Thomas P. Sakmar (born 1956) is an American

physician-scientist A physician-scientist is traditionally a holder of a medical degree and a doctor of philosophy also known as an MD-PhD. Compared to other clinicians, physician-scientists invest significant time and professional effort in scientific research and ...

and the former acting president of

The Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

. Prior to becoming acting president he was associate dean for graduate studies in the

Tri-Institutional MD–PhD Program The Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program is an MD-PhD program based in New York City that was formed by combining earlier MD-PhD programs that had their inceptions in 1972. The current version of the program, which is operated by Weill Cornell Medicin ...

. Sakmar earned his A.B. in chemistry from

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and in 1982 received his

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

from

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine The Pritzker School of Medicine is the M.D.-granting unit of the Biological Sciences Division of the University of Chicago. It is located on the university's main campus in the historic Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago and matriculated its f ...

. He carried out clinical training in internal medicine at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

and postdoctoral training with H. Gobind Khorana at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

before starting the laboratory of molecular biology and biochemistry at

in 1990. With 200 peer-reviewed research articles he is best known for his work on spectral tuning in

photopigments Photopigments are unstable pigments that undergo a chemical change when they absorb light. The term is generally applied to the non-protein chromophore moiety of photosensitive chromoproteins, such as the pigments involved in photosynthesis and pho ...

and for developing drug discovery methods targeting

G protein-coupled receptor G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-(pass)-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors (GPLR), form a large group of evolutionarily-related p ...

s. He has been a senior fellow of the Ellison Medical Foundation, an investigator of the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

, the

Marie Krogh Marie Krogh, née Jørgensen (25 December 1874 – 25 March 1943), was a Danish physician, physiologist and nutritionist. Life and work Birte Marie Krogh was born on 25 December 1874 in Vosegaard, Denmark, one of only four of nine children in ...

Visiting Professor at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

as well as guest professor at the

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is consist ...

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

. In 2020 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) from Karolinska Institute.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakmar, Thomas 1956 births Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Presidents of Rockefeller University Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni