Robert T. Schimke
Robert Tod Schimke (born October 25, 1932 in Spokane , Washington , † September 6, 2014 in Palo Alto , California ) was an American biochemist and cancer researcher.
Live and act
Schimke studied at Stanford University , where he made his bachelor's degree in 1954 and his medical degree in 1958. This was followed by two years of residency at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1958 to 1960 . 1960 to 1966 he was at the National Institutes of Health , where he made fundamental research on protein metabolism. He found the first clear evidence of a constant build-up and breakdown of proteins in cells and that the breakdown rate could be regulated. From 1966 he was back in Stanford, where he was from 1969 to 1972 head of the Faculty of Pharmacology and 1978 to 1982 head of the Department of Biology.
At Stanford he investigated, among other things, the influence of steroid hormones on the synthesis of certain proteins, which also led to new techniques in genetic engineering. In 1977 he succeeded in discovering the phenomenon of gene amplification, the appearance of copies of genes in mammalian cells in order to strengthen the cell function or the cell product encoded by the gene. This discovery was also of great importance for cancer research, for example in understanding the genetic instability of cancer cells or the mechanisms by which cancer cells can defend themselves against chemotherapy. The mechanism also found applications in biotechnology, for example in the production of proteins such as erythropoietin (EPO). Later he and his laboratory examined the disturbances in the regulatory mechanisms in the life cycle of cells that lead to the development of such gene amplifications or to apoptosis . He was temporarily a research professor at the American Cancer Society and was most recently Professor Emeritus at Stanford.
In 1995 he was rammed from behind by a car on a bicycle lane as a cyclist and was then paralyzed in his arms and legs. He was able to recover enough that he could use a wheelchair and resume his painting hobby.
In 1985 he received the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize in Cancer Research. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (since 1976), the Institute of Medicine and, since 1977, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He was president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schimke, Robert T. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schimke, Robert Tod (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American biochemist and medical scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 25, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Spokane , Washington |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 6, 2014 |
| Place of death | Palo Alto , California |