Lila M. Gierasch

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Lila Mary Gierasch (* 1948 in Needham , Massachusetts ) is an American biochemist and biophysicist .

Life

Like her mother Marian Bookhout Gierasch, Lila M. Gierasch studied at Mount Holyoke College , where she obtained her bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1970 . She then went as a graduate student at the Harvard University and a doctorate here in 1975 in biophysics. As early as 1974 she worked as a teacher at Amherst College , where she was assistant professor of chemistry until 1979 and between 1977 and 1978 she worked in Jean-Marie Lehn's laboratory at the Université Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg . She then went to the University of Delaware , starting as an assistant professor, becoming a professor of chemistry here in 1985. In 1984 she received a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation . In 1988 she moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center , where she was Professor of Pharmacology for six years and was the Robert A. Welch Professor of Biochemistry . During her time in Texas, she met her husband, John Pylant, whom she married in 1991. In 1994 she returned to Massachusetts and has been Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology and Head of the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst .

research

The focus of the work of Lila M. Gierasch is the investigation of protein folding . The processes and influencing factors are examined by her both in vivo directly in the cell and under controlled laboratory conditions in simulated cell environments using spectroscopic methods, such as circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy or fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy . The focus is on chaperones , special proteins that convert the synthesized amino acid chains into their physiological secondary structure and prevent their non-functional aggregations . Among other things, heat shock proteins such as Hsp70 , which are increasingly formed in the cells under extreme conditions and protect the proteins from denaturation and accelerate the breakdown of no longer functional proteins, are examined. These mechanisms are of particular importance in understanding diseases of the central nervous system that are based on misfolding and the resulting aggregation of proteins, such as Alzheimer's , Huntington's or Parkinson's .

Awards (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lila Gierasch. Mount Holyoke College. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  2. ↑ JOHN Pylant PURPLE Gierasch, Texas Marriage Record Index, 1966-2008. Mocavo, DC Thomson Family History. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  3. ↑ Biophysicist in Profile: Lila Gierasch. ( Memento of September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Biophysical Society Newsletter, January / February 2003. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b Curriculum vitae — Lila M. Gierasch. Gierasch Lab, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ Lila Gierasch, Biophysical Chemistry Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  6. ^ The Vincent du Vigneaud Award. American Peptide Society (APS). Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  7. ^ The Second Mary Lyon Award Dinner on Mary Lyon's Birthday. Prospect Hall, Mount Holyoke College, February 1985 (MHC Digital Collections). Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ 2006 Pioneer Award Recipients. NIH Director's Pioneer Award program, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  9. ^ Gierasch Wins Mildred Cohn Award in Biological Chemistry. News and Media Relations, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  10. ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences : Newly Elected Fellows. In: amacad.org. Retrieved April 22, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Gierasch, Lila M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gierasch, Lila Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biochemist and biophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Needham , Massachusetts