Herbert Weissbach
Dr. Herbert Weissbach
Dr. Herbert Weissbach is a renowned Biochemist born on March 16, 1932 in the Bronx, New York City, where he spent his childhood. He obtained his high school diploma from the Bronx High School of Science and a B.S. degree, majoring in chemistry, from the City College of New York (1953). Upon graduation, Herb was recruited by Dr. Sidney Udenfriend to come to the National Heart Institute. At the National Institutes of Health(NIH) to enter a new joint graduate program between the NIH and George Washington University. He received his Ph.D. from George Washington University (Thesis: Studies on 5-Hydroxyindole Metabolism, 1957) based on research done at the NIH in the Udenfriend laboratory. In 1958 the NIH supported his postdoctoral studies done with Dr. H.A. Barker at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was involved in the discovery of the coenzyme form of vitamin B12[1] [2]. In 1959 he returned to the NIH as an independent investigator where he continued his studies on the role of vitamin B12 in methionine biosynthesis, research that helped to elucidate the known inter-relationship among vitamin 12, folic acid and one carbon metabolism[3] [4]. The studies on methionine synthesis led to his collaboration with the Nirenberg laboratory at the NIH shortly after the genetic code was cracked[5]. By 1967 the Weissbach laboratory was deeply involved in protein synthesis (translation)[6] [7] [8] [9] when he was offered the opportunity to help found the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology (RIMB) with Sid Udenfriend[10]. In 1969, he joined RIMB, to become Associate Director of the RIMB and in 1983 he took over as Director of the RIMB and became a Vice-President of Research at Hoffmann- La Roche, Nutley, NJ. The RIMB was involved in the very early days of the emergence of the biotechnology industry and helped the company enter this new and exciting field[11]. Herb remembers fondly his time at the Roche institute which he describes in a book he co-authored with David Fisher in 2016 titled “A Camelot of the Biomedical Sciences: The Story of the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology”[12]. After the RIMB closed, in 1997 he accepted a position as Distinguished Research Professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU)[13], where he founded, and was Director, of the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (CMBB). In 2017 he was appointed Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at FAU. His most recent research has involved understanding the mechanisms that cells use to protect against oxidative damage, based on the observation that cells have a mechanism to protect against oxidative damage to methionine residues in proteins [14].[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] He has trained more than 50 postdoctoral fellows and mentored more than 12 Ph.D. students, many of whom have had distinguished careers. Herb and his wife Renee live in Boynton Beach Florida. They have four children.
Notable Awards:
- Election to the National Academy of Sciences (1982-Present)[22]
- One of the 300 most cited authors (1961-1976), Current Content July 10, 1978
- Charter Fellow of the National Academy of inventors (2012)
- Superior Service Award of the Department of Health Education and Welfare (1968)
- American Chemical Society Enzyme Award (1970)[23]
- Townsend Harris Medal of the City College of New York Alumni Association (1988)[24]
- George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Award (1994)
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- ↑ Weissbach, H., Toohey, J. and Barker, H.A. Isolation and Properties of B12 Coenzymes Containing Benzimidazole of Dimethylbenzimidazole. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1959) 45, 521-525.
- ↑ Weissbach, H., Ladd, J.N., Volcani, B.E., Smyth, R.D. and Barker, H.A. Structure of Adenylcobamide Coenzyme: Degradation by Cyanide Acid and Light. J. Biol. Chem. (1960) 235, 1462-1473.
- ↑ Weissbach, H., Peterkofsky, A., Redfield, B. and Dickerman, H. Studies on the Terminal Reaction in the Biosynthesis of Methionin. J. Biol. Chem. (1963) 238, 3318-3324.
- ↑ Taylor, R.T. and Weissbach, H. Isolation of Methyl- B12 from Escherichia coli B N5-Methyl-H4-Folate-Homocysteine Vitamin- B12 Transmethylase. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (1967) 27, 398-404.
- ↑ Trupin J, Dickerman H, Nirenberg M, Weissbach H. Formylation of amino acid analogues of methionine sRNA. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1966 Jul 6;24(1):50-5.
- ↑ Dickerman, H.W., Steers, E., Jr., Redfield, B.G. and Weissbach, H. Methionyl Soluble Ribonucleic Acid Transformylase. I. Purification and Partial Characterization. J. Biol. Chem. (1967) 242, 1522-1528.
- ↑ Allende, J.E., Seeds, N.W., Conway, T.W. and Weissbach, H. Guanosine Triphosphate Interaction with an Amino Acid Polymerization Factor from E. coli. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1967) 58, 1566-1573.
- ↑ Miller, D.L. and Weissbach, H. Studies on the Purification and Properties of Factor Tu from E. coli. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. (1970) 141, 26-37.
- ↑ Kung, H.F., Redfield, B., Treadwell, B.V., Eskin, B., Spears, C. and Weissbach, H. DNA-Directed In Vitro Synthesis of β-Galactosidase: Studies with Purified Factors. J. Biol. Chem. (1977) 252, 6889-6894
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_Institute_of_Molecular_Biology
- ↑ Weissbach H, Goeddel DV, McCandliss R, Maeda S, Familletti PC, Redfield B, Staehelin T, Pestka S. In vitro synthesis of biologically active human leukocyte interferon directed by recombinant plasmid DNA. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1981 Aug;210(1):417-9.
- ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Camelot-Biomedical-Sciences-Institute-Molecular/dp/0998278408?tag=everybodywikien-20
- ↑ http://www.science.fau.edu/cmbb/
- ↑ Brot, N., Weissbach, L., Werth, J. and Weissbach, H. Enzymatic Reduction of Protein-Bound Methionine Sulfoxide. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1981) 78, 2155-2158.
- ↑ Rahman, M. A., Brot, N. and Weissbach, H. High Level Expression and Purification of Peptide Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase in Escherichia coli. Cellular & Molecular Biology (1992) 38, 529-542.
- ↑ Lowther, W. T., Brot, N., Weissbach, H., and Matthews, B. W. Structure and mechanism of methionine sulfoxide reductase, an “anti-oxidation” enzyme. Biochemistry. (2000) 39, 13307-13312.
- ↑ Ruan, H., Tang, X. D., Chen, M. -L., Joiner, M.A., Sun, G., Brot, N., Weissbach, H., Heinemann, S. H., Iverson, L., Wu, C. -F., Hoshi, T. High-quality life extension by the enzyme peptide methionine sulfoxide reductase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. (2002) 99, 2748-2753.
- ↑ Moench, I., Prentice, H., Rickaway, Z., Weissbach, H. Sulindac confers high level ischemic protection to the heart through late preconditioning mechanisms. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. (2009) 106 (46), 19611-19616.
- ↑ Sur, A., Kesaraju, S., Prentice, H., Ayyanathan, K., Baronas-Lowell, D., Zhue, D., Hintone, D. R., Blanks, J., and Weissbach, H. Pharmacological protection of retinal pigmented epithelial cells by sulindac involves PPARα. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. (2014) 111 (47), 16754-16759.
- ↑ Ayyanathan, K., Kesaraju, S., Dawson-Scully, K., Weissbach, H. (2012) Combination of Sulindac and Dichloroacetate Kills Cancer Cells via Oxidative Damage. PLoS ONE 7(7): e39949.
- ↑ Cudic, P., Joshi, N., Sagher, D., Williams, B.T., Stawikowski, M.J., Weissbach, H. Identification of activators of methionine sulfoxide reductases A and B. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (2016) 469, 863-867.
- ↑ http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/49275.html
- ↑ https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/cen-v048n017.p059
- ↑ https://www.ccnyalumni.org/about-us/distinguished-alumni/nominate-for-awards-medals/20-about-us/distinguished-alumni/medalists-and-awardees/townsend-harris-medalists/83-the-townsend-harris-medalist
