Joram Piatigorsky (born February 24, 1940) is an American

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interact ...

and eye researcher. He was the founding chief of the Laboratory of Molecular and Developmental Biology,

National Eye Institute The National Eye Institute (NEI) was established in 1968. It is located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. The NEI is one of 27 institutes and centers of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the US Department of Health and ...

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(1981–2009). He is the recipient of the 2008 Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research. He is the son of cellist

Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky (, ''Grigoriy Pavlovich Pyatigorskiy''; August 6, 1976) was a Russian Empire-born American cellist. Biography Early life Gregor Piatigorsky was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. As a child, he ...

and Jacqueline de Rothschild.

Publications

Piatigorsky is the author of several books, including a scientific textbook, a memoir, a novel and a collection of short stories. Over the course of his career in science, he has published more than 300 scientific articles, reviews and book chapters on vision research. In ''Gene Sharing and Evolution: The Diversity of Protein Functions'' (Harvard University Press 2007), Piatigorsky summarized and extended his " gene sharing" concept. He co-edited a book on an international symposium he organized: ''Molecular Biology of the Eye: Genes, Vision and Ocular Disease''. His debut novel, ''Jellyfish Have Eyes'' (IP Books, 2014), forewarns of the danger of reducing funding for basic research, and has garnered positive reviews in the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sc ...

. In his memoir, ''The Speed of Dark'' (Adelaide Books, 2018), Piatigorsky reflects on his 50-year career as a scientific researcher and describes how his family's pursuit of excellence and his father's quest for musical perfection influenced and inspired his own scientific career.

References

External links

Personal website
1940 births Living people American people of German-Jewish descent Rothschild family American molecular biologists Harvard University alumni California Institute of Technology alumni {{US-biologist-stub