Harold M. Weintraub
Harold M. Weintraub | |
---|---|
Born | Harold M. Weintraub June 2, 1945 Newark, New Jersey, United States of America |
Died | March 28, 1995 Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
Education | Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center University of Washington |
Doctoral advisor | Howard Holtzer, Ph.D. |
Harold M. "Hal" Weintraub was an American scientist who lived from 1945 until his death in 1995 from an aggressive brain tumor. Only 49 years old, Weintraub left behind a legacy of research.[1][2][3]
Early life and education
Born on June 2, 1945, in Newark, New Jersey, Weintraub's childhood revolved around sports, including basketball, an activity he would continue to particularly relish throughout his adult life. Weintraub was also the pitcher for an all-city high school baseball team, and a football fullback.[4]
Weintraub attended
Research achievements
During his abbreviated career, Weintraub was the author of more than 130 scientific articles, most of which were in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals, including the "Big 3" basic science journals: Cell, Science, and Nature.[8] Weintraub was a member of the National Academy of Sciences,[9] and served as editorial advisor for numerous journals.[4]
Weintraub spent approximately a year at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, doing a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratories of Sydney Brenner and Francis Crick. There, his studies of the nucleosome — a basic unit of DNA packaging — showed that its structure was altered when genes were actively transcribed.[1] Weintraub returned to the United States, and between the years 1973–1977 was an assistant professor at Princeton University.[10] His research at Princeton, which would continue during his years in Seattle, applied enzymatic and traditional biochemical isolation/separation techniques to clarify the relationship between the physical structure of genes and their expression (the process by which DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA, and eventually into Protein.)[11] Another avenue of research in Weintraub's lab studied the effects of oncoviruses on cellular gene expression.[12]
In 1978, Weintraub joined the
While at FHCRC, Weintraub continued and extended his prior studies of chromatin structure and function.[14][15][16][17] Another of his contributions was developing the technique of using antisense RNA to create specific mutant phenotypes in vertebrate organisms.[18][19] Perhaps the work for which Weintraub is best known was his laboratory's discovery and characterization of "myoD", the first master regulatory gene. When expressed, the myoD gene produces a protein referred to as MyoD (or MyoD1), which can bind certain DNA sequences, stop cell division, and elicit an entire program of muscle cell differentiation. In a series of sequential experiments, Weintraub and his students showed that myoD was able to convert fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) into myoblasts (skeletal muscle cells).[20][21] Later studies by the same group of investigators at FHCRC further characterized the structural and functional characteristics of myoD and its nuclear-localized protein product,[22][23] which were found to be present in organisms as diverse as nematode worms, frogs, mice, and humans.[24] During the final years of his life, Weintraub's work used myoD to delve broadly and deeply into the areas of regulatory proteins, gene expression, and the molecular control of cell differentiation.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] As part of this work, his lab pioneered a molecular biology technique known as the Selection And Amplification Binding (SAAB) assay, which is used to find the DNA-binding sites for proteins.[32]
Biotechnology involvement
Along with chemist Peter Dervan of Caltech and developmental biologist Doug Melton of Harvard, Weintraub was one of three core scientific advisors to Michael L. Riordan, founder of Gilead Sciences, helping to establish the company's scientific vision at its founding during the late 1980s.
Death and legacy
Weintraub died on March 28, 1995, in Seattle, Washington, as a result of complications from glioblastoma multiforme, a very aggressive and fast-growing brain tumor.[10] He had only been diagnosed six months beforehand, undergoing neurosurgery in an attempt to curb its spread.[3] Weintraub was survived by his wife and two sons.[2] In the years that followed, several items were created in his memory:
- the Fred Hutch Weintraub and Groudine Fund: “established to foster intellectual exchange through the promotion of programs for graduate students, fellows and visiting scholars.”[33]
- the Weintraub meeting, held annually since 1997, is a two-day symposium serving as a reunion for Weintraub's former graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and scientific collaborators.[34]
- the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, initiated at FHCRC in 2000, occurs annually, honoring Weintraub and his commitment to innovative science, and recognizing outstanding achievement during graduate studies in the biological sciences. Students are nominated by their department/program chairperson, and submit their CV, a one-page description of their thesis work, and a recommendation letter from their research mentor. Those accepted participate in a one-day symposium, giving presentations and interacting with other students and faculty. A selection committee made up of FHCRC faculty and students select up to twelve awardees from those nominated, on the basis of quality, originality, and significance of their work, as well as to represent a broad range of research topics.[33]
References
- ^ .
- ^ PMID 16562164.
- ^ S2CID 4032295.
- ^ a b c d Beers, Carole (April 1, 1995). "Dr. Harold Weintraub loved genes and jeans". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
- ^ "Howard Holtzer, Ph.D. (deceased)". University of Pennsylvania - School of Medicine - Howard Holtzer, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
- PMID 5098864.
- PMID 5078575.
- PMID 27412146.
- ^ "Harold Weintraub". National Academy of Sciences: Member Directory. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
- ^ a b Saxon, Wolfgang (March 31, 1995). "Harold Weintraub, 49, biologist who studied cell development". New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
- PMID 948749.
- PMID 172910.
- ^ "Our Scientists". Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
- PMID 284348.
- PMID 284387.
- S2CID 12405091.
- S2CID 44743817.
- PMID 2411734.
- PMID 1688469.
- S2CID 46395399.
- PMID 3175662.
- S2CID 30089446.
- S2CID 27065049.
- PMID 1338434.
- S2CID 28627738.
- S2CID 4335995.
- S2CID 29514374.
- PMID 1647009.
- S2CID 44966899.
- PMID 7926743.
- S2CID 24890636.
- PMID 2174572.
- ^ a b "Weintraub Graduate Student Award". Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: Basic Sciences Division. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- ^ "Center hosts 15th Weintraub reunion meeting Nov. 4, 5". Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: Hutch News. 31 October 2011. Retrieved November 28, 2014.