Wayne Hendrickson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wayne Arthur Hendrickson (born April 25, 1941 in Spring Valley (Wisconsin) ) is an American biophysicist.

Live and act

Hendrickson grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and studied physics and biology at the University of Wisconsin (River Falls) - He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1963 and received a PhD in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University in 1968 . From 1969 to 1984 he worked at the US Naval Research Laboratories (NRL) in Washington, DC with Jerome Karle . Karle had solved the phase problem in X-ray crystallography (for which he received the Nobel Prize), but his solution was not applicable to large biomolecules, which Hendrickson was researching. He solved the problem with different wavelengths from the then developing synchrotron radiation sources (Multiwavelength anomalous diffraction, MAD and previously single wavelength anomalous diffraction, SAD). There he also developed a prototype computer program PROLSQ to calculate the atomic positions from the X-ray diffraction images. Parts of the program are still used today as part of other programs.

In 1984 he became Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University and Violin Family Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics . He has been doing research there at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) since 1986.

He applied X-ray crystallography to a wide variety of biomolecules. His group succeeded in elucidating the structure of, for example, tyrosine kinases , which play a role in signal transmission to the cell, growth factors, respiratory pigments in worms, chaperones and hormones. He uses a synchrotron radiation source (National Synchrotron Light Source) at Brookhaven National Laboratory , where he heads the Biology Department (Chief Life Scientist).

In particular, while studying the CD4 receptor , he explained the strategy of the HI virus to evade the immune system, even though an unchangeable component, the glycoprotein gp120, must always be present in the virus for coupling to the CD4 receptor . However, this part is only presented by the HI virus shortly before coupling to the T cell . Hendrickson showed that the energy required to remodel the surface to present the gp120 is provided by the formation of the complex, so that the coupling is energetically favorable.

He has been studying heat shock proteins and serotonin receptors since 2010 .

He is the founder of SGX Pharmaceuticals.

Awards (selection)

Hendrickson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1992) and the National Academy of Sciences .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dates of birth according to Pamela Kalte u. a. American Men and Woman of Science , Thomson Gale, 22nd Edition, 2005
  2. ↑ a b biography ( memento of December 8, 2010 in the web archive archive.today ) at the New York Structural Biology Center, of which he is director
  3. ^ Research Project on gp120 at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
personal data
SURNAME Hendrickson, Wayne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hendrickson, Wayne Arthur (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Spring Valley, Wisconsin