Richard Losick

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Richard Losick

Richard Marc Losick (* 1943 ) is an American molecular and cell biologist and professor of biology at Harvard University in Cambridge , Massachusetts .

Life

Losick earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Princeton University in Princeton , New Jersey in 1965 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge , Massachusetts . He was elected as a Junior Fellow to the Harvard Society of Fellows at Harvard University , also in Cambridge. There he worked for Jack Strominger and became a faculty member in 1972. He stayed at Harvard throughout his scientific career and is now (as of 2013) a professor of biology.

In addition, Losick has been doing research in Cambridge since 2002 for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), where he is involved in the development of programs that are intended to introduce first- year students to scientific work or to promote the scientific careers of disadvantaged students.

Losick's wife, Jan Pero, runs a biotechnology company in Cambridge.

Act

Losick uses spore formers such as Streptomyces coelicolor and especially Bacillus subtilis as model organisms .

He explored as sigma factors , the RNA polymerase influence the transcription to regulate and sporulation of microorganisms to initiate. Losick discovered five alternative sigma factors involved in sporulation. He was able to show that the two daughter cells of the spore-forming mother cell are connected to one another by means of signal transduction and, after asymmetric cell division, jointly cause the spore to mature. By means of fluorescent labeling of proteins, Losick was able to prove that bacteria also “send” different proteins to different parts of the cell (corresponding to the cell polarity of higher organisms). In biofilms , spore formers form more complex structures than in vitro ; they form structures protruding into the air, at the tips of which sporulation takes place. Losick therefore does not see sporulation as the lonely “decision” of a cell, but rather as the result of a mutual influence of the bacterial community.

Awards (selection)

Web links

Commons : Richard Losick  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter L. (PDF; 1.1 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Accessed May 10, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Dr. Richard Losick at the American Philosophical Society (amphilsoc.org); Retrieved October 6, 2012
  3. ^ Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences (nasonline.org); accessed on January 14, 2016
  4. ^ Richard Losick, PhD at the Gairdner Foundation (gairdner.org); accessed on May 10, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Losick, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Losick, Richard Marc (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American molecular and cell biologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1943