托马斯·施泰茨1940—2018

生平

施泰茨出生于美国威斯康星州的密尔沃基，1962年本科毕业于劳伦斯大学化学系。1966年获得哈佛大学分子生物学和生物化学博士学位，1967年-1970年在剑桥大学MRC分子生物学实验室作博士后。1976-1977年为哥廷根大学“梅西研究员”。1984-1985年为加州理工学院“公平儿童学者”。现为耶鲁大学分子生物物理学和生物化学系的斯特林教授，以及霍华德·休斯医学研究所的研究员。2009年，因对核糖体结构和功能的研究而与文卡特拉曼·拉马克里希南和阿达·约纳特共同获得2009年诺贝尔化学奖。

美国《运动画刊》专栏作家Ben Reiter(班·赖特）在他的其中一本著作中分享：老婆Joan Steitz 也是在耶鲁大学教分子生物学和生物化学的教授。耶鲁大学里有流言，说施泰茨夫妇在其中一间实验室里打造他们的独生子Jon。儿子Jon Steitz、媳妇 Katherine Van Loon Steitz和两个孙子。Jon Steitz 在大三时在第三轮被密尔瓦基酿酒人队选走，提早一年离开大学。

主要贡献

施泰茨致力于研究与DNA复制转录相关的蛋白质结构。在用生物物理法研究核糖体结构多年后，开始涉足核糖体晶体结构。

Thomas Arthur Steitz (August 23, 1940 – October 9, 2018) 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.

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". Steitz also won the Gairdner International Award in 2007 "for his studies on the structure and function of the ribosome which showed that the peptidyl transferase (EC 2.3.2.12) was an RNA catalyzed reaction, and for revealing the mechanism of inhibition of this function by antibiotics".

Education and career

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Steitz studied chemistry as an undergraduate at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating in 1962. In June 2010, the University renamed its chemistry building Thomas A. Steitz Hall of Science.

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, Steitz made contributions to determining the atomic structures of carboxypeptidase A (EC 3.4.17.1) and aspartate carbamoyltransferase (EC 2.1.3.2), 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 during 1967–1970.

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

Both Tom and Joan Steitz instead 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. 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.

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

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)

Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2011

Private life

He enjoyed skiing, hiking, and gardening.

It should also be noted that Tom valued a good time. He always looked forward to department happy hours, wine tastings and any other excuse for a party. He hosted many wonderful Halloween parties at his home, always appropriately attire in costume.

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, and two grandchildren, Adam and Maddy. He died on October 9, 2018, of complications during treatment of pancreatic cancer.