Thomas A. Steitz

Thomas Arthur Steitz (August 23, 1940 – October 9, 2018[2]) was an American biochemist, a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, best known for his pioneering work on the ribosome.

Thomas Steitz
Steitz in 2009
Born
Thomas Arthur Steitz

(1940-08-23)August 23, 1940
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedOctober 9, 2018(2018-10-09) (aged 78)
Branford, Connecticut, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWauwatosa High School, Lawrence College, Harvard University
Known forBio-crystallography
Spouse(s)Joan A. Steitz
Children1
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsHoward Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University
ThesisThe 6⁰A crystal structure of carboxypeptidase A (1967)
Doctoral advisorWilliam N. Lipscomb, Jr.
Other academic advisorsDavid M. Blow
Notable studentsNenad Ban
Websitesteitzlab.yale.edu

Steitz was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Ada Yonath "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".[3] Steitz also won the Gairdner International Award in 2007[4] "for his studies on the structure and function of the ribosome which showed that the peptidyl transferase was an RNA catalyzed reaction, and for revealing the mechanism of inhibition of this function by antibiotics".[5]

Education and career

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,[3] Steitz studied chemistry as an undergraduate at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating in 1962. While there he was a member of the fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, the Delta Nu chapter. In June 2010, the University renamed its chemistry building Thomas A. Steitz Hall of Science.[6]

He received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University in 1966 where he worked under the direction of subsequent 1976 chemistry Nobel Prize winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr. While at Harvard, after the training task of determining the structure of the small molecule methyl ethylene phosphate,[7] Steitz made contributions to determining the atomic structures of carboxypeptidase A[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and aspartate carbamoyltransferase,[16] each the largest atomic structure determined in its time.

Steitz did postdoctoral research as a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge during 1967–1970.

Steitz started an assistant professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, but soon resigned, on the grounds that the institution would not accept his wife Joan into a faculty position because she was a woman.[17]

Both Tom and Joan Steitz joined the Yale faculty in 1970, where he continued to work on cellular and structural biology. Steitz and Peter Moore determined the atomic structure of the large 50S ribosomal subunit using X-ray crystallography, and published their findings in Science in 2000.[18] In 2009, Steitz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his ribosome research.

He was also a Macy Fellow at the University of Göttingen during 1976–1977 and a Fairchild Scholar at the California Institute of Technology during 1984-1985.[4]

Steitz was also one of the founders of a company, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, now Melinta Therapeutics for the development of new antibiotics based on the ribosome.

Honors

Private life

Steitz was married to Joan A. Steitz, a distinguished molecular biologist who is also a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. He lived with her in Branford, Connecticut and had one son, Jon.[19] He died on October 9, 2018 of complications during treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Publications

See also

References
  1. "Foreign Members". Royal Society. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/obituaries/thomas-a-steitz-dead.html
  3. 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Foundation.
  4. Thomas Steitz, Thomas Steitz Lab.
  5. Thomas A. Steitz, The Gairdner 50 Foundation.
  6. "Lawrence To Honor Nobel Prize Winner with Building Renaming Ceremony on Friday". Lawrence University. 9 June 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  7. Steitz, T. A. and Lipscomb, W. N., "Molecular Structure of Methyl Ethylene Phosphate," J Am. Chem. Soc. 87, 2488 (1965).
  8. Hartsuck JA, Ludwig ML, Muirhead H, Steitz TA, Lipscomb WN. Carbyxypeptidase A, II, The Three-dimensional Electron Density Map at 6 A Resolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1965 February; 53(2): 396–403.
  9. Lipscomb, W. N., Coppola, J. C., Hartsuck, J. A., Ludwig, M. L., Muirhead, H., Searl, J. and Steitz, T. A., "The Structure of Carboxypeptidase A. III. Molecular Structure at 6 A Resolution," J Mol. Biol. 19, 423-441 (1966).
  10. Ludwig, M. L., Coppola, J. C., Hartsuck, J. A., Muirhead, H., Searl, J., Steitz, T. A. and Lipscomb, W. N., "Molecular Structure of Carboxypeptidase A at 6 A Resolution," Federation Proc. 25, Part I, 346 (1966).
  11. Ludwig ML, Hartsuck JA, Steitz TA, Muirhead H, Coppola JC, Reeke GN, Lipscomb WN. The Structure of Carboxypeptidase A, IV. Prelimitary Results at 2.8 A Resolution, and a Substrate Complex at 6 A Resolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1967 March; 57(3): 511–514.
  12. Reeke GN, Hartsuck JA, Ludwig ML, Quiocho FA, Steitz TA, Lipscomb WN. The structure of carboxypeptidase A. VI. Some Results at 2.0-A Resolution, and the Complex with Glycyl-Tyrosine at 2.8-A Resolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1967 Dec;58(6):2220–2226.
  13. Lipscomb, W. N, Ludwig, M. L., Hartsuck, J. A., Steitz, T. A., Muirhead, H., Coppola, J. C., Reeke, G. N. and Quiocho, F. A., "Molecular Structure of Carboxypeptidase A at 2.8 A Resolution and an Isomorphous Enzyme-Substrate Complex at 6 A Resolution," Federation Proc. 26, 385 (1967).
  14. Lipscomb WN, Hartsuck JA, Reeke GN, Jr, Quiocho FA, Bethge PH, Ludwig ML, Steitz TA, Muirhead H, Coppola JC. The structure of carboxypeptidase A. VII. The 2.0-angstrom resolution studies of the enzyme and of its complex with glycyltyrosine, and mechanistic deductions. Brookhaven Symp Biol. 1968 Jun;21(1):24–90.
  15. Coppola, J. C., Hartsuck, J. A., Ludwig, M. L., Muirhead, H., Searl, J., Steitz, T. A. and Lipscomb, W. N., "The Low Resolution Structure of Carboxypeptidase A," Acta Crystallogr. 21, A160 (1966).
  16. Steitz TA, Wiley DC, Lipscomb WN. The structure of aspartate transcarbamylase, I. A molecular twofold axis in the complex with cytidine triphosphate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1967 November; 58(5): 1859–1861.
  17. Ferry, Georgina (2018-10-30). "Thomas A. Steitz (1940–2018)". Nature. 563 (7729): 36. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-07187-2. ISSN 0028-0836.
  18. "Yale Researches Solve Structure of the Ribosome; Groundbreaking Achievement 'Like Climbing Mount Everest'". YaleNews. 10 August 2000. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-04-01. Retrieved 2011-04-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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