Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 11, 2007|Volume 35, Number 28|Two-Week Issue

Biophysicist Steitz honored for ribosome research with Gairdner Award

Yale biophysicist Thomas A. Steitz has received one of the four 2007 Gairdner International Awards, among the most prestigious awards in science, for his groundbreaking work on the structure and function of the large subunit of the ribosome and the structural basis for the action of antibiotics that target the ribosome.

"The 2007 awards reflect the importance of basic discoveries that lead to a better understanding of human disease and the development of treatments and cures to alleviate them," says John Dirks, president and scientific director of the Gairdner Foundation.

Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, was honored along with Harry F. Noller of the University of California-Santa Cruz for their studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, which demonstrated that a step in bacterial protein synthesis is an RNA-catalyzed reaction. This step is inhibited by many antibiotics, and understanding the structural basis of the function points the way to the development of new antibiotics.

"A major health consequence of the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is that two million people every year get infections from them in hospital facilities -- and 90,000 per year die from them," says Steitz.

His close collaboration with Yale faculty colleague Peter Moore as well as his interactions with Yale colleague William Jorgenson led to the establishment of a company, Rib-X Pharmaceutical Inc., which is using this knowledge of the structures of the large ribosomal subunit and its antibiotic complexes to create new classes of antibiotics. In just five years, Rib-X has moved one potential compound into Phase II clinical trials, and company officials hope that shortly others will enter the Phase I trials pipeline.

This year's other two Gairdner Award winners were C. David Allis of The Rockefeller University and Kim A. Nasmyth of Oxford University.

Since 1959, the Gairdner International Awards have honored outstanding contributions by medical scientists whose work will significantly improve the quality of life. Of the 283 recipients, 68 have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. The honor carries a cash award of about $26,700.

Three other Yale faculty members received Gairdner International Awards in the recent past. Joan Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry; Dr. Thomas Pollard, Sterling Professor and chair of molecular, cellular and developmental biology; and Dr. Arthur Horwich, the Higgins Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics.

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WORKSPACE ENHANCEMENTS AT THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Adding some sunshine to a windowless office

Creating a tranquil space for nursing mothers

Decking the hallways with quilted artworks