Philip Leder
Philip Leder ( born November 19, 1934 in Washington, DC) is an American geneticist who is particularly concerned with the genetic basis of cancer.
Leather studied at Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1956 (BA ) and 1960 his MD degree from Harvard Medical School. After further medical training at the University of Minnesota in 1962, he went to the National Institutes of Health ( NIH), where it came to his collaboration with Marshall Nirenberg, and was in the mid 1960s at the Weizmann Institute. Then again, he conducted research at the NIH initially in the laboratory of Biochemistry of the National Cancer Institute and then from 1972 as director of molecular genetics at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( NICHD ). 1980, it was a professor at Harvard, where he was founding director of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. He ran until 2003, the Harvard Institute of Human Genetics. He is there today John Emory Andrus Professor of Genetics. He was also two decades of senior investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
He is known for fundamental work in molecular biology and genetics, particularly for the classic experiment with Marshall Nirenberg of 1964, that the triplet further substantiated structure of the genetic code and the remaining components of the code delivered, not related to the previous poly -U experiment Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei of (1961 ) could be determined.
He developed with colleagues the first recombinant DNA vector system (based on phage ), the prescribed safety standards enough. He cloned the gene for globin with colleagues and examined their gene regulation.
He also dealt with the genetic basis of the diversity of antibodies produced by the B cells (via systematic rearrangement of two genes that encode the light chains of the antibody) and the role of genetic rearrangements in cancer development. For example, it showed that in a malignant tumor B- cells ( Burkitt's lymphoma), the c- myc gene, which is normally plays a role in cell division, on a different chromosome (near an antibody gene) instead of its normal position on chromosome 8 is located.
He built a one reduced to its control sequences c -myc gene in mouse embryo cells and was able to generate transgenic mice strains that were susceptible to cancer. This proved that a change of control sequences of a gene could cause cancer. For these and similar mice ( Onco Mouse), developed the leather from the early 1980s, he took on behalf of Harvard University for a patent. In 1988 he was with Timothy Stewart in the U.S., the first patent ( on behalf of Harvard ) on a genetically engineered animal, the concept of cancer mouse ( Onco Mouse), a transgenic mouse, which is particularly susceptible to cancer by manipulation of different oncogenes. The patent is even broader and includes all animals except man. In Europe, the patent was indeed issued in 1992, after it was initially rejected, but rejected after a lengthy legal dispute in 2006 for technical reasons.
Leather also explored the interaction of the oncogene and more recently the metabolism of tumor cells ( relation between oxygen supply and glycolysis) of approach for cancer therapy.
Leather was still a student at the Detur Award at Harvard. In 2008 he received the Robert Koch Medal and 1987 the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. He received the 1981 Dickson Prize in Medicine and the Richard Lounsbery Award, 1985, the Genetics Society of America Medal, 1989, the National Medal of Science, 1990 HP Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Dutch Academy of Sciences and in 1997 William Allan Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is four honorary doctorates (2010), among others, from Yale University.