Thomas Arthur Steitz

Thomas Arthur Steitz (born August 23, 1940) is a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. 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".[1] Steitz also won the Gairdner International Award in 2007[2] "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".[3]

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,[1] Steitz studied chemistry as an undergraduate at Lawrence University.

He received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University in 1966 where he worked under direction of subsequent 1976 chemistry Nobel Prize winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr. While at Harvard, Steitz made these contributions to determining the atomic structures of carboxypeptidase A [4][5][6][7] and aspartate carbamoyltransferase, [8] each the biggest atomic structure determined in its time. The structure of the large 50S ribosomal subunit, which Steitz later determined in his own lab at Yale University, and for which Steitz was awarded the Nobel Prize was even bigger.

He did his postdoctoral research as a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University during 1967-1970. He was also a Macy Fellow doing research at the University of Göttingen during 1976-1977 and a Fairchild Scholar at Caltech during 1984-1985.[2]

He is married to Joan A. Steitz, also a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. He currently lives in Branford, Connecticut
References

1. ^ a b 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Foundation.
2. ^ a b Tom Steitz, Thomas Steitz Lab.
3. ^ Thomas A. Steitz, The Gairdner 50 Foundation.
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ 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.
8. ^ 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.

Publications

* Steitz, T. A., et al. "Determination of the Atomic-Resolution Crystal Structure of the Large Subunit from the Ribosome of Haloarcula marismortui;", nsls newsletter, (November 2000).
* Steitz, T. A., et al. "The Atomic Resolution Crystal Structure of the Large Ribosomal Subunit from Haloarcula marismortui", NSLS Activity Report (2000).

External links

* Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
* "Inquisitiveness of Milwaukee native leads to a Nobel Prize", The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
* Thomas Steitz - MIPtalk.com interview
* http://blogs.lawrence.edu/news/2009/10/lawrence_university_graduate_a.html