crème de la crème

Jai Ganesh · 2025-01-19 16:39:55

2139) David J. Wineland

Gist:

Life

David Wineland was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the United States. He first studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and later earned his PhD from Harvard University under the supervision of Norman Ramsey. After completing his PhD, Wineland worked in a team led by Hans Dehmelt at the University of Washington in Seattle. Since 1975 he has worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and is also associated with the University of Colorado Boulder. He is married with two children.

Work

When it comes to the smallest components of our universe, our usual understanding of how the world works ceases to apply. We have entered the realm of quantum physics. For a long time, many quantum phenomena could only be examined theoretically. Starting in the late 1970s, David Wineland has designed ingenious experiments to study quantum phenomena when matter and light interact. Using electric fields, Wineland has successfully captured electrically charged atoms, or ions, in a kind of trap and studied them with the help of small packets of light, or photons.

Summary

David Wineland (born February 24, 1944, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, U.S.) is an American physicist who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics for devising methods to study the quantum mechanical behaviour of individual ions. He shared the prize with French physicist Serge Haroche.

Wineland received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965 and a doctorate in physics from Harvard University in 1970. He was then a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, and from 1975 to 2017 he worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. He later taught at the University of Oregon.

Wineland’s work concentrated on studying individual ions trapped in an electric field. Beginning in 1978 he and his collaborators used laser pulses of light at specific wavelengths to cool the ions to their lowest energy state, and in 1995 they placed the ions in a superposition of two different quantum states. Placing an ion in a superposed state allowed the study of quantum mechanical behaviour that had previously only been the subject of thought experiments, such as the famous Schrödinger’s cat. (In the 1930s German physicist Erwin Schrödinger, as a demonstration of the philosophical paradoxes involved in quantum theory, proposed a closed box in which a cat whose life depends on the possible radioactive decay of a particle would be both alive and dead until it is directly observed.)

On the practical side, Wineland’s group in 1995 used trapped ions to perform logical operations in one of the first demonstrations of quantum computing. In the early 2000s Wineland’s group used trapped ions to create an atomic clock much more accurate than those using cesium. In 2010 they used their clock to test Einstein’s theory of relativity on very small scales, detecting time dilation at speeds of only 36 km (22 miles) per hour and gravitational time dilation between two clocks spaced vertically only 33 cm (13 inches) apart.

Details

David Jeffery Wineland (born February 24, 1944) is an American physicist at the Physical Measurement Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). His most notable contributions include the laser cooling of trapped ions and the use of ions for quantum-computing operations. He received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Serge Haroche, for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems."

Early life and career

Wineland was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He lived in Denver until he was three years old, at which time his family moved to Sacramento, California. Wineland graduated from Encina High School in Sacramento in 1961. In Sept. 1961–Dec. 1963, he studied at University of California, Davis. He received his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965 and his master's and doctoral degrees in physics from Harvard University. He completed his PhD in 1970, supervised by Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr. His doctoral dissertation is titled "The Atomic Deuterium Maser". He then performed postdoctoral research in Hans Dehmelt's group at the University of Washington where he investigated electrons in ion traps. In 1975, he joined the National Bureau of Standards (now called NIST), where he started the ion storage group and is on the physics faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder. In January 2018, Wineland moved to the Department of Physics University of Oregon as a Knight Research Professor, while still being engaged with the Ion Storage Group at NIST in a consulting role.

Wineland was the first to laser-cool ions in 1978. His NIST group uses trapped ions in many experiments on fundamental physics, and quantum state control. They have demonstrated optical techniques to prepare ground, superposition and entangled states. This work has led to advances in spectroscopy, atomic clocks and quantum information. In 1995 he created the first single atom quantum logic gate and was the first to quantum teleport information in massive particles in 2004. Wineland implemented the most precise atomic clock using quantum logic on a single aluminum ion in 2005.

Wineland is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. He shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics with French physicist Serge Haroche "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems."

Family

Wineland is married to Sedna Quimby-Wineland, and they have two sons.

Sedna Helen Quimby is the daughter of George I. Quimby (1913-2003), an archaeologist and anthropologist, who was Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington and Director of the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum, and his wife Helen Ziehm Quimby.

Jai Ganesh · 2025-01-20 15:51:32

2140) Brian Kobilka

Gist:

Brian Kent Kobilka (born May 30, 1955) is an American physiologist and a recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz for discoveries that reveal the workings of G protein-coupled receptors.

Summary

Brian K. Kobilka (born May 30, 1955, Little Falls, Minnesota, U.S.) is an American physician and molecular biologist whose research on the structure and function of cell-surface molecules known as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs)—the largest family of signal-receiving molecules found in organisms—contributed to profound advances in cell biology and medicine. For his discoveries, Kobilka shared the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with American physician and molecular biologist Robert J. Lefkowitz.

Kobilka graduated with B.S. degrees in biology and chemistry in 1977 from the University of Minnesota Duluth and then enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, to study medicine. He received an M.D. from Yale in 1981. Three years later, after completing a residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital (later Barnes-Jewish Hospital) at Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri, Kobilka joined Lefkowitz’s laboratory at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. There, working as a postdoctoral fellow, he successfully pieced together the full DNA sequence for the mammalian beta2-adrenergic receptor from fragments of genomic DNA that had been amplified in genetically engineered bacteria. (Lefkowitz’s team previously had struggled to sequence the receptor because of its limited natural production in cells.) Kobilka’s feat demonstrated his talent for technological innovation and made possible the team’s groundbreaking realization that all GPCRs possess seven domains that cross the cell membrane, each of which served a fundamental role in receptor activity.

In 1989–90 Kobilka established a laboratory at Stanford University, where he had received a professorship in medicine and molecular and cellular physiology. He continued to investigate the relationship between GPCR structure and function, using adrenergic receptors as model systems. He became known for his application of innovative biophysical techniques, most notably his use of X-ray crystallography, in which an X-ray beam is projected onto a protein crystal to create a diffraction pattern that can then be used to deduce the protein’s atomic structure in three dimensions. Kobilka spent two decades working out a process to generate protein crystals of the beta2-adrenergic receptor that were sufficiently large for synchrotron analysis. The receptor’s shifting conformation further complicated the crystallization process. In 2011, however, having enlisted the help of colleagues in the United States and Europe, Kobilka finally published the first high-resolution view of transmembrane signaling by the beta2 receptor. The development was considered a milestone in biology and made possible the production of crystals of other GPCRs. Of particular significance was the opportunity to investigate the structures of GPCRs of pharmacological relevance, which could facilitate the development of drugs that targeted specific receptors, thereby enhancing therapeutic benefits while minimizing side effects.

Kobilka was a founder of the biotech company ConfometRx, which focused on the development of GPCR-based drug discovery technologies. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2011.

Details

Brian Kent Kobilka (born May 30, 1955) is an American physiologist and a recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz for discoveries that reveal the workings of G protein-coupled receptors. He is currently a professor in the department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also a co-founder of ConfometRx, a biotechnology company focusing on G protein-coupled receptors. He was named a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011.

Early life

Kobilka attended St. Mary's Grade School in Little Falls, Minnesota, a part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud. He then graduated from Little Falls High School. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and earned his M.D., cum laude, from Yale University School of Medicine. Following the completion of his residency in internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine's Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Kobilka worked in research as a postdoctoral fellow under Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University, where he started work on cloning the β2-adrenergic receptor. Kobilka moved to Stanford in 1989. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator from 1987 to 2003.

Research

Kobilka is best known for his research on the structure and activity of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); in particular, work from Kobilka's laboratory determined the molecular structure of the β2-adrenergic receptor. This work has been highly cited by other scientists because GPCRs are important targets for pharmaceutical therapeutics, but notoriously difficult to work with in X-ray crystallography. Before, rhodopsin was the only G-protein coupled receptor where the structure had been determined at high resolution. The β2-adrenergic receptor structure was soon followed by the determination of the molecular structure of several other G-protein coupled receptors.

Kobilka is the 1994 recipient of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology. His GPCR structure work was named "runner-up" for the 2007 "Breakthrough of the Year" award from Science. The work was, in part, supported by Kobilka's 2004 Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz for his work on G protein-coupled receptors. In 2017, Kobilka received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

As part of Shenzhen’s 13th Five-Year Plan funding research in emerging technologies and opening "Nobel laureate research labs", in 2017 he opened the Kobilka Institute of Innovative Drug Discovery at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen in Southern China.

Personal life

Kobilka is from Little Falls in central Minnesota. Both his grandfather Felix J. Kobilka (1893–1991) and his father Franklyn A. Kobilka (1921–2004) were bakers and natives of Little Falls, Minnesota. Kobilka's grandmother, Isabelle Susan Kobilka (née Medved, 1891–1980), belonged to the Medved and Kiewel families of Prussian immigrants, who from 1888 owned the historical Kiewel brewery in Little Falls. His mother is Betty L. Kobilka (née Faust, b. 1930).

Kobilka met his wife Tong Sun Thian, a Malaysian-Chinese woman, at the University of Minnesota Duluth. They have two children, Jason and Megan Kobilka.

Additional Information

Brian Kent Kobilka (born May 30, 1955) is an American physiologist. He is best known for his work with G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz.He is currently a professor in the department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was named a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011.

Jai Ganesh · Yesterday 16:11:17

2141) Robert Lefkowitz

Gist:

Life

Robert Lefkowitz was born and raised in New York in a family with Polish heritage. He studied chemistry and trained to become a doctor at Columbia University. Since 1973 he has worked at Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Durham, North Carolina. Robert Lefkowitz is married with five children.

Work

Communication between the cells in your body are managed by substances called hormones. Each cell has a small receiver known as a receptor, which is able to receive hormones. In order to track these receptors, in 1968 Robert Lefkowitz attached a radioactive isotope of iodine to the hormone adrenaline. By tracking the radiation emitted by the isotope, he succeeded in finding a receptor for adrenaline and studied how it functions. It was later discovered that there is an entire family of receptors that look and act in similar ways–G-protein-coupled receptors. Approximately half of all medications used today make use of this kind of receptor.

Summary

Robert J. Lefkowitz (born April 15, 1943, Bronx, New York, U.S.) is an American physician and molecular biologist who demonstrated the existence of receptors—molecules that receive and transmit signals for cells. His research on the structure and function of cell-surface receptors—particularly of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest family of signal-receiving molecules found in organisms—revolutionized scientists’ understanding of how cells respond to stimuli such as hormones and how certain types of drugs exert their actions, leading to major advances in drug development. For his groundbreaking discoveries, Lefkowitz shared the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with American physician and molecular biologist Brian K. Kobilka.

In 1959 Lefkowitz graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. He received a scholarship to study at Columbia College, Columbia University, New York, where he earned a B.A. in chemistry in 1962. Having decided at an early age that he wanted to be a physician, he remained in New York to study at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, receiving an M.D. in 1966. Two years later, after a residency at Columbia, he took a position at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases (NIAMD; later the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases), part of the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, where he set to work on validating the existence of receptors. His initial research focused on developing a procedure (an assay) by which radioactively labeled adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) would bind specifically to the membranes of cancer cells; such an assay would facilitate the purification of receptors. By 1970 he had successfully developed the procedure and had published evidence for the existence of cell-surface receptors. That year he left NIAMD for a residency and training in cardiovascular disease at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In 1972, while working in the laboratory of German American physician and researcher Edgar Haber, he published a report detailing his purification of beta-adrenergic receptor protein from heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) in dogs. The beta-adrenergic receptor would later become a model system for the study of GPCRs.

In 1973 Lefkowitz joined the faculty at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, where he later found that adrenergic receptors transmit signals to an intracellular molecule called a G protein (guanine nucleotide-binding protein), which had been discovered earlier by American pharmacologist Alfred G. Gilman and American biochemist Martin Rodbell (Gilman and Rodbell shared the 1994 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their independent discovery of G proteins). When activated, G proteins stimulate an enzyme known as adenylate cyclase, which converts the energy-carrying molecule ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to cAMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate), a process responsible for producing physiological responses prompted by hormone-receptor binding. Lefkowitz also discovered a molecule known as beta-adrenergic receptor kinase (beta-ARK), which regulates GPCR activity.

In 1984 Kobilka joined Lefkowitz’s research group at Duke. Lefkowitz was then trying to determine the DNA sequence of the beta2-adrenergic receptor. Kobilka proceeded to piece together the DNA sequence using bacteria that had been genetically engineered to produce large quantities of genomic DNA, thereby overcoming the limitations imposed by the receptor’s restricted natural production in cells. Kobilka’s breakthrough facilitated the team’s discovery that all GPCRs possess seven domains that cross through the cell membrane; those domains were found to be fundamental to the receptors’ activity. Lefkowitz later identified a protein called beta-arrestin, which acts on beta-ARK-phosphorylated GPCRs and which explained the phenomenon of GPCR desensitization in response to repeated agonist binding.

In addition to the 2012 Nobel Prize, Lefkowitz was the recipient of several other major awards, including the 2007 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine and the 2007 National Medal of Science, presented to him by U.S. Pres. George W. Bush. In 1988 Lefkowitz was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Details

Robert Joseph Lefkowitz (born April 15, 1943) is an American physician (internist and cardiologist) and biochemist. He is best known for his discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Brian Kobilka. He is currently an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Duke University.

Early life

Lefkowitz was born on April 15, 1943, in The Bronx, New York to Jewish parents Max and Rose Lefkowitz. Their families had emigrated to the United States from Poland in the late 19th century.

After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science in 1959, he attended Columbia College from which he received a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry in 1962. At Columbia, Lefkowitz studied under Ronald Breslow.

He graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1966 with an M.D. degree. After serving an internship and one year of general medical residency at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, he served as clinical and research associate at the National Institutes of Health from 1968 to 1970.

Career

Upon completing his medical residency and research and clinical training in 1973, he was appointed associate professor of medicine and assistant professor of biochemistry at the Duke University Medical Center. In 1977, he was promoted to professor of medicine and in 1982 to James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University. He is also a professor of biochemistry and a professor of chemistry. He has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1976 and was an established investigator of the American Heart Association from 1973 to 1976.

Lefkowitz studies receptor biology and signal transduction and is most well known for his detailed characterizations of the sequence, structure and function of the β-adrenergic and related receptors and for the discovery and characterization of the two families of proteins which regulate them, the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) kinases and β-arrestins.

Lefkowitz made a remarkable contribution in the mid-1980s when he and his colleagues cloned the gene first for the β-adrenergic receptor, and then rapidly thereafter, for a total of 8 adrenergic receptors (receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline). This led to the seminal discovery that all GPCRs (which include the β-adrenergic receptor) have a very similar molecular structure. The structure is defined by an amino acid sequence which weaves its way back and forth across the plasma membrane seven times. Today we know that about 1,000 receptors in the human body belong to this same family. The importance of this is that all of these receptors use the same basic mechanisms so that pharmaceutical researchers now understand how to effectively target the largest receptor family in the human body. Today, as many as 30 to 50 percent of all prescription drugs are designed to "fit" like keys into the similarly structured locks of Lefkowitz' receptors—everything from anti-histamines to ulcer drugs to beta blockers that help relieve hypertension, angina and coronary disease. Lefkowitz is among the most highly cited researchers in the fields of biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine according to Thomson-ISI.

Personal life

Lefkowitz is married to Lynn (née Tilley). He has five children and six grandchildren. He was previously married to Arna Brandel.

In 2021, Lefkowitz published a memoir entitled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm: The Adrenaline-Fueled Adventures of an Accidental Scientist. This book was co-authored by Randy Hall, who was a post-doctoral fellow in the Lefkowitz lab in the 1990s. The book describes Lefkowitz's early life, training as a physician, and tenure in the United States Public Health Service (the "Yellow Berets" of the NIH), which began as a means of fulfilling his draft obligation during the Vietnam War but ultimately ignited a lifelong passion for research. The second half of the book describes Lefkowitz's research career and various adventures both before and after his Nobel Prize win. Upon publication in February 2021, the book was named as "New & Noteworthy" by The New York Times and "one of the week's best science picks" by Nature.

Math Is Fun Forum

#1676 2025-01-19 16:39:55

Re: crème de la crème

#1677 2025-01-20 15:51:32

Re: crème de la crème

#1678 Yesterday 16:11:17

Re: crème de la crème

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