Marlene Belfort (born 1945) is an American biochemist known for her research on the factors that interrupt genes and proteins. She is a fellow of 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 ...

and has been admitted to the

United States 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 ...

Education and career

Belfort was one of the first undergraduate women to study microbiology at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

where she received her bachelor's degree in 1965 and an earned an honors degree in physiological chemistry in 1966. She went on to earn her Ph.D. from the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

in 1972 and did postdoctoral research at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. As of 2021, she is a Distinguished

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Sciences at

SUNY at Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

and the RNA Institute.

Research

Belfort's early research was on a gene involved in

thymidylate synthase Thymidylate synthase (TS) () is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) to deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP). Thymidine is one of the nucleotides in DNA. With inhibition of TS, an imbalance of deoxynucleo ...

in the bacteria ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...

''. and its

T4 phage Escherichia virus T4 is a species of bacteriophages that infect ''Escherichia coli'' bacteria. It is a double-stranded DNA virus in the subfamily ''Tevenvirinae'' from the family Myoviridae. T4 is capable of undergoing only a lytic lifecycle ...

. She subsequently found a bacterial structural gene in this virus, which was the first example of a intron-containing prokaryotic structural gene. Prior to her research, this junk DNA was only known to occur in more complex organisms. Her research then determined that the gene of the T4 phage was processed by RNA in a mechanism known as splicing and was excised from the transcript during processing in the cell, and led to the observation that the processing of the T4 phage RNA is similar to the splicing pathway used by eukaryotes Her work subsequently showed that the introns move to different places within a bacterial genome and she was able to determine the mechanism guiding this movement of genetic material. Her most recent research also includes self-cleaving inteins, which are protein-splicing elements. Because inteins are sometimes found in essential proteins, her group is exploring whether inhibitors of intein splicing could be used as anti-fungal drugs. Belfort has also collaborated with Joachim Frank, a 2017

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner in chemistry, in studying three-dimensional images of group II introns

Selected publications

* * *

Awards

*Fellow,

(1994) *Elected member,

(1999) *Excellence in Research, University of Albany (2000) *Alice C. Evans Award, American Society for Microbiology (2002) *Distinguished Professor, State University of New York (2003) *Doctor of Science (''honoris causa''), University of Cape Town (2019) *Mid-career Leadership Award, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2022)

References

External links

* *, December 17, 2019
The Belfort lab at the University of Albany
{{DEFAULTSORT:Belfort, Marlene 1945 births American women biochemists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of California, Irvine alumni University of Cape Town alumni University at Albany, SUNY faculty Molecular biologists 21st-century American women