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Harvey Lodish
Harvey was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 16,
1941. His father Nathan was a manager at a small company manufacturing
electrical fittings for houses and autos. His mother Sylvia was a teacher
before her marriage; after her children were in school she earned her
BA degree and taught 3rd grade in Cleveland Heights. Harvey’s first
publication was in 1946, a letter published in a children’s’
column in the Cleveland Press. Harvey started at Chesterfield Elementary
School in Cleveland but transferred to Taylor Elementary School in Cleveland
Heights when his family (in fact his entire neighborhood) moved to the
suburbs in 1951. At Taylor Harvey was appointed head of the school crossing
guards, giving him authority over about 20 5th and 6th grade students.
After three years at Roosevelt Junior High
Harvey entered Cleveland Heights High School, where he distinguished himself
keeping time as the bass drummer in a 164- piece marching band. He also
participated in a small research project — measuring the levels of
various nitrogenous compounds in the blood — directed by Dr. Ethel
Laughlin, a chemistry teacher. During the summers of 1958, ’59, and
’60 Harvey worked at Western Reserve (now Case Western Reserve) Medical
School with Dr. Robert Eckel studying potassium transport in red blood
cells. This led to his first scientific publication in 1960, and he has
been studying red blood cells ever since. (And in 1982 he was elected
to the Cleveland Heights High School Alumni Hall of Fame, an honor he
shares with his two younger brothers Leonard and Richard).
Harvey entered Kenyon College in 1959 and graduated
three years later, summa cum laude and with Highest Honors in Chemistry
and Mathematics. During the summer of 1960 he worked at Stanford in the
chemistry laboratory of Dr. Carl Djerassi, a Kenyon alumnus and "discoverer
of the birth control pill." He saw first hand how close contacts
between universities and companies (Syntex in this case) can be mutually
profitable and result in excellent science. Harvey was awarded an honorary
D. Sc. degree from Kenyon in 1982 and since 1989 has served as a member
of the Kenyon College Board of Trustees.
Harvey received his Ph.D. degree in genetics with
Dr. Norton Zinder from the Rockefeller University in 1966; his
thesis focused on a genetic and biochemical analysis of the three genes
in the RNA bacteriophage f2. Then followed two years of postdoctoral research
at the M.R.C. Laboratory of Molecular Biology with Drs. Sydney Brenner
and Francis Crick; there he determined the factors that control initiation
of translation of the three f2 genes. He joined the faculty of the MIT
Department of Biology in 1968. Harvey was promoted to Professor in 1976,
and in 1983 was appointed Member of the new Whitehead Institute for Biomedical
Research. His one "real" sabbatical was in 1977- 78 as a Guggenheim
Fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London with Dr. Robin Weiss.
Initially, his work at MIT focused on translational
control of protein synthesis, collaborating with David Baltimore’s
lab on translation of poliovirus mRNA. David Housman, one of his first
Ph.D. students, showed that mammalian proteins all begin with a methionine
residue transferred from a specific met- initiator tRNA.
From 1971 through 1987 parts of his laboratory studied
the regulation of gene expression during differentiation of the
cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, focusing on the details
of mRNA biogenesis and on identifying proteins and mRNAs expressed at
specific times of differentiation and in either prespore or prestalk cells.
Beginning in 1973, his laboratory has concentrated
on the biogenesis, structure, and function of several important secreted
and plasma membrane glycoproteins. Working with the Baltimore lab
his group defined the biosynthesis and maturation of the vesicular stomatitis
virus glycoprotein, elucidating the now well-known ER to Golgi to plasma
membrane pathway for biogenesis of cell surface proteins. With Blobel
they developed the first in vitro system for studying the biosynthesis,
membrane insertion, and glycosylation of a membrane protein, and then
demonstrated that removal of the signal sequence and addition of the two
N-linked carbohydrates occurs cotranslationally. Later work identified
the intracellular organelles that mediate recycling of the asialoglycoprotein
and transferrin receptors, and clarified the role of pH changes in delivery
of iron to cells and recycling of the transferrin receptor. More recently,
his group has elucidated steps in folding and oligomerization of several
proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum, shown that exit of several
newly-made secreted proteins from this organelle requires that they be
properly folded, and developed probes for measurement of the redox state
within the endoplasmic reticulum.
His group was the first to clone and sequence mRNAs
encoding a mammalian glucose transport protein (the
red cell glucose transporter, GLUT1), and then they identified
and worked out the roles of a family of glucose transporters, including
GLUT2 and GLUT4, in liver, muscle, and adipose tissue. After cloning Band
III, the red cell anion exchange protein, his group elucidated the role
of this protein and its homologs in acid- base balance in the kidney.
Other proteins cloned by members of his lab include the first transporter
for free fatty acids, the two subunits of the hepatic asialoglycoprotein
receptor, intestinal sucrose-isomaltase, the erythropoietin receptor,
the calcitonin and endothelin receptors, and (with the Weinberg lab) two
subunits of the TGFß receptor. These have been used to define the
structure and biosynthesis of these and related proteins and to identify
and characterize related genes that encode proteins of related physiological
function.
For example, cloning of the erythropoietin receptor
made possible a long series of studies on the signal transduction pathways
it activates, leading to an understanding of how it prevents apoptosis
of erythroid progenitor cells and allows them to undergo a process of
terminal proliferation and erythroid differentiation. Cloning of the TGF-ß
receptors led to elucidation of the role of the Smad signal transduction
proteins in activation of transcription of genes encoding extracellular
matrix proteins and inhibitors of the cell cycle, and to an understanding
of how loss of these receptors contributes to tumor development. Later
work led to the cloning and characterization of other factors in the TGFß
signaling pathway including, with the Weinberg lab, several oncogenes
that block TGFß signaling pathways.
Besides studying the erythropoietin and TGFß
receptors and the family of mammalian fatty acid transport proteins
they cloned, his lab has been studying the insulin receptor and determining
how it signals fat cells to increase uptake of both sugars and fatty acids.
Together with colleagues at Genset Corp. his group studies the mechanism
of action of ACRP30, a new adipocyte- produced hormone they cloned that
potently enhances fat and glucose metabolism by muscle and prolonged weight
loss in mice. Finally his group studies hematopoietic stem cells, cloning
and characterizing new growth factors that may allow expansion of these
cells without differentiation, and developing transgenic mice that should
allow real- time detection and enrichment of these cells.
Finally his group studies hematopoietic stem cells. His group has identified
several novel growth factors that, added together, allow expansion of
these cells in culture without differentiation. His lab has also identified
new functional cell surface markers for these cells, including endoglin
and (together with the Lindquist lab) the normal prion protein. Together
with the Bartel laboratory his lab investigates the role of hematopoietic-
specific microRNAs in regulating the production and function of certain
types of blood cells.
On a personal level, Harvey married Pamela Chentow
in 1963, and they have three married children - Heidi (born in
1966 and a social worker), Martin (1968, a high school physics and chemistry
teacher) and Stephanie (1969, a pediatrician). They have seven adorable
grandchildren – Sophie (1997), Joshua (1998), and Tobias (2005)
to Martin and Kristin; Emma (1999) and Andrew (2002) to Heidi and Eric
Steinert, and Isaac (2000) and Violet (2004) to Stephanie and Bruce Peabody.
Harvey is a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club 4000-foot club, having
climbed on foot all 68 New England peaks over 4000 ft. high. He enjoys
working out every morning; reading, writing, thinking, and talking; traveling
with his wife Pam; hiking with his children and students; and playing
with his grandchildren.
Harvey was on the Editorial Board of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences. He was on the Board of Reviewing
Editors of Science and was Editor of Molecular and Cellular Biology from
1981 to 1987 Harvey has been on the editorial boards of a number of other
journals, including the Journal of Cell Biology, the Journal of Biological
Chemistry, and Nucleic Acids Research. He has served on advisory panels
for the NIH, NSF, and American Cancer Society, and on the advisory boards
of several institutions, including the Biozentrum of the University of
Basle, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, the Center
for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH), the Life Sciences Institute of
the University of Michigan, and the PEW Scholars Program in Biomedical
Sciences; he chaired the advisory boards of the Division of Basic Sciences
of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research
Institute. Currently he is a member of the advisory board of the California
Institute of Technology Division of Biology.
He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Kenyon College and
of Children’s Hospital Boston, where he also serves as Chair of
the Scientific Advisory Board.
During the 2004 calendar year Dr. Lodish served as President of the American
Society for Cell Biology.
Harvey has been the lead author of the textbook
Molecular Cell Biology, now in its fifth edition and translated
into six languages. Together with six co-authors he is currently writing
the 6th edition, due in 2007.
He was elected a Member of the National Academy
of Sciences (1987), a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (1986), a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences (1999), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
(1992). He is also an Associate (Foreign) Member of the European Molecular
Biology Organization (1996). Dr. Lodish received a MERIT award from the
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He is
also a recipient of the Stadie Award from the American Diabetes Association
and is listed in Who’s Who in America (1987).
Harvey has been very active in the biotechnology industry. He is a founding
member (1980) and Principal of the consulting company BIA and was a founder
and scientific advisory board member of Genzyme, Inc. He was also a scientific
founder of Arris (now Axys) Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals,
Inc and of Cogito Learning Media, Inc. Currently he is a scientific advisory
board member of AstraZeneca, Genset SA, and Dyax Corporation.