Giuseppe Attardi

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Giuseppe Maria Attardi (born September 14, 1923 in Vicari , Italy, † April 5, 2008 in Altadena , United States) was an Italian-American geneticist at the California Institute of Technology .

Life

Attardi received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Padua in 1947 . As a postdoctoral fellow he worked at the Karolinska Institute near Stockholm , Sweden and at Washington University in St. Louis , United States. Since 1963 he was Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 1974 he became a citizen of the United States . Attardi was married and had two children. His wife, Anne Chomyn, was also a researcher at Caltech.

Act

Attardi has worked with numerous greats in medical genetic research, including Nobel Prize winners James Watson , Francois Jacob and Renato Dulbecco .

In 1967 Attardi discovered mitochondrial RNA in humans, a little later mitochondrial ribosomes and proteins encoded in their genome . In 1981 he presented the gene map and transcription map of mitochondrial DNA . In 1983 he described the thirteen proteins encoded there, all of which belong to the oxidative phosphorylation system that leads to the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Attardi developed methods to elucidate the effects of mutations in the mitochondrial DNA on cellular metabolism and their role in the pathogenesis of mitochondrial diseases. In 1999 he showed the importance of mitochondrial DNA and its mutations acquired in the course of life for the process of aging . Attardi was instrumental in the Mitochondrial Genome Project .

Awards (selection)

literature

  • J. Montoya: [Giuseppe Attardi: mitochondrial genetic system and its influence in the study of mitochondrial diseases]. In: Revista de neurologia. (Spanish.) Volume 47, Number 9, 2008 Nov 1-15, pp. 483-487, ISSN  1576-6578 . PMID 18985599 .
  • S. DiMauro, JM Villaroya: Giuseppe Attardi, MD (1923-2008). In: Archives of Neurology . Volume 65, Number 8, August 2008, p. 1130, ISSN  1538-3687 . PMID 18777626 . On-line
  • Thomas H. Maugh II: Obituaries: Giuseppe Attardi, 1923-2008, Caltech geneticist linked DNA, aging. Los Angeles Times , April 10, 2008, online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giuseppe Attardi at the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (gf.org); accessed on February 12, 2016
  2. ^ List of the award winners 1950–2005 at the Accademia dei Lincei (lincei.it). ( Memento from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Giuseppe Attardi, MD at the Gairdner Foundation (gairdner.org); accessed on February 12, 2016
  4. ^ The Passano Awards 1945–2010 at the Passano Foundation (passanofoundation.org); Retrieved February 11, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Attardi, Giuseppe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Attardi, Giuseppe M .; Attardi, Giuseppe Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-American geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Vicari , Italy
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 2008
Place of death Altadena , United States