David Schlessinger (born September 20, 1936, in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada) is a Canadian-born American biochemist, microbiologist, and geneticist. He is known for his directorship of the development of the map of the

X chromosome The X chromosome is one of the two sex-determining chromosomes (allosomes) in many organisms, including mammals (the other is the Y chromosome), and is found in both males and females. It is a part of the XY sex-determination system and XO sex-d ...

. (with sections "Biography" & "Selected Publications")

Biography

His family moved from Toronto to Chicago in 1939. David Schlessinger graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1953. At the age of 16 he matriculated at the University of Chicago. In 1955 he worked as a paid student-technician in

Eugene Goldwasser Eugene Goldwasser (October 14, 1922 – December 17, 2010) was an American biochemist at the University of Chicago who identified erythropoietin, a hormone that plays a vital role in the synthesis of red blood cells. After sharing the minute qu ...

's laboratory. Schlessinger graduated from the University of Chicago in 1957 with a B.S. in chemistry. At Harvard University he graduated in 1960 with a Ph.D. in biochemistry. According to Schlessinger, his most important achievement "as a graduate student was to develop the first ''in vitro'' system that could actually make some little bits of protein" — this system enabled Arthur Kornberg and other researchers to determine the molecular mechanisms of the genetic code. As a graduate student he spent some time at

Caltech 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 ...

, where he worked on an experiment that failed. However, at Caltech he did meet a woman who was a plant physiologist and became his wife in 1960. Schlessinger's Ph.D. thesis "Ribosomes from ''Escheria coli''" was supervised by

James D. Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and ...

. As a postdoc, Schlessinger worked at the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines f ...

, where he was supervised by Jacques Monod. In August 1962, Schlessinger with his wife and infant daughter, arrived in St. Louis, where he was to spend 35 years as a professor at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

. There he was the director of the Human Genome Center from 1987 to 1997. In 1995 he was the president of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). After his many years in St. Louis as a professor of Molecular Microbiology, Genetics, and Microbiology in Medicine, Schlessinger moved to the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in September 1997. He has done research on microbial genomes, as well as the human genome. At NIA he headed the Laboratory of Genetics from 1997 to 2017. He was instrumental in starting the NIA's SardiNIA Project in 2001 and in retirement continued as an advisor to the project. The purpose of NIA's SardiNIA Project is the identification of "genetic bases for prominent age-associatred changes". In 1969 he received the

Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award The Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award was a scientific award presented annually by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and sponsored by the Eli Lilly and Company and its subsidiary Elanco (which became an independent company in 201 ...

. Schlessinger and his wife have two daughters and six grandchildren.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlessinger, David Presidents of the American Society for Microbiology 1936 births Living people American biochemists American microbiologists American geneticists University of Chicago alumni Harvard University alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty National Institutes of Health people