H. Robert Horvitz
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Howard Robert Horvitz
ForMemRS Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...
NAS Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...
AAA&S APS NAM (born May 8, 1947) is an American
biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...
best known for his research on the nematode worm '' Caenorhabditis elegans'', for which he was awarded the 2002
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
, together 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 E. 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 wit ...
, whose "seminal discoveries concerning the genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death" were "important for medical research and have shed new light on the pathogenesis of many diseases".


Education and early life

Horvitz was born in Chicago, Illinois to Jewish parents, the son of Mary R. (Savit), a school teacher, and Oscar Freedom Horvitz, a GAO accountant. He majored in mathematics at
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 ...
, where he joined
Alpha Epsilon Pi Alpha Epsilon Pi (), commonly known as AEPi, is a college fraternity founded at New York University in 1913 by Charles C. Moskowitz and ten other men. The fraternity has more than 150 active chapters across the United States, Canada, United K ...
and spent his summers working for IBM, at first wiring panels for accounting machines and then in his final summer helping to develop IBM's
Conversational Programming System Conversational Programming System or CPS was an early Time-sharing system offered by IBM which ran on System/360 mainframes ''circa'' 1967 through 1972 in a partition of OS/360 Release 17 MFT II or MVT or above. CPS was implemented as an int ...
. During his senior year, Horvitz took his first courses in biology and was encouraged by his professors to continue to study biology in graduate school, despite his limited coursework in the field. After he completed his undergraduate studies in 1968, he enrolled in graduate studies in biology 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 high ...
, where he studied T4-induced modifications of ''E. coli'' RNA polymerase under the direction of
Walter Gilbert Walter Gilbert (born March 21, 1932) is an American biochemist, physicist, molecular biology pioneer, and Nobel laureate. Education and early life Walter Gilbert was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1932, the son of Emma (Cohen), a c ...
and James Watson. He completed his PhD in 1974.


Career

In 1974, Horvitz took a postdoctoral position 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) in Cambridge, England, where he worked with his future Nobel prize co-winners
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 ...
on the genetics and cell lineage of ''C. elegans''. In 1978, Horvitz was offered a faculty position at MIT, where he is currently Professor of Biology and a member of the
McGovern Institute for Brain Research The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a research institute within MIT. Its mission is to understand how the brain works and to discover new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders. The institute was founded in 2000 by Patrick McGover ...
. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Horvitz serves as the chair of the board of trustees for
Society for Science & the Public Society for Science, formerly known as Science Service and later Society for Science and the Public, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including ...
and is a member of the
USA Science and Engineering Festival The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a bi-annual science festival held in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2010 by Larry Bock, the festival is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the ...
's Advisory Board.


Research

At LMB, Horvitz worked with Sulston to track every non-gonadal cell division that occurred during larval development, and published a complete description of these lineages in 1977. Later, in cooperation with Sulston and Martin Chalfie, Horvitz began investigations first characterizing several cell lineage mutants and then seeking genes that controlled cell lineage or that controlled specific linages. In 1981, they identified and characterized the gene '' lin-4'', a " heterochronic" mutant that changes the timeline of cell fates. In his early work at MIT, Horvitz continued his work on cell lineage and cell fate, using ''C. elegans'' to investigate whether there was a genetic program controlling cell death, or apoptosis. In 1986, he identified the first "death genes", ''ced-3'' and ''ced-4''. He showed that functional ''ced-3'' and ''ced-4'' genes were a prerequisite for cell death to be executed. He went on to show that another gene, ''ced-9'', protects against cell death by interacting with ''ced-4'' and ''ced-3'', as well as identifying a number of genes that direct how a dead cell is eliminated. Horvitz showed that the human genome contains a ''ced-3''-like gene. Horvitz's later research continued to use ''C. elegans'' to analyze the genetic control of animal development and behavior, as well as to link discoveries in the nematode to human diseases, particularly cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He made further advancements in defining the molecular pathway of programmed cell death, and has identified several key components, including: EGL-1, a protein which activates apoptosis by inhibiting CED-9; transcription factors ''ces-1'' and ''ces-2,'' and ''ced-8,'' which controls the timing of cell death. He has also continued work on heterochronic mutants and other aspects of cell lineage, and established lines of research in signal transduction, morphogenesis, and neural development. Horvitz has collaborated with
Victor Ambros Victor R. Ambros (born 1953, Hanover, New Hampshire) is an American developmental biologist who discovered the first known microRNA (miRNA). He is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. Back ...
and
David Bartel David P. Bartel is an American molecular biologist best known for his work on microRNAs. Bartel is a Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Member of the Whitehead Institute, and investigator of the Howard Hughes Medic ...
on a project to characterize the complete set of the more than 100
microRNA MicroRNA (miRNA) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules containing 21 to 23 nucleotides. Found in plants, animals and some viruses, miRNAs are involved in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. mi ...
s in the ''C. elegans'' genome.


Works

Robert Horvitz has over 255 publications, has been cited over 49,000 times and has an
h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...
of 108. * * * * *


Awards and honors

*1986 Spencer Award in Neurobiology from Columbia University *1986 Warren Triennial Prize from the Massachusetts General Hospital *1988 U.S. Steel Foundation Award in Molecular Biology from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences *1991 Member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences *1993 V.D. Mattia Award (
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 creat ...
) *1994 Member,
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, a ...
*1994 Hans Sigrist Prize from the University of Bern, Switzerland *1995 Charles A. Dana Award *1995 President of the Genetics Society of America *1996 Ciba-Drew Award for Biomedical Science *1997
Rosenstiel Award The Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research is awarded by Brandeis University. It was established in 1971 "as an expression of the conviction that educational institutions have an important role to play in the en ...
*1998 Fellow,
American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...
*1998
Passano Award The Passano Foundation, established in 1945, provides an annual award to a research scientist whose work – done in the United States – is thought to have immediate practical benefits. Many Passano laureates have subsequently won the Nobel Priz ...
for the Advancement of Medical Science *1998
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize The Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize was a $250,000 award given by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for outstanding oncological research. The prize was awarded annually from 1979 to 2005. Of the winners, 15 out of 37 have gone on to win eith ...
, General Motors Research Foundation *1999
Gairdner Foundation International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a ...
*2000
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is an annual award bestowed by the since 1952 for investigations in medicine. It carries a prize money of 120,000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally held on March 14, the birthday of N ...
*2000 Segerfalk Award *2000
March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology The March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology is awarded once a year by the March of Dimes. It carries a $250,000 award "to an investigator whose research brings us closer to the day when all babies will be born healthy." It also includes a ...
*2000
Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemist ...
for Biology or Biochemistry *2000
Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer The Grand Prix Charles-Léopold Mayer (Charles-Léopold Mayer Prize) is awarded annually by the Académie des Sciences (French Academy of Sciences) de l'Institut de France (the French Institute) to researchers who have performed outstanding work in ...
( French Academy of Sciences) *2001 Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience *2001
Genetics Society of America Medal The Genetics Society of American Medal is a medal awarded by the Genetics Society of America (GSA) for outstanding contributions to the field of genetics in the last 15 years. The Medal was established by society in 1981 and recognizes members who ...
*2002
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston *2002 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences *2002
Gruber Prize in Genetics The Gruber Prize in Genetics, established in 2001, is one of three international awards worth US$500,000 made by the Gruber Foundation, a non-profit organization based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The Genetics Prize honors leadi ...
grom the
Gruber Foundation The Gruber Foundation is a philanthropic foundation established by Peter and Patricia Gruber and is based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Its mission is to honor and encourage excellence in the fields of cosmology, genetics, neurosc ...
*2004 Member,
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
*2003 Member, Institute of Medicine *2007 UK Genetics Society Mendel Medal * 2009 Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS)


See also

*
History of apoptosis research Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death. From its early conceptual beginnings in the 1950s, it has exploded as an area of research within the life sciences community. As well as its implication in many diseases, it is an integral part of b ...


References


Further reading

* * * * * * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Horvitz, H. Robert 1947 births Living people Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine American Nobel laureates Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Jewish American scientists Harvard University alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the National Academy of Medicine Foreign Members of the Royal Society 21st-century American biologists Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Caenorhabditis elegans Members of the American Philosophical Society