Martin Lee Chalfie (born January 15, 1947) is an American scientist. He is
University Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...
at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He shared the 2008
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
along with
Osamu Shimomura
was a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, and Professor Emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University School of Medicine. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for th ...
and
Roger Y. Tsien "for the discovery and development of the
green fluorescent protein, GFP". He holds a PhD in
neurobiology
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...
from
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 higher le ...
.
Education and early life
Chalfie grew up in Chicago, Illinois, son of the guitarist Eli Chalfie (1910–1996) and owner of an apparel store Vivian Chalfie (née Friedlen, 1913–2005). His maternal grandfather, Meyer L. Friedlen, immigrated to Chicago from Moscow at an early age; his paternal grandparents, Benjamin and Esther Chalfie, came to
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
from
Brest-Litovsk.
He matriculated at
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 higher le ...
in 1965, intending to be a math major,
but he switched to biochemistry because it combined his interests in chemistry, math, and biology.
He spent the summer after his junior year working in the laboratory of
Klaus Weber
Klaus Weber (5 April 1936 – 8 August 2016) was a German scientist who made many fundamentally important contributions to biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology, and was for many years the director of the Laboratory of Biochemistry an ...
at Harvard, but "It was so disheartening to completely fail that I decided I shouldn't be in biology."
As a result, in his senior year, he completed his major and took courses in law, theater, and Russian literature.
He also competed on the swim team at Harvard and was named captain in his senior year. At the time, swimming coach Bill Brooks said, "Marty will make an excellent captain because he has the admiration of the entire team."
As captain, he won the Harold S. Ulen trophy, awarded "to a senior on the Harvard team who best demonstrates those qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, and team cooperation as exemplified by Harold S. Ulen." Following the announcement of Chalfie's Nobel award, his freshman-year roommate observed of Chalfie, "He would always identify himself as a swimmer."
After graduating in 1969, he worked at a variety of temporary jobs, such as selling dresses for his parents' dress manufacturing business in Chicago
and teaching at
Hamden Hall Country Day School
Hamden Hall Country Day School is a coeducational private day school in Hamden, Connecticut
Hamden is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The town's nickname is "The Land of the Sleeping Giant". The population was 61,169 ...
in
Hamden, Connecticut
Hamden is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The town's nickname is "The Land of the Sleeping Giant". The population was 61,169 at the 2020 census.
History
The peaceful tribe of Quinnipiacs were the first residents of the ...
.
In the summer of 1971, his research at the laboratory of
Jose Zadunaisky at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
resulted in his first publication. With revived confidence,
he returned to Harvard for graduate studies under
Robert Perlman
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, and received his PhD in 1977.
Career and research
Chalfie conducted his
postdoctoral
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 p ...
research at the
Laboratory of Molecular Biology
The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...
(LMB) with
Sydney Brenner
Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work ...
and
John Sulston
Sir John Edward Sulston (27 March 1942 – 6 March 2018) was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' in 2002 with ...
, and the three published a paper in 1985 on "The Neural Circuit for Touch Sensitivity in ''
C. elegans
''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' (r ...
''". Chalfie then left the LMB in 1982 to join the faculty of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in the department of biological sciences and continued to study ''
C. elegans
''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' (r ...
'' touch mutants.
He married
Tulle Hazelrigg. She later joined him on the faculty of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
She gave him permission to cite her unpublished research in his seminal Science paper "Green Fluorescent Protein as a Marker for Gene Expression" on condition that he made coffee, cooked, and emptied the garbage nightly for a month.
Chalfie and his wife had a daughter, Sarah, in July 1992.
Chalfie was elected to 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 ...
in 2004.
He slept through the phone call from the Nobel Prize Committee.
When he woke up, he knew the prize would have been announced already, so he said "Okay, who's the
schnook
This is a list of words that have entered the English language from the Yiddish language, many of them by way of American English. There are differing approaches to the romanization of Yiddish orthography (which uses the Hebrew alphabet); thus ...
that got the Prize this time?" And so he opened up his laptop, got to the Nobel Prize site and found out that he was the schnook!
In 2015, Chalfie signed the ''
Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change'' on the final day of the 65th
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic,
François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...
, as part of the successful
COP21 climate summit in Paris.
Chalfie's lab uses the
nematode
The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...
''
C. elegans
''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' (r ...
'' to investigate aspects of nerve cell development and function. The wealth of developmental, anatomical, genetic, and molecular information available for ''C. elegans'' provides a powerful and multifaceted approach to these studies.
He has published over 100 papers of which at least 25 have over 100 citations.
He traces his work on
green fluorescent protein to a 1988 seminar from
Paul Brehm Paul Brehm is a researcher at the Vollum Institute at Oregon Health and Science University. It was during a seminar by Brehm that Martin Chalfie became inspired to work on Green fluorescent protein for which Chalfie shared the Nobel Prize in Chemi ...
about bioluminescent organisms, which led to some crucial experiments in 1992, detailed in his paper "Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression", which is among the 20 most-cited papers in the field of Molecular Biology & Genetics. Chalfie won a
Golden Goose Award
The Golden Goose Award is a United States award in recognition of scientists whose federally funded basic research has led to innovations or inventions with significant impact on humanity or society. Created by Congressman Jim Cooper of Tennessee ...
for this work in 2012.
References
External links
Chalfie's lab Website* including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2008, GFP: Lighting Up Life
Martin Chalfie's Short Talk: "Developing GFP as a Biological Marker"GFP: Adventures in Nontranslational Researchlecture at the
Linda Hall Library
The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...
, April 26, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalfie, Martin
1947 births
Living people
Nobel laureates in Chemistry
American Nobel laureates
American neuroscientists
Jewish neuroscientists
Columbia University faculty
Harvard University alumni
Jewish American scientists
Scientists from Chicago
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal
Members of the National Academy of Medicine