Joseph Schlessinger | |
|---|---|
| Born | Josip Schlessinger (1945-03-26)26 March 1945 (age 80) Topusko, (present-dayRepublic of Croatia) |
| Nationality | Israel United States |
| Awards | Ciba-Drew Award (1995)Dan David Prize (2006) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Pharmacology |
Joseph Schlessinger (born Josip Schlessinger; 26 March 1945) is aYugoslav-bornIsraeli-Americanbiochemist and biophysician. He is chair of thePharmacology Department atYale University School of Medicine inNew Haven, Connecticut, as well as the founding director of the school's new Cancer Biology Institute.[1] His area of research is signaling throughtyrosinephosphorylation, which is important in many areas of cellular regulation, especially growth control and cancer. Schlessinger's work has led to an understanding of the mechanism of transmembrane signaling by receptortyrosine kinases[2] and how the resulting signals control cell growth and differentiation.
Josip Schlessinger was born inTopusko to Jewish parents. His fatherImre came fromSzalatnok,Kingdom of Hungary,Kingdom of Hungary, since 1920Slatina; Imre's first wife and child had been deported toAuschwitz. Schlessinger's mother Rivka was fromBugojno; her first husband had been murdered by theUstaše. Imre and Rivka met in alabor camp on the Adriatic island of Rab in 1943 and joined a group of JewishPartisans.
When Schlessinger was born on 26 March 1945 he was wrapped in aBritish military parachute. He was named for his grandfather. After World War II the family moved toOsijek, where another son, Darko David, was born. Imre Schlessinger once made a joke at the expense ofTito and was sentenced to several months in jail.[3][4]
The family moved to Israel in 1948.[5] Schlessinger served his compulsory military service with theGolani Brigade and was commissioned an officer. As part of his reserve duty he participated in theSix-Day War and theYom Kippur War.[citation needed]
Schlessinger received his BSc degree inChemistry andPhysics in 1968 (magna cum laude), and an MSc degree in chemistry (also magna cum laude) in 1970 from theHebrew University of Jerusalem.[6]
He obtained his PhD degree inbiophysics from theWeizmann Institute of Science in 1974. From 1974 to 1976, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Departments of Chemistry and Applied Physics atCornell University inIthaca, New York, working withWatt W. Webb, among others. From 1977 to 1978, he was a visiting fellow in the immunology branch of theNational Cancer Institute.[6]
He is married to Irit Lax, also a professor in the pharmacology department at Yale. They each have two children by previous marriages.[5] In a 2009 interview with a Croatian daily newspaperJutarnji list, he said, "Basically I am atheist. I grew up Jewish and I truly belong to the Jewish culture, but I'm not a follower of any world religion. Religion does not interest me at all."[3]
Schlessinger was a member of the faculty of the Weizmann Institute from 1978 to 1991 and was the Ruth and Leonard Simon Professor of Cancer Research in the department ofimmunology from 1985 to 1991. In addition, he was a research director for Rorer Biotechnology inKing of Prussia, Pennsylvania, from 1985 to 1990. In 1990, he was appointed as the Milton and Helen Kimmelman Professor and chairman of the department ofpharmacology at theNew York University School of Medicine. He served as director ofNYU Medical Center's Skirball Institute for Biomolecular Medicine, from 1998 to 2001.[7]
He has been theWilliam H. Prusoff Professor and chairman of the department ofpharmacology atYale School of Medicine since 2001. He was elected to theUnited States National Academy of Sciences in 2000, to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, and to theInstitute of Medicine in 2005.[8]
He is a member of the editorial boards of several journals, includingCell,[9]Molecular Cell,[10] theJournal of Cell Biology,[11] and theScience magazineScience Signaling.[12]
Schlessinger is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Michael Landau Prize (1973),[6] the Sara Leady Prize (1980),[6][13] the Hestrin Prize (1983),[6][13] the Levinson Prize (1984),[13] aCiba-Drew Award (1995),[13] the Antoine Lacassagne Prize (1995),[13] the Taylor Prize (2000),[13][14] and theDan David Prize (2006).[15][16]
In 2002, he was granted anhonorary doctorate from theUniversity of Haifa.[17] He has lectured at many institutions,[6] including the Harvey Society (in the 1993–1994 Harvey Lectures series)[18] and the 2006 Keith R. Porter Lecture of the American Society for Cell Biology.[19]
In 2009, he was elected as a Member of theCroatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.[20][21]
In 2012, theHope Funds for Cancer Research selected Schlessinger to receive its Award of Excellence for Clinical Development. In 2009, Schlessinger was given an award by then-President of CroatiaStjepan Mesić for outstanding service in promoting Croatia in the international scientific community and for the contribution within Croatian biomedical sciences.[4]
In September 2003,The Guardian listed him as number 14 in the "Giants of Science".[22] He received, along withCharles Sawyers andTony Hunter, the 2014BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine category for "carving out the path that led to the development of a new class of successful cancer drugs."[citation needed]
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According toPubMed, Schlessinger has authored over 450 scientific original and review articles in the areas of pharmacology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and structural biology, mostly ontyrosine kinase signaling. Tyrosine kinase signaling plays a critical role in the control of many cellular processes includingcell proliferation,differentiation,metabolism, as well as cell survival andmigration.[6]
Tyrosine kinases play a particularly important role in cancer, and several agents that block their activity are now used as anti-cancer drugs, such asImatinib orGleevec. Among his contributions are the findings that cell surface receptors with tyrosine kinase activity signal across membrane by forming dimers when they bind to their growth factor activators. He discovered this in studies of theepidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). He was also instrumental in understanding how theSH2 domain controls tyrosine kinase signaling by binding to phosphorylated tyrosines in activated receptors. One of the seminal findings in this work was his laboratory's cloning ofGrb2 and otherAdaptor proteins.
Another is the lab's cloning ofFRS2, which is critical for signaling by theFibroblast growth factor receptor. In 2001, he was ranked by theISI Highly Cited as one of the world's top 30 most cited scientists (across all fields) in the 1990s.[23] According to ISI, his papers have been cited a total of 76,699 times.[24]
In 2006, asexual harassment lawsuit was initiated against Yale University by Schlessinger's former secretary, Mary Beth Garceau, who alleged numerous episodes of harassment during her employment at Yale[25][26][27][28] and claimedYale University failed to act upon her frequent complaints, causing her to resign. The case was settled out of court in mid-2007 and the terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed.[29]
In 1991, Schlessinger co-founded (withAxel Ullrich and Steven Evans-Freke) the biotechnology companySUGEN to develop ATP-like molecules that would compete with ATP for binding to the catalytic site of receptor tyrosine kinases in cancer treatment. In 1999, Sugen was acquired by Pharmacia & Upjohn for $650 million[30] and in 2003,Pharmacia was acquired byPfizer.[31] One of the pipeline products (SU11248) was ultimately developed by Pfizer as Sutent (Sunitinib),[32] approved by the FDA for treating gastrointestinal stromal tumors and renal cell carcinoma.[33]
In 2001, Schlessinger co-foundedPlexxikon withSung-Hou Kim (University of California, Berkeley). Plexxikon, uses a pioneering structural biology-based platform for drug discovery.[34] In April 2011, Plexxikon was acquired by the Japanese pharmaceutical companyDaiichi Sankyo for $805 million and an additional $130 m in potential milestone payments.[35]
In 2007, Schlessinger co-founded Kolltan Pharmaceuticals withArthur Altschul Jr. Kolltan Pharmaceuticals is an early-stage biotech that develops antibodies to treat solid tumors.[36][37][38][39]
In April 2014, Kolltan received $60 million in equity financing.[40] In September 2014, Kolltan filed for anIPO and in January 2015, they withdrew the IPO.[41] In November 2016,Celldex Therapeutics acquired Kolltan for $235 million.[42]
