George R. Stark

George Robert Stark (born  July 4, 1933 in New York City ) is an American molecular biologist who was a professor at Stanford University from 1971 to 1983 . Together with other scientists, he developed the laboratory methods Northern Blot and Western Blot , and also researched the effects of interferons on cells and the mechanisms of the function and regulation of enzymes . For his scientific achievements, he was accepted into the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society and received the William B. Coley Award in 1999.

Life

George Stark was born in New York City in 1933 and studied chemistry at Columbia University in his hometown, where he received an AB degree in 1955 and a PhD four years later . After a subsequent postdoctoral stay with the later Nobel Prize laureate Stanford Moore at Rockefeller University , he went to the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University in 1963 , where he received a professorship in 1971.

Twelve years later he moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London , where he later became Assistant Director of Research. In 1992 he returned to the United States and until 2002 was the director of the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland . He is currently the Distinguished Scientist Head of a Laboratory at the Lerner Research Institute and Professor Emeritus of Genetics at Case Western Reserve University .

Scientific work

The scientific achievements of George Stark in the 1970s included the development of the laboratory methods Northern Blot for the analysis of RNA and Western Blot for the examination of proteins . In addition, he made important contributions to the elucidation of the effect of interferons on cells and the related role of Janus kinases and STAT proteins in the JAK-STAT signaling pathway . He also described the chemical reactions of cyanate with the amino groups of proteins as well as mechanisms of the function and regulation of enzymes . His current research interests include the investigation of the mechanisms of multiple drug resistance and the activation of NF-κB in cancer .

Awards

George Stark has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1987 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society three years later . He is also a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and received the Herbert A. Sober Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1986 together with Edwin Southern , the Milstein Award from the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research in 1997 and the William B. Coley Award . In 2020, Stark was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Works (selection)

• Biochemical Aspects of Reactions on Solid Supports. New York and London 1971 (as editor)
• Enzymes: Function and Regulation. New York 1974
• James C. Alwine, David J. Kemp, George R. Stark: Method for Detection of Specific RNAs in Agarose Gels by Transfer to Diazobenzyloxymethyl-paper and Hybridization with DNA Probes. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 74 (12) / 1977. United States National Academy of Sciences, pp. 5350-5354, ISSN  0027-8424
• Jaime Renart, Jakob Reiser, George R. Stark: Transfer of Proteins from Gels to Diazobenzyloxymethyl-paper and Detection with Antisera: A Method for Studying Antibody Specificity and Antigen Structure. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 76 (7 )/1979. United States National Academy of Sciences, pp. 3116-3120, ISSN  0027-8424
• George R. Stark, Geoffrey M. Wahl: Gene Amplification. In: Annual Review of Biochemistry . 53/1984. Annual Reviews, pp. 447-491, ISSN  0066-4154
• George R. Stark, Ian M. Kerr, Bryan RG Williams, Robert H. Silverman, Robert D. Schreiber: How Cells Respond to Interferons. In: Annual Review of Biochemistry. 67/1998. Annual Reviews, pp. 227-264, ISSN  0066-4154

literature

• Nicole Kresge, Robert D. Simoni, Robert L. Hill: Cyanate Chemistry, Enzyme Mechanisms, and Gene Amplification: The Work of George R. Stark. In: Journal of Biological Chemistry . 282 (29 )/2007. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, pp. E23-e24, ISSN  0021-9258
• George R. Stark: How Cells Respond to Interferons Revisited: From Early History to Current Complexity. In: Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews. 18 (5 )/2007. Elsevier, pp. 419–423, ISSN  1359-6101 (with biographical information)

Further publications

• George R. Stark: My Life in Science, not the Restaurant Business. In: Journal of Biological Chemistry . 280 (11 )/2005. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, pp. 9753-9760, ISSN  0021-9258 (autobiographical memoirs)

Web links

• Cleveland Clinic - Lerner Research Institute: George R. Stark, Ph.D., FRS (English, with picture)