Randy Schekman. Source: http://www.elifesciences.org
On October 9, the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Randy Schekman along with James Rothman and Thomas Sudhof, for their work regarding the mechanisms of regulation of vesicle trafficking (1). One of the primary modes of intracellular transport, vesicle trafficking is a cornerstone of molecular biology, integral in almost every subfield of study from neurotransmitters to protein trafficking.
Schekman, began his scientific career in 1967 at UCLA, where, he entered school as a pre-health student and discovered his passion for molecular biology (2). He began doing research in the second semester of his freshman year and never looked back. By the time he graduated in 1971, he had been published in both Nature and the Journal of Molecular Biology, an accomplishment that even some tenured professors have not achieved (2).
After graduating, Schekman got a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Stanford, where he studied under Arthur Kornberg, who received a Nobel himself in 1959 for determining the mechanism of DNA synthesis (3). Immediately after receiving his doctorate in 1976, he joined the faculty at UC Berkeley, where he remains to this day (2).
Schekman’s research is primarily concerned with the processes of vesicle trafficking and membrane assembly in yeast cells, specifically in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which most people may know as the species of yeast used in the production of bread and the fermentation of alcoholic beverages.
His team discovered that vesicle secretion is largely controlled by genes and proteins in the Secretion (Sec) pathway (5). Sec proteins form the channel in the ER that links its lumen to the cytoplasm, and they are also responsible for vesicle formation and separation from the ER (5).
Their research revealed that vesicles contain proteins from other compartments of the cell but almost never contain proteins specific to the ER. This observation showed that there is a mechanism to ‘choose’ where vesicles bud off from the ER and that vesicles have clear destinations from the beginning (5). All of these processes are highly conserved from yeast to mammalian cells, meaning they are likely of great importance to life in general (5).
Schekman’s contributions have been recognized many times before. He is an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was elected to the National Academy of the Sciences in 1992, and was the President of the American Society of Cell Biology in 1999 (2). He had won the Lasker Award and the Otto Warburg Medal, two of the most prestigious awards in medical science, prior to becoming a Nobel Laureate (2). He was also the editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from 2006 to 2011, before going off on his own and founding a new open-access journal, eLife, which went online this year, where he is the editor-in-chief (2).
Schekman has had an incredibly prolific and influential career, not only as a researcher but also as a leader in the field. He changed the world long before winning his Nobel Prize, which has only cemented his place in history.
Sources:
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 (2013). Available at http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2013/. (10 Oct 2013).
- C. Lee, Randy Schekman, molecular biologist and UCLA alumnus, wins 2013 Nobel Prize (2013). Available at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/randy-schekman-molecular-biologist-248784.aspx. (10 Oct 2013).
- L. K. Altman, Arthur Kornberg, Biochemist, Dies at 89 (2007). Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/science/28kornberg.html?_r=0. (10 Oct 2013).
- Yeast, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. Available at http://www.dnalc.org/view/1714-Yeast-Saccharomyces-cerevisiae-.html (10 Oct 2013).
- Research Overview. Available at http://mcb.berkeley.edu/labs/schekman/pages/research%20overview.html (11 Oct 2013).
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