James Rothman

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Nobel Prize awarded to James Rothman

James Edward Rothman (born November 3, 1950 in Haverhill , Massachusetts ) is an American biochemist and professor at Yale University . In 2013 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Randy Schekman and Thomas Südhof .

Life

Rothman earned a bachelor's degree from Yale College in 1971 . He initially enrolled in medicine at Harvard University , but earned a Ph.D. there in 1976. at the Department of Biochemistry . He then held a post-doctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . A junior professorship in biochemistry ( Assistant Professor 1978, Associate Professor 1981) was Rothman at Stanford University in Stanford , California , 1984 a full professorship. In 1988 he became Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University in Princeton , New Jersey . In 1991 he took over the direction of the cellular biochemistry and biophysics program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and a chair of the same name. In 2004 he became Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University , New York, and Director of the Center for Chemical Biology there. In 2008, he became Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Yale University in New Haven , Connecticut .

Act

Rothman described the mechanism of intracellular membrane fusion . He made the important discovery that cells contain very small vesicles that are equipped with biomembranes and transport very different proteins between the cell compartments . This transport process, which includes processes of vesicle flow and membrane fusion, is of crucial importance for cell growth and division . Rothman was able to show that the specificity of membrane fusion depends on the pairing of certain proteins - the SNARE proteins - between the biomembranes. This discovery made it possible to explain numerous physiological processes in a uniform manner, including the release of insulin , the communication of nerve cells and the infection of cells with viruses such as the HI virus . Disturbances in the control of these membrane fusion processes play an important role in the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus and presumably also of certain types of cancer . Fusion inhibitors are among the more recent drugs that are used to control infection with the HI virus by preventing membrane fusion.

Awards (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : James Rothman  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
  • Website at the Yale School of Medicine

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nobelprize.org: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 , accessed October 7, 2013
  2. ↑ James Rothman is Appointed the Fergus F. Wallace Professor. In: medicine.yale.edu. September 12, 2008, accessed April 16, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Weber, Boris V. Zemelman , James A. McNew, Benedikt Westermann, Michael Gmachel, Francesco Parlati, Thomas H. Söllner and James E. Rothman: SNAREpins: Minimal Machinery for Membrane Fusion , in: Cell , Volume 92,6, March 2, 1998, pp. 759-772
  4. ↑ a b James E. Rothman at knaw.nl; accessed on January 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter R. (PDF; 508 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved April 16, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Lasker Foundation: Membrane fusion and organelle formation. In: laskerfoundation.org. Retrieved April 16, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Christopher: Past Laureates. In: keck.usc.edu. Retrieved April 16, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Rothman, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rothman, James Edward (full name); Rothman, James E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biochemist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Haverhill , Massachusetts