Robert Weinberg
Robert Allan Weinberg ( born November 11, 1942 in Pittsburgh) is an American molecular biologist.
Weinberg is a professor of biology and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. His research interests focus on the molecular basis of cancer. Among his contributions in this area include the discovery of the first oncogene ( Ras ) and the first tumor suppressor gene (Rb ) of the people. These works are considered groundbreaking for cancer research, as they have changed the understanding of the causes of carcinogenesis fundamentally.
Life
Robert Allan Weinberg was born in 1942 in Pittsburgh as the son of the dentist Fritz Weinberg and his wife Lore Reichhardt, who had four years earlier emigrated from Germany to the United States. He studied biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1964 and received a Bachelor of Science ( BS ) and a year later a Master's degree (MA). In 1969 he received his doctorate at MIT after 1965 to 1966 he had been active in the meantime as a lecturer of biology at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. After completing his doctorate, he spent two years after Israel at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, and then until 1972 at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla.
In 1972 he returned to MIT, where he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Centre for Cancer Research. Four years later he became associate professor. In 1981 he first described genes that are involved in the pathogenesis of leukemia and colon and bladder cancer in humans, and could show that they are also present in healthy cells in a resting state or with a significantly lower activity. A year later he was appointed Full Professor of Biology. In addition, he founded in 1982 together with other scientists, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT and became a lecturer at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The American science magazine Discover chose him in the same year for Scientist of the Year ( Scientist of the Year ).
Scientific work
The research of Robert Allan Weinberg focuses on the molecular mechanisms of cancer. He examines three main issues: first, the migration of cancer cells in other tissues and the formation of metastases, the second mechanisms of cellular aging ( senescence ) and cell death in cancer and the third the molecular basis of communication between different cells in a tumor.
Robert Allan Weinberg has published five books during his career and more than 300 scientific articles, including more than 110 publications in prestigious journals Cell, Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His most important work is the book published in 2006, " The Biology of Cancer ", which is considered a standard work in the field of tumor biology. In addition he has worked with: written and "One Renegade Cell" books, in which he represents the development of cancer research in a form understandable for scientific laymen "Racing to the Beginning of the Road The Search for the Origin of Cancer ".
Awards
Robert Allan Weinberg is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was honored for his pioneering scientific achievements in a variety of ways. So he got along with other prices in 1983 the Robert Koch Prize, one of the most prestigious scientific awards in Germany. Several universities, such as Northwestern University, the State University of New York, the City University of New York and Uppsala University have awarded him an honorary doctorate, the American Cancer Society appointed him in 1985 as honorary professor. In 1984 he received the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award, the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology and the International Antonio Feltrinelli Prize - 1987 to Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize, the 1992 Max Planck Research Award and a Gairdner Foundation International Award, 1995 together with Alfred G. Knudson the Charles Rodolphe - Brupbacher prize for Cancer research, 1996, the Max Delbrück Medal and in 1997 the National Medal of Science and the Keio Medical Science Prize. In 1999, he was inducted into the Order Pour le Mérite for Arts and Science and was awarded the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. In 2004 he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine, and the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research. The Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology awarded him in 2007 with the Otto Warburg Medal one of the most prestigious awards in the field of Biochemistry in Germany. In 2013 he was one of the first winners of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
Works (selection)
- Oncogenes and the Molecular Origins of Cancer. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York 1989, ISBN 0-87-969336-3
- Genes and the Biology of Cancer. Scientific American Library, 1992, ISBN 0-71-675037-6
- Racing to the Beginning of the Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer. Harmony, 1996, ISBN 0-51-759118-9
- Molecular Oncology. Scientific American Introduction to Molecular Medicine Scientific American, New York 1996, ISBN 0-89-454023-8 ( as co-editor )
- One Renegade Cell. Basic Books, 1999, ISBN 0-46-507276-3
- The Biology of Cancer. Garland Science, 2006, ISBN 0-81-534078-8