Max Duane Summers (born 1939 in Ohio) is an American molecular biologist
and inventor,
known for his work on the
Baculovirus Expression Vector System (BEVS).
Education and career
Summers graduated in 1962 from
Wilmington College with an A.B. in biology. In 1968 he received a PhD in entomology from
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
. In the department of botany of the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
he became an assistant professor and then an associate professor. In the department of entomology of
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
he became in 1977 a full professor, retiring as professor emeritus in 2011.
[
Gale E. Smith received in 1986 his Ph.D. in molecular biology with Summers as thesis advisor. In 1988 Smith and Summers were granted the key BEVS patent, U.S. Patent No. 4,745,051: "Method for Producing a Recombinant baculovirus Expression Vector", with assignee the Texas A&M University System.][
Summers and co-workers demonstrated that mutations of integral membrane proteins expressed within the inner nuclear membrane of the nuclear envelope can cause diseases associated with ]muscular dystrophies
Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affe ...
and lipodystrophies. Their research was an important contribution to knowledge of protein targeting
:''This article deals with protein targeting in eukaryotes unless specified otherwise.''
Protein targeting or protein sorting is the biological mechanism by which proteins are transported to their appropriate destinations within or outside the ce ...
with many possible applications to medicine and agricultural pest control.[
Summers is the author or co-author of more than 170 articles in academic journals.][ In 2001 the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) listed him among the 250 most cited microbiologists in the world. He was an editorial board member of ''Virology'' and the executive editor of ''Protein Expression and Purification''.][
]
Awards and honors
* 1989 — 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 ...
[
* 1989 — Fellow of the ]American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
* 1991–1992 — President of the American Society for Virology
* 1992 — Distinguished Alumni Award from the Purdue University School of Agriculture
* 1999 — Gulf Coast Inventor of the Year Award from the Houston Intellectual Property Lawyers' Association[ from Williamsburg Bioprocessing Foundation (WilBio)]
Selected publications
Articles
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Pamphlets
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Books
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Summers, Max D.
American microbiologists
American molecular biologists
American virologists
Wilmington College (Ohio) alumni
Purdue University College of Agriculture alumni
University of Texas faculty
Texas A&M University faculty
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
1939 births
Living people