David S. Eisenberg (born 15 March 1939) is an American biochemist and

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

best known for his contributions to

structural biology Structural biology is a field that is many centuries old which, and as defined by the Journal of Structural Biology, deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every le ...

and computational

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

, a professor 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 S ...

since the early 1970s and director of the UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics & Proteomics since the early 1990s, as well as a member of the

California NanoSystems Institute The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is an integrated research center operating jointly at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. Its missions are to foster interdisciplinary collaborations for discoveries in nanosystems and nanotechnology; train the ...

(CNSI) at UCLA.

Education

Eisenberg attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and graduated in 1961 with an A.B. in Biochemical Sciences. He went on to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, where he was awarded a

D.Phil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1965 for research supervised by

Charles Coulson Charles Alfred Coulson (13 December 1910 – 7 January 1974) was a British applied mathematician and theoretical chemist. Coulson's major scientific work was as a pioneer of the application of the quantum theory of valency to problems of m ...

Research

Eisenberg's current research focuses on the structural biology of

amyloid Amyloids are aggregates of proteins characterised by a fibrillar morphology of 7–13 nm in diameter, a beta sheet (β-sheet) secondary structure (known as cross-β) and ability to be stained by particular dyes, such as Congo red. In the huma ...

ogenic proteins, while his computational efforts largely center on the development of

bioinformatic Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combine ...

/proteomic methodologies for elucidation and analysis of protein interaction networks. His research group hosts the

Database of Interacting Proteins In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...

Career

Postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

(1964–1966; with

Walter Kauzmann Walter J. Kauzmann (18 August 1916 – 27 January 2009) was an American chemist and professor emeritus of Princeton University. He was noted for his work in both physical chemistry and biochemistry. His most important contribution was recognizin ...

) *Postdoctoral research,

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

(1966–1969; with Richard E. Dickerson) * Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, UCLA, USA (1969–Present) * Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, UCLA Medical School * Director, UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics & Proteomics (1993–Present) * Member, California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), UCLA * Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2001–Present)

Awards

He was the recipient of

Harvey Prize Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion in Haifa. History The prize is named for industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey. T ...

(Human Health) 2008 in recognition of his contributions in unfolding the structure of

fibrils. The award was presented to him at a ceremony that took place on March 23, 2009 at the Technion. This recently recognized protein state provides opportunities to understand cells in health and disease. * Was known to give out mugs. * 1961 - L.J. Henderson Prize * 1958-1960 - Harvard College Honorary Scholarships * 1961-1964 - Rhodes Scholarship * 1972-1977 - USPHS Career Development Award * 1975 - UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award * 1982 - McCoy Award of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry for innovative research * 1989 - Member, National Academy of Sciences (Biophysics & Computational Biology section) * 1992 - Pierce Award of the Immunotoxin Society * 1996 - Protein Society Stein & Moore Award * 1998 - American Chemical Society Repligen Corporation Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes * 2000 - Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute * 2000 - Amgen Award of the Protein Society * 2001 - Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science *2003 - Member,

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

* 2004 - UCLA's Seaborg Medal * 2005 - Harvard University's Westheimer Medal * 2008 - ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry (as preceptor, student was Rebecca Anne Nelson) * 2013 - ISCB (

International Society for Computational Biology The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is a scholarly society for researchers in computational biology and bioinformatics. The society was founded in 1997 to provide a stable financial home for the Intelligent Systems for Mole ...

) Senior Scientist Award * 2020 -

Passano Award The Passano Foundation, established in 1945, provides an annual award to a research scientist whose work – done in the United States – is thought to have immediate practical benefits. Many Passano laureates have subsequently won the Nobel Priz ...

Passano Award 2020
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenberg, David 1939 births Living people Harvard University alumni Howard Hughes Medical Investigators American biophysicists Jewish American scientists University of California, Los Angeles faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology Members of the American Philosophical Society 21st-century American Jews Members of the National Academy of Medicine