Nobel laureate James E. Rothman - physicist, whose ... - Money.pl

id=”inContext_disabled”> 2013-10-07 17:27

id=”inContext_disabled”> [Photo: PAP / EPA]

medical Nobel Laureate James Rothman 2013 began with physics. The biological similarity attracted him to the complicated machinery of the cells. He received the award for his research on vesicles inside cells transporting substances necessary for their operation.

Here you can read more about Nobel Prize in medicine .

Professor James E. Rothman was born in 1950 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He studied physics at Yale University (BA in 1971), but he did his doctorate at Harvard biochemistry – in 1976. From 1976 to 1978 he was an assistant at the Faculty of Biology Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

professor began his career in 1978 in the department of biochemistry at Stanford University. In 1988-1991 he worked at Princeton, then moved to New York to start a Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biophysics at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

In 2003 he became professor of physiology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of the local Center for Chemical Biology and Sulzberger Genome Center. Since 2008, a professor of biomedical sciences at Yale University and chairman of the department of cell biology at Yale University Medical School. He is also the founder and director Nanobiology Institute at Yale University.

Rothman is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. Honorary doctorates granted him Universities of Regensburg (1995) and Geneva (1997).

addition to this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was, along with Randy Schekmanem and Thomas Suedhofem, Rothman is also a winner of numerous awards – including in 1989 was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt in 1996 – King Faisal Award in the field of science and medicine, in 2000 – Heineken Prize in 2001 – Otto Warburg Medal, and in 2002 he was awarded both the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize and the Nobel Prize often precedes Lasker (Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research).

Nobel brought Rothman work on vesicles transporting hormones, growth factors and other molecules within the cell. In the maze of cytoplasmic cellular compartments must be getting precisely to the destination and release the contents in the right place and time.

This mechanism of cell

transport is essential for many of the key physiological functions – cell division, cell communication in the brain, the secretion of insulin and other hormones or capture nutrients. Mobile transport disorders are associated with insulin secretion example and the development of diabetes, attacking the cells by viruses or botulism.

Rothman was able to reproduce the budding and fusion of vesicles outside the cell (1984). Discovered a protein complex called the SNARE (1993), which mediates the addition of the cell membranes and confers specificity. He also discovered the mechanism that controls the switching of the enzyme GTP-ase, which controls the budding of vesicles in the cell (1991).

Rothman has also contributed to progress in other areas – in 1998 along with Gero Miesenbockiem shown that synaptic activity in neural networks can be recorded optically. He studied the ATP-degrading enzymes and protein binding peptides. In 1981, he suggested that the role of the Golgi apparatus to purify proteins. His current research focuses on the biophysics connect to cell membranes, regulation of exocytosis and dynamics of the Golgi apparatus. He is also inspired by the use of biological structures in nanotechnology solutions.

– I think of the cell as a machine – said in a telephone interview with a representative of the Nobel Committee, Adam Smith. – Proteins work together as part of the mechanism. That’s what attracted me – physicist by training – biology .

– It did not happen overnight. Most of the work has been developed over many years, if not decades – newly minted Nobel laureate told reporters the AP.

When asked whether the Nobel can make a difference in his work or funding, Rothman said: – really do not know. It’s a new experience . He admitted that he lost the contest for a grant to work appreciated by the Nobel Committee, but now with him again occurs, and hopes that the Nobel contribute to the receipt of the funds.