Society. London.

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