Daniel Jay Klionsky (born 1958) is an American biochemist and molecular biologist. He is the Alexander G. Ruthven Professor of Life Sciences and professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. As a cell biologist, Klionsky pioneered the understanding of

autophagy Autophagy (or autophagocytosis; from the Ancient Greek , , meaning "self-devouring" and , , meaning "hollow") is the natural, conserved degradation of the cell that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components through a lysosome-dependent re ...

, the process by which cells break down to survive stress conditions such as starvation, and the role autophagy plays in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and other areas of human health.

Early life and education

Klionsky was born in 1958 in California. Although he enjoyed biology in high school, Klionsky enrolled at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

while majoring in history. He eventually switched to biology and enrolled at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

for his PhD. Upon completing his PhD, Klionsky accepted a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology.

Career

UC Davis

In 1990, Klionsky was appointed an assistant professor of Microbiology at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

(UC Davis). He was eventually promoted to the rank of

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

where he led a research team to create a "superyeast" that grew twice as fast as normal yeast after being frozen, dehydrated, or during brewing. In 1997, he was named a full professor and accepted a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in the field of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

UMich

Klionsky left UC Davis to accept a similar dual position at the

's (UMich) Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and in the Department of Biochemistry in the Medical School in 2000. During the beginning of his tenure at UMich, he received a 2003 Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars for his "aims to reform the introductory biology curriculum at the university by adapting techniques used by smaller colleges, including strategies that implement group learning exercises in lecture settings." Klionsky also moved to the Life Sciences Institute Department, where he was named the Alexander G. Ruthven Professor of Life Sciences in 2006. During his tenure at UMich, Klionsky became "renowned for his pioneering contributions to the understanding of autophagy, the process by which cells break down to survive stress conditions such as starvation, and the role autophagy plays in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and other areas of human health." As a result, Klionsky was singled out by

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

as a future Nobel Laureate. He was later awarded the 2015 van Deenan Medal from the Institute of Biomembranes at Utrecht University in the Netherlands for being "a leading scientist in biomembrane research." Following this, he was recognized with a University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award and was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. In 2019, Klionsky was the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Bordeaux. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Klionsky wrote ''Highlights in the fight against COVID-19: does autophagy play a role in SARS-CoV-2 infection?'' with Elizabeth Delorme-Axford. He also proposed that

could be a link between

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

and

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klionsky, Daniel J. Living people American molecular biologists Scientists from California 1958 births University of Michigan faculty University of California, Davis faculty Stanford University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences