Joe Lutkenhaus is a professor at the

University of Kansas Medical Center The University of Kansas Medical Center, commonly referred to as KU Med or KUMC, is a medical campus for the University of Kansas. KU Med houses the university's schools of medicine, nursing, and health professions, with the primary health science ...

. He received a B.S. in organic chemistry from Iowa state University and then a PhD in biochemistry for the University of California, Los Angeles. Following his PhD, Lutkenhaus pursued his postdoctoral studies with William Donachie at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

and then continued at the University of Connecticut Health Science center. In 2002, Lutkenhaus became a fellow of the

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

. Lutkenhaus discovered, among other things, that the

FtsZ FtsZ is a protein encoded by the ''ftsZ'' gene that assembles into a ring at the future site of bacterial cell division (also called the Z ring). FtsZ is a prokaryotic homologue of the eukaryotic protein tubulin. The initials FtsZ mean "Filamen ...

protein forms a ring around the division plane in bacteria and is thus a key factor in bacterial cell division.

Honors

*Member of the American Academy of Microbiology *2012

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemist ...

*2014 Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

References

1947 births American microbiologists Living people University of Kansas faculty Iowa State University alumni David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Academics_of_the_University_of_Edinburgh {{US-edu-bio-stub