S. Lawrence Zipursky

Stephen Lawrence Zipursky (born January 9, 1955 ) is an American biochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Life

Zipursky grew up in Canada . He obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1977 , a master 's degree in 1979 and a Ph.D. from Jerard Hurwitz in 1981. , both at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and in Molecular Biology . From 1981 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Seymour Benzer at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 1985 he received his first professorship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and since 1991 he has also been doing research for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute . Today (as of 2015) he is Professor of Biochemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Act

Zipursky uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism . His working group identified genes that play various roles in the development of the nervous system , for example in the differentiation of the retina or the formation of neural networks . Using a combination of biochemical and genetic approaches, the function of a large family could of membrane proteins are informed that regulate the composition of neural networks and from Dscam1 - locus encodes are. The Dscam1 proteins belong to the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell recognition molecules. Through alternative splicing , the Dscam1 locus can encode more than 19,000 different extracellular protein domains or isoforms . The cell binding between two isoforms of the same kind provokes a repulsive effect between the cells. Because each nerve cell a unique pattern of Dscam1 proteins expressed , a "self-avoiding" is mediated, which is essential for the development of neural networks.

Awards (selection)

1986 Sloan Research Fellow
1998 member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2009 member of the National Academy of Sciences
2010 W. Alden Spencer Award
2012 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2015 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
2018 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize

Web links

S. Lawrence Zipursky at the Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles (ucla.edu)
S. Lawrence Zipursky, Ph.D. at the Brain Research Institute of the University of California, Los Angeles (ucla.edu)
S. Lawrence Zipursky and research abstract at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (hhmi.org)

Individual evidence

↑ Summer Program 2008 CV - RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN BSI). In: brain.riken.jp. Retrieved September 22, 2015 .
↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter Z. (PDF; 117 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved May 11, 2019 .
↑ S. Lawrence Zipursky. In: nasonline.org. Retrieved September 22, 2015 .
^ Horwitz Prize Awarded for Research Revealing How the Brain is Wired. In: newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu. September 22, 2015, accessed on September 22, 2015 .

personal data
SURNAME	Zipursky, S. Lawrence
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Zipursky, Lawrence; Zipursky, Stephen Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 9, 1955

[1] Summer Program 2008 CV - RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN BSI). In: brain.riken.jp. Retrieved September 22, 2015 .

[2] Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter Z. (PDF; 117 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved May 11, 2019 .

[3] S. Lawrence Zipursky. In: nasonline.org. Retrieved September 22, 2015 .

[4] Horwitz Prize Awarded for Research Revealing How the Brain is Wired. In: newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu. September 22, 2015, accessed on September 22, 2015 .