H. Robert Horvitz

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Howard Robert Horvitz (born May 8, 1947 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American developmental biologist .

He is Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge , USA. In 2002, together with Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for uncovering the mechanisms of programmed cell death ( apoptosis ).

Life

Horvitz's grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Galicia . His father, initially a simple administrative clerk, began evening chemistry classes, which he dropped out for financial reasons. He later became a tax advisor. His mother worked as a teacher, Horvitz remembers a family in which the acquisition of education and scientific curiosity were highly valued.

His father died in 1989 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which prompted H. Robert Horvitz to research this degenerative nervous disease.

Scientific career

Scientific work

From 1974 to 1978 Horvitz worked at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge , UK. At this institute, John E. Sulston and Sydney Brenner had elucidated the embryonic cell development of the Caenorhabditis elegans worm to such an extent that the origin of all 959 cells was known. It was shown that 131 cells were formed during embryonic cell development, but were no longer present in the later worm because they were subject to “genetically programmed cell death” ( apoptosis ).

In further work, Horvitz examined details of this mechanism and its genetic programming. The mechanisms of apoptosis were found to be transferable to humans from C. elegans, the most simply structured animal with a nervous system. Disorders in the process are responsible for some cancers , autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative diseases , including Alzheimer's disease .

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Sigrist Prize Winners
  2. Horvitz and Kerr found programmed cell death on tagesspiegel.de
  3. Member History: H. Robert Horvitz. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 3, 2018 (with a brief biography).