Randy Schekman

Last updated

Randy Schekman
Randy Shekman 01.JPG
Schekman in 2015
Born
Randy Wayne Schekman

(1948-12-30) December 30, 1948 (age 74)
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Alma mater UCLA (BA)
Stanford University (PhD)
University of Edinburgh
Known forEditor-in-chief of PNAS [1] and eLife [2]
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions University of California, Berkeley
UCLA
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Stanford University
Thesis Resolution and Reconstruction of a multienzyme DNA replication reaction  (1975)
Doctoral advisor Arthur Kornberg
Doctoral students David Julius [5]
David Baker
Website mcb.berkeley.edu/labs/schekman
royalsociety.org/people/randy-schekman

Randy Wayne Schekman (born December 30, 1948) is an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, [6] former editor-in-chief of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and former editor of Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology . [1] [7] [8] [9] In 2011, he was announced as the editor of eLife , a new high-profile open-access journal published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust launching in 2012. [10] He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. [11] Schekman shared the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with James Rothman and Thomas C. Südhof for their ground-breaking work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking. [12] [13]

Contents

Early life and education

Schekman was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Alfred Schekman, an electrical engineer and computer software designer and Esther (Bader) Schekman. [14] His family were Jewish emigrants from Russia and Bessarabia. [15] In the late 1950s his family moved to the new suburban community of Rossmoor, located in Orange County next to Long Beach. He graduated from Western High School in Anaheim, California, in 1966. [16] He received a BA in molecular biology from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1971. He spent his third year at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, as an exchange student. [1] [17] He received a PhD in 1975 from Stanford University for research on DNA replication working with Arthur Kornberg. [18] After joining the faculty at University of California Berkeley, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1981 and Professor in 1984.

Research and career

Since 1991, Schekman has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, [19] division of biochemistry and molecular biology, department of molecular and cell biology, at the University of California, Berkeley. The Schekman Lab at that university carries out research into molecular descriptions of the process of membrane assembly and vesicular traffic [20] in eukaryotic cells [21] [22] including yeast. [23] Before that, he was a faculty member with the now disbanded Department of Biochemistry at the same university.

Awards and honors

In 1987 Schekman received the Eli Lilly Award in Microbiology. In 1992, Schekman was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. [24] In 2002, Schekman received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research [25] and Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University along with James Rothman for their discovery of cellular membrane trafficking, a process that cells use to organize their activities and communicate with their environment. [26] In 2008 he was named the first Miller Senior Fellow of the Miller Institute at the University of California Berkeley. That same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. [27] He was awarded the Massry Prize from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, in 2010. Schekman serves as a member of the Selection Committee and then as chair of Life Science and Medicine which chooses winners of the Shaw Prize.

Schekman was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2013. His nomination reads:

Using a brilliantly conceived genetic screen, Schekman isolated sec mutants that accumulate secretory pathway intermediates, he cloned the corresponding genes and he established biochemical reactions that faithfully reproduced specific secretory pathway events. These studies transformed the secretion field, previously descriptive and morphological, into a molecular and mechanistic one. The cell-free reactions that Schekman established led to his isolation of the Sec61 translocation complex, the (COPII) vesicle coat complex, and the first purified inter-organelle transport vesicles. The Sec proteins are strikingly conserved and the trafficking mechanisms that Schekman discovered are at the heart of neurotransmission, hormone secretion, cholesterol homeostasis and metabolic regulation. [3]

Schekman, Thomas C. Südhof, and James Rothman were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells". [12] Schekman donated his share of the prize money, $400,000, to create an endowment for the Esther and Wendy Schekman Chair in Basic Cancer Biology at UC Berkeley. Schekman's mother and sister, for whom the post is named, both died of cancer. [28]

In 2017, Schekman received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. [29]

In 2021, Professor Randy Schekman was elected honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, with which he has been collaborating since 2019. [30]

In 2023, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa at Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Republic of Moldova. [31] [32]

Open-access science

In December 2013, Schekman called for academic journal publishing reform and open access science publication by announcing that his lab at the University of California, Berkeley would no longer submit to the prestigious closed-access journals Nature , Cell , and Science , citing their self-serving and deleterious effects on science. [33] He has criticized these journals for artificially restricting the number of publications accepted to drive up demand. [33] In addition, Schekman says the journals accept papers that will be cited often, increasing the prestige of the journal, rather than those which demonstrate important results. [33] Schekman has said the prestige and difficulty of publishing in these journals sometimes cause scientists to cut corners or pursue trends, rather than conduct research on important questions. Schekman is the former editor of eLife , an open access journal and competitor to Nature, Cell, and Science. [33] Papers are accepted into eLife based on review by working scientists. [33] Access to accepted papers is free. [33]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vesicle (biology and chemistry)</span> Any small, fluid-filled, spherical organelle enclosed by a membrane

In cell biology, a vesicle is a structure within or outside a cell, consisting of liquid or cytoplasm enclosed by a lipid bilayer. Vesicles form naturally during the processes of secretion (exocytosis), uptake (endocytosis), and the transport of materials within the plasma membrane. Alternatively, they may be prepared artificially, in which case they are called liposomes. If there is only one phospholipid bilayer, the vesicles are called unilamellar liposomes; otherwise they are called multilamellar liposomes. The membrane enclosing the vesicle is also a lamellar phase, similar to that of the plasma membrane, and intracellular vesicles can fuse with the plasma membrane to release their contents outside the cell. Vesicles can also fuse with other organelles within the cell. A vesicle released from the cell is known as an extracellular vesicle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exocytosis</span> Active transport and bulk transport in which a cell transports molecules out of the cell

Exocytosis is a form of active transport and bulk transport in which a cell transports molecules out of the cell. As an active transport mechanism, exocytosis requires the use of energy to transport material. Exocytosis and its counterpart, endocytosis, are used by all cells because most chemical substances important to them are large polar molecules that cannot pass through the hydrophobic portion of the cell membrane by passive means. Exocytosis is the process by which a large amount of molecules are released; thus it is a form of bulk transport. Exocytosis occurs via secretory portals at the cell plasma membrane called porosomes. Porosomes are permanent cup-shaped lipoprotein structure at the cell plasma membrane, where secretory vesicles transiently dock and fuse to release intra-vesicular contents from the cell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Emil Palade</span> Romanian cell biologist, physicist and Nobel laureate

George Emil Palade was a Romanian-American cell biologist. Described as "the most influential cell biologist ever", in 1974 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine along with Albert Claude and Christian de Duve. The prize was granted for his innovations in electron microscopy and cell fractionation which together laid the foundations of modern molecular cell biology, the most notable discovery being the ribosomes of the endoplasmic reticulum – which he first described in 1955.

Leland Harrison (Lee) Hartwell is former president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Tim Hunt, for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werner Arber</span> Swiss microbiologist and geneticist (born 1929)

Werner Arber is a Swiss microbiologist and geneticist. Along with American researchers Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans, Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of restriction endonucleases. Their work would lead to the development of recombinant DNA technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph L. Goldstein</span> American biochemist

Joseph Leonard Goldstein ForMemRS is an American biochemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985, along with fellow University of Texas Southwestern researcher, Michael Brown, for their studies regarding cholesterol. They discovered that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that remove cholesterol from the blood and that when LDL receptors are not present in sufficient numbers, individuals develop hypercholesterolemia and become at risk for cholesterol related diseases, notably coronary heart disease. Their studies led to the development of statin drugs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rothman</span> American biologist and Nobel laureate

James Edward Rothman is an American biochemist. He is the Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Yale University, the Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine, and the Director of the Nanobiology Institute at the Yale West Campus. Rothman also concurrently serves as adjunct professor of physiology and cellular biophysics at Columbia University and a research professor at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol W. Greider</span> American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate

Carolyn Widney Greider is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate. She joined the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Distinguished Professor in the department of molecular, cell, and developmental biology in October 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SCAMP1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Secretory carrier-associated membrane protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SCAMP1 gene.

Berkeley bodies are organelles unique to the yeast cell Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with a secretory mutation in the genes sec7 and sec14. The function of the organelle lies in the CTV pathway, which is a transport pathway for certain vacuolar hydrolases to be degenerated. The Berkeley body acts as the transport medium from the cytoplasm to the vacuole within this pathway. Studies have shown that Berkeley bodies share structural similarities with autophagosomes, which are involved in autophagy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott D. Emr</span> American cell biologist

Scott D. Emr is an American cell biologist and the founding and current Director of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology at Cornell University, where he is also a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of 1956 Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.

Lu Chen is a Chinese-born American neuroscientist, who is a Professor of Neurosurgery, and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and is a member of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute. She was previously an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas C. Südhof</span> German-American biochemist

Thomas Christian Südhof, ForMemRS, is a German-American biochemist known for his study of synaptic transmission. Currently, he is a professor in the school of medicine in the department of molecular and cellular physiology, and by courtesy in neurology, and in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Julius</span> American physiologist and Nobel laureate 2021

David Jay Julius is an American physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate known for his work on molecular mechanisms of pain sensation and heat, including the characterization of the TRPV1 and TRPM8 receptors that detect capsaicin, menthol, and temperature. He is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

The Massry Prize was established in 1996, and until 2009 was administered by the Meira and Shaul G. Massry Foundation. The Prize, of $40,000 and the Massry Lectureship, is bestowed upon scientists who have made substantial recent contributions in the biomedical sciences. Shaul G. Massry, M.D., who established the Massry Foundation, is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Physiology and Biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. He served as Chief of its Division of Nephrology from 1974 to 2000. In 2009 the KECK School of Medicine was asked to administer the Prize, and has done so since that time. Ten winners of the Massry Prize have gone on to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

Membrane vesicle trafficking in eukaryotic animal cells involves movement of biochemical signal molecules from synthesis-and-packaging locations in the Golgi body to specific release locations on the inside of the plasma membrane of the secretory cell. It takes place in the form of Golgi membrane-bound micro-sized vesicles, termed membrane vesicles (MVs).

Lelio Orci was an Italian scientist in the field of endocrinology and diabetes and emeritus professor in the Department of Morphology at the University of Geneva Medical School.

Peter Novick is an American scientist who holds the George Palade Endowed Chair in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests focus on the biology of cell membranes, particularly the secretory pathway and other aspects of membrane trafficking and intracellular transport.

Susan Ferro-Novick is an American scientist who is a Distinguished Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests focus on the biology of cell membranes and their responses to cell stress, particularly related to membrane trafficking in the secretory and autophagy pathways, as well as a quality control pathway known as ER-phagy in the endoplasmic reticulum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanne Pfeffer</span> American neuroscientist and academic

Suzanne Ruth Pfeffer is an American neuroscientist who is a professor at Stanford University. Her research investigates the molecular mechanisms that cause receptors to be transported between membrane compartments in cells, and she is an expert in Rab GTPases and the molecular basis of inherited Parkinson's disease. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Society for Cell Biology.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Zagorski, N. (2008). "Profile of Randy Schekman: Reflections on his first year as PNAS Editor-in-Chief". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (8): 2763–2765. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.2763Z. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0610781105 . PMC   2268533 . PMID   18287009.
  2. ↑ Schekman, R.; Patterson, M. (2013). "Reforming research assessment". eLife. 2: e00855. doi: 10.7554/eLife.00855 . PMC   3656620 . PMID   23700504.
  3. 1 2 "Professor Randy Schekman ForMemRS". Royalsociety.org. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  4. ↑ Wickner, W. T. (2013). "Profile of Thomas Sudhof, James Rothman, and Randy Schekman, 2013 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110 (46): 18349–50. Bibcode:2013PNAS..11018349W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1319309110 . PMC   3832004 . PMID   24158482.
  5. ↑ "Julius Lab - David Julius". Physio.ucsf.edu. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Randy Schekman: Howard Hughes Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology" . Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  7. ↑ Bucci, M. (2006). "Randy Schekman". Nature Chemical Biology. 2 (11): 568. doi: 10.1038/nchembio1106-568 . PMID   17051227. S2CID   40321085.
  8. ↑ Zagorski, N. (2006). "QnAs with Randy Schekman". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (50): 18881. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10318881Z. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0609700103 . PMC   1748144 . PMID   17148596.
  9. ↑ Schekman, Randy (1999). "Preface by Randy Schekman". Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. 15. doi:10.1146/annurev.cb.15.010199.100001.
  10. ↑ "New journal editor named as Randy Schekman | Wellcome Trust". Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  11. ↑ Randy Schekman publications indexed by Microsoft Academic
  12. 1 2 "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  13. ↑ Randy Schekman's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  14. ↑ "'Not a prank': St. Paul native lands 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine". Star Tribune.
  15. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013".
  16. ↑ Marroquin, Art (October 19, 2013). "Nobel Prize winner credits high school teacher". Orange County Register . p. Local 7.
  17. ↑ "Randy Schekman, molecular biologist and UCLA alumnus, wins 2013 Nobel Prize". University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  18. ↑ Schekman, Randy Wayne (1975). Resolution and Reconstruction of a multienzyme DNA replication reaction (1975) (PhD thesis). Stanford University. ProQuest   302775556.
  19. ↑ "HHMI Scientist Abstract: Randy W. Schekman, Ph.D." Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  20. ↑ Schekman, R.; Orci, L. (1996). "Coat Proteins and Vesicle Budding". Science. 271 (5255): 1526–1533. Bibcode:1996Sci...271.1526S. doi:10.1126/science.271.5255.1526. PMID   8599108. S2CID   30752342.
  21. ↑ "Randy Schekman publications in Google Scholar" . Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  22. ↑ Deshaies, R. J.; Koch, B. D.; Werner-Washburne, M.; Craig, E. A.; Schekman, R. (1988). "A subfamily of stress proteins facilitates translocation of secretory and mitochondrial precursor polypeptides". Nature. 332 (6167): 800–805. Bibcode:1988Natur.332..800D. doi:10.1038/332800a0. PMID   3282178. S2CID   39993735.
  23. ↑ Novick, P.; Field, C.; Schekman, R. (1980). "Identification of 23 complementation groups required for post-translational events in the yeast secretory pathway". Cell. 21 (1): 205–215. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90128-2 . PMID   6996832.
  24. ↑ "Randy W. Schekman". www.nasonline.org.
  25. ↑ Malhotra, V.; Emr, S. D. (2002). "Rothman and Schekman SNAREd by Lasker for trafficking". Cell. 111 (1): 1–3. doi: 10.1016/S0092-8674(02)01008-5 . PMID   12372293. S2CID   16018931.
  26. ↑ "Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize Awardees" . Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  27. ↑ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  28. ↑ "US biologist Randy Schekman on being a Nobel Prize winner". Financial Times. November 8, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  30. ↑ MoldovaLive (September 19, 2023). "Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman Visits Moldova, Celebrates its Roots, and Academic Collaboration". Moldova. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  31. ↑ "Professor Randy Schekman, Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine, has become Doctor Honoris Causa of "Nicolae Testemitanu" State University of Medicine and Pharmacy". usmf.md. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  32. ↑ "PHOTO USMF". www.moldpres.md. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sample, Ian (December 9, 2013). "Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals". theguardian.com. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
Academic offices
Preceded by ASCB Presidents
1999		Succeeded by
Preceded by PNAS editor-in-chief
2006–2011		Succeeded by
Preceded by
—
 eLife editor-in-chief
2012–2019		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.