Randy Schekman | |
|---|---|
 Schekman in 2015 | |
| Born | Randy Wayne Schekman (1948-12-30)December 30, 1948 (age 76) Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles (BA) Stanford University (PhD) |
| Known for | Editor-in-chief ofPNAS[4] andeLife[5] |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley UCLA Howard Hughes Medical Institute Stanford University |
| Thesis | Resolution and reconstruction of a multienzyme DNA replication reaction (1975) |
| Doctoral advisor | Arthur Kornberg |
| Doctoral students | David Julius[3] David Baker |
| Website | mcb royalsociety |
Randy Wayne Schekman (born December 30, 1948) is an American cell biologist at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,[6] former editor-in-chief ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and former editor ofAnnual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology.[4][7][8][9] In 2011, he was announced as the editor ofeLife, a new high-profileopen-access journal published by theHoward Hughes Medical Institute, theMax Planck Society and theWellcome Trust launching in 2012.[10] He was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences in 1992.[11] Schekman shared the 2013Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine withJames Rothman andThomas C. Südhof for their ground-breaking work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking.[12][13]
Schekman was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Alfred Schekman, an electrical engineer and computer software designer and Esther (Bader) Schekman.[14] His family were Jewish emigrants from Russia andBessarabia.[15] In the late 1950s his family moved to the new suburban community ofRossmoor, located in Orange County next to Long Beach. He graduated fromWestern High School inAnaheim, California, in 1966.[16] He received a BA in molecular biology from theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1971. He spent his third year at theUniversity of Edinburgh in Scotland, as an exchange student.[4][17] He received a PhD in 1975 fromStanford University for research onDNA replication working withArthur Kornberg.[18] After joining the faculty at University of California Berkeley, he was promoted to associate professor in 1981 and Professor in 1984.[citation needed]
Since 1991, Schekman has been aHoward Hughes Medical Institute Investigator,[19] division of biochemistry and molecular biology, department of molecular and cell biology, at the University of California, Berkeley. The Schekman Lab at that university carries out research into molecular descriptions of the process of membrane assembly andvesicular traffic[20] ineukaryotic cells[21][22] including yeast.[23] Before that, he was a faculty member with the now disbanded Department of Biochemistry at the same university.
In 1987 Schekman received theEli Lilly Award in Microbiology. In 1992, Schekman was elected aMember of the National Academy of Sciences.[24] In 2002, Schekman received theAlbert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research[25] andLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize ofColumbia University along withJames Rothman for their discovery of cellular membrane trafficking, a process that cells use to organize their activities and communicate with their environment.[26] In 2008 he was named the first Miller Senior Fellow of theMiller Institute at the University of California Berkeley. That same year, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[27] He was awarded theMassry Prize from theKeck School of Medicine,University of Southern California, in 2010. Schekman serves as a member of the Selection Committee and then as chair of Life Science and Medicine which chooses winners of theShaw Prize.
Schekman was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2013. His nomination reads:
Using a brilliantly conceived genetic screen, Schekman isolated sec mutants that accumulate secretory pathway intermediates, he cloned the corresponding genes and he established biochemical reactions that faithfully reproduced specific secretory pathway events. These studies transformed the secretion field, previously descriptive and morphological, into a molecular and mechanistic one. The cell-free reactions that Schekman established led to his isolation of theSec61 translocation complex, the (COPII) vesicle coat complex, and the first purified inter-organelle transport vesicles. The Sec proteins are strikingly conserved and the trafficking mechanisms that Schekman discovered are at the heart of neurotransmission, hormone secretion, cholesterol homeostasis and metabolic regulation.[1]
Schekman,Thomas C. Südhof, andJames Rothman were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of machinery regulatingvesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells".[12] Schekman donated his share of the prize money, $400,000, to create an endowment for the Esther and Wendy Schekman Chair in Basic Cancer Biology at UC Berkeley. Schekman's mother and sister, for whom the post is named, both died of cancer.[28]
In 2017, Schekman received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[29]
In 2021, Professor Randy Schekman was elected honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, with which he has been collaborating since 2019.[30]
In 2023, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa atNicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Republic of Moldova.[31][32]
In December 2013, Schekman called foracademic journal publishing reform andopen access science publication by announcing that his lab at the University of California, Berkeley would no longer submit to the prestigious closed-access journalsNature,Cell, andScience, citing their self-serving and deleterious effects on science.[33] He has criticized these journals for artificially restricting the number of publications accepted to drive up demand.[33] In addition, Schekman says the journals accept papers that will be cited often, increasing the prestige of the journal, rather than those which demonstrate important results.[33] Schekman has said the prestige and difficulty of publishing in these journals sometimes cause scientists to cut corners or pursue trends, rather than conduct research on important questions. Schekman is the former editor ofeLife, anopen access journal and competitor toNature,Cell, andScience.[33] Papers are accepted intoeLife based on review by working scientists.[33] Access to accepted papers is free.[33]
In the fall of 2017, Schekman's wife, Nancy Walls, died after a 20-year struggle with Parkinson's disease. Near the end of this difficult period Schekman was enlisted to serve as the scientific director of a new effort calledASAP aimed at organizing an international program of collaborative research on the origins and mechanisms of progression of Parkinson's Disease. In cooperation withThe Michael J. Fox Foundation and major philanthropic support, ASAP has grown by 2022 to involve 35 teams across 165 laboratories around the world. The goal of ASAP is bridge the talents of hundreds of scientists to develop novel insights leading to more effective treatments of this disease.
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | ASCB Presidents 1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | PNAS editor-in-chief 2006–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by — | eLife editor-in-chief 2012–2019 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
