Robert F. Margolskee is an American academic. He is the director of the

Monell Chemical Senses Center The Monell Chemical Senses Center is a non-profit independent scientific institute located at the University City Science Center campus in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. Monell conducts and publishes interdisciplinary basic research on taste, Olfa ...

and adjunct professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the

Mount Sinai School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eigh ...

. Margolskee is also the a co-founder of Redpoint Bio. Margolskee has been a pioneer in the application of

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

and

transgenic animal Genetically modified animals are animals that have been genetically modified for a variety of purposes including producing drugs, enhancing yields, increasing resistance to disease, etc. The vast majority of genetically modified animals are at th ...

models to the study of taste transduction and chemosensation. He has made numerous seminal discoveries in the taste field, including the identification and molecular cloning of taste specific receptors, G proteins, channels and other taste signal transduction elements.

Early life and education

Margolskee received his A.B. in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

and

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 ...

. He received his an M.D. and a Ph.D in molecular genetics from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, where he studied with the late Nobel laureate Daniel Nathans. He carried out postdoctoral studies in biochemistry at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

with Nobel laureate Paul Berg.

Career

Margolskee’s first faculty appointment was in Neuroscience at the

Roche Institute of Molecular Biology The Roche Institute of Molecular Biology was created on July 14, 1967 when John Burns, then the vice president of research at Hoffman-La Roche, persuaded biochemist Sidney Udenfriend to leave the National Institutes of Health and help him create ...

, where he also held an adjunct appointment in the Department of Biological Sciences 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 1996, Margolskee joined the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In 2009, he joined the faculty at the Monell Center. His work has been published in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'', ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'', '' Nature Neuroscience'', and ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

''.

Research

Margolskee’s basic science research focus has been on the molecular mechanisms of taste transduction, utilizing molecular biology,

, structural biology,

electrophysiology Electrophysiology (from Greek , ''ēlektron'', "amber" etymology of "electron"">Electron#Etymology">etymology of "electron" , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , '' -logia'') is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical properties of b ...

and

transgenesis Gene delivery is the process of introducing foreign genetic material, such as DNA or RNA, into host cells. Gene delivery must reach the genome of the host cell to induce gene expression. Successful gene delivery requires the foreign gene delive ...

to study the mechanisms of signal transduction in mammalian taste cells. In 1992, his laboratory discovered

gustducin Gustducin is a G protein associated with taste and the gustatory system, found in some taste receptor cells. Research on the discovery and isolation of gustducin is recent. It is known to play a large role in the transduction of bitter, sweet a ...

, a taste cell expressed G protein. Subsequently, Margolskee has demonstrated that gustducin is critical to the transduction of compounds that humans consider bitter, sweet or umami. Margolskee’s laboratory discovered the T1r3 sweet taste receptor in 2001 and the

Trpm5 Transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 5 (TRPM5), also known as long transient receptor potential channel 5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''TRPM5'' gene. Function TRPM5 is a calcium-activated non-selecti ...

cation channel in 2002. Much of his current work is focused on 'taste cells of the gut' and 'endocrine cells of the tongue'. In 2007, he published back-to-back papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy shedding light on how the gut "tastes" nutrients. This new area of research has important implications for diabetes and obesity.

Awards

Among his honors and awards are the Monell Mastertaste-Manheimer Award (now the Manheimer-Kerry award) and the IFF Award.

References

External links

Margolskee's homepage on Monell's websiteRedpoint Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margolskee, Robert Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty Harvard University alumni American geneticists Johns Hopkins University alumni