H. Robert Horvitz

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H. Robert Horvitz
Born
Howard Robert Horvitz

(1947-05-08) May 8, 1947 (age 76)[3]
Chicago, Illinois, US
Alma mater
Known forApoptosis research
SpouseMartha Constantine-Paton
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsBiology
InstitutionsMRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisModifications of the host RNA polymerase induced by coliphage T4 (1974)
Notable studentsMichael Hengartner

Gary Ruvkun Yishi Jin

Junying Yuan
Websiteweb.mit.edu/horvitz/www/

Howard Robert Horvitz

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".[5]

Education and early life

Horvitz was born in Chicago, Illinois to Jewish parents,[3] 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.[1]

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

T4-induced modifications of E. coli RNA polymerase under the direction of Walter Gilbert and James Watson. He completed his PhD in 1974.[6]

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.[citation needed
]

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.[7]

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.[1][8] Later, in cooperation with Sulston and Martin Chalfie, Horvitz began investigations first characterizing several cell lineage mutants[9][10] 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.[11]

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.[12] 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.[13][14]

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;[15] transcription factors ces-1 and ces-2,[16][17] and ced-8, which controls the timing of cell death.[18] 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.[19]

Works

Scholia has a profile for H. Robert Horvitz (Q295659).

Horvitz has over 255 publications, has been cited over 49,000 times and has an h-index of 108.[20]

Awards and honors

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d H. Robert Horvitz on Nobelprize.org Edit this at Wikidata, accessed 11 October 2020
  2. ^ a b "Fellows of the Royal Society". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2015-03-16.
  3. ^ a b Green, David B. (May 8, 2015). "Biologist who discovered death genes' through worm research is born". This Day in Jewish History. Haaretz. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  4. ^ Horvitz, H. Robert (May 30, 2012). "Genetic Control of Nematode Development and Behavior". Our scientists. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  5. ^ Press Release, nobelprize.org. Accessed February 28, 2024.
  6. ^ "H. Robert Horvitz - Biographical". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  7. ^ "USA Science and Engineering Festival - Advisors". Usasciencefestival.org. Archived from the original on 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
  8. PMID 838129
    . Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  9. PMID 7262539
    .
  10. PMID 7014288
    .
  11. S2CID 33933388
    .
  12. S2CID 44031839
    .
  13. PMID 1809356
    .
  14. ^ "MIT's Horvitz shares Nobel Prize in physiology". MIT News. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  15. S2CID 1668835
    .
  16. PMID 10518212
    .
  17. S2CID 4307474
    .
  18. PMID 10882128
    .
  19. ^ "The Horvitz Laboratory". web.mit.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  20. ^ "Web of Science". Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  21. ^ a b c "H. Robert Horvitz". The Gruber Foundation. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
  22. ^ "NAS award in molecular biology". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  23. ^ "Horvitz receives Roche's Mattia Award". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. November 3, 1993. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  24. ^ "Hans Sigrist Prize Winners". University of Bern. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  25. ^ "Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center - Past Winners". brandeis.edu. Brandeis University. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  26. ^ "recipients of the passano laureate and physician scientist awards". The Passano Foundation, Inc. Passano Foundation. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  27. ^ "In recognition of their pioneering contribution to our understanding of apoptosis". gairdner.org. the Canada Gairdner Foundation. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  28. ^ "Prize Winners of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize" (PDF). goethe-university-frankfurt.de. The Paul Ehrlich Foundation. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  29. ^ "MARCH OF DIMES PRIZE IN DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY RECIPIENT LIST" (PDF). marchofdimes.org. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  30. ^ "Horwitz Prize Goes To MIT's Horvitz, Harvard's Korsmeyer". Columbia University Record. 26 (8). 30 October 2000. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  31. S2CID 41177724
    . Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  32. ^ "The 2001 Genetics Society of America Medal: H. Robert Horvitz". Genetics Society of America. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  33. ^ "H. Robert Horvits". Superstars of Science. Archived from the original on 2014-08-10. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  34. ^ "The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences". John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  35. ^ "2002 Genetics Prize: H. Robert Horvitz". Gruber prizes. The Gruber Foundation. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  36. ^ "American Philosophical Society Member History". amphilsoc.org.
  37. ^ "Mendel Medal". The Genetics Society. Retrieved 17 October 2022.

Further reading

External links
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