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Gregory Petsko

{{Short description|American biochemist and academic}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Greg Petsko

| image = Image copy.png

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|8|7}}

| birth_place = Washington, D.C., USA

| death_date =

| death_place =

| workplaces = Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Weill Cornell Medical College
Cornell University
Brandeis University
Wayne State University School of Medicine
MIT
Max Planck Institute
University of Oxford
Princeton University

| education = Princeton University (BS)
Merton College, Oxford (MS, PhD)

| thesis_title = Structural studies of triose phosphate isomerase.

| thesis_url = http://www.theses.com

| thesis_year = 1974

| spouse = Laurie Glimcher{{Cite web |last=Bailey |first=Melissa |date=2016-03-01 |title=Recruited to lead Harvard med, 'fearless' scientist chose Dana-Farber |url=https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/01/laurie-glimcher-dana-farber/ |access-date=2023-01-02 |website=STAT |language=en-US}}

| doctoral_advisor = David Chilton Phillips

| awards = Rhodes Scholarship
Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Member of the American Philosophical Society

| website = {{URL|http://brainandmind.weill.cornell.edu/lab/petsko-laboratory|Official website}}

}}

Gregory A. Petsko (born August 7, 1948) is an American biochemist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is currently Professor of Neurology at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He formerly had an endowed professorship (the Arthur J. Mahon Chair) in Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and is still an adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University, and is also the Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor, Emeritus, in biochemistry and chemistry at Brandeis University. On October 24, 2023, in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Joe Biden presented Gregory Petsko and eight others with the National Medal of Science, the highest honor the United States can bestow on a scientist and engineer.

As of 2020 Petsko's research interests are understanding the biochemical bases of neurological diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS, discovering drugs (especially by using structure-based drug design) and biologics, especially gene therapy, that could therapeutically affect those biochemical targets, and seeing any resulting clinical candidates tested in humans. He has made key contributions to the fields of protein crystallography, biochemistry, biophysics, enzymology, and neuroscience.

Education

{{BLP unsourced section|date=May 2022}}

Petsko was an undergraduate at Princeton University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1970. He received a Rhodes Scholarship, and obtained his doctorate in Molecular Biophysics from Merton College, Oxford supervised by David Phillips, studying the structure and mechanism of the enzyme triosephosphate isomerase. [https://petskolab.bwh.harvard.edu/lab-members/#1590592104145-760ca33e-19f3]

He did a brief postdoctoral fellowship in Paris with Pierre Douzou, studying enzymology at low temperatures. In 1996 he did a sabbatical at the University of California at San Francisco with Ira Herskowitz, where he learned yeast genetics and molecular biology with the support of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.[https://www.gf.org/fellows/gregory-a-petsko/]

Career

File:President Biden awards the National Medal of Science to Professor Gregory A. Petsko of Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital.jpg

Petsko's independent academic career has included stints at Wayne State University School of Medicine, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, and, from 1991 until 2012, Brandeis University, where he was Professor of Biochemistry and of Chemistry and director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center. He is past-president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and has an honorary Doctor of Laws from Dalhousie University. In April 2010, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web|url=http://www.brandeis.edu/now/images/petskoaps.html|title = Biochemist Greg Petsko elected to American Philosophical Society}} In 2012, he announced that he was moving to Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, where his wife, the world-renowned immunologist Dr. Laurie Glimcher, had been appointed dean.Tate Herbert for The Justice November 13, 2012 [http://www.thejustice.org/news/petsko-set-to-leave-university-for-new-york-city-in-2014-1.2951708#.U1VHtvldWVE Petsko set to leave University for New York City in 2014] He was appointed at Weill Cornell Medical College as the director of the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer's Disease Research Institute and the Arthur J. Mahon Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, and at Cornell University as adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering, and retained an appointment at Brandeis University as Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Emeritus.Weill Cornell Newsroom. April 16, 2014 [http://weill.cornell.edu/news/news/2014/04/interview-gregory-petsko-alzheimers.html No Stone Unturned: Interview with Gregory Petsko][http://petskolab.bwh.harvard.edu Petsko Laboratory Homepage] His wife was named president and CEO of the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in October 2016, and in January 2019 he followed her back to Boston, assuming his present position as Professor of Neurology at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. On October 24, 2023, he and eight other scientists received the National Medal of Science from President Joe Biden. The National Medal of Science is the highest honor the United States can confer on a scientist; since the first was awarded in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, only 506 individuals have received it.[https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/people/110123/petsko-receives-national-medal-of-science][https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/11/9/petsko-national-medal-of-science/][https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/24/president-biden-honors-leading-american-scientists-technologists-and-innovators/][https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/24/remarks-by-president-biden-at-national-medal-of-science-and-national-medal-of-technology-and-innovation-ceremony/]

Research

Petsko's current research interests are understanding the biochemical bases of neurological diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS, discovering drugs (especially by using structure-based drug design) that could therapeutically affect those biochemical targets, and seeing any resulting drug and gene therapy candidates tested in humans.Columbia University Newsroom. April 20, 2014 [http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2014/04/20/25934/ 'Chaperone' compounds offer new approach to Alzheimer's treatment]

Petsko's past research interests{{AcademicSearch|12765966}} have been in protein crystallography and enzymology. He is co-author with Dagmar Ringe of Protein Structure and Function.{{cite book |author=Petsko, Gregory A. |title=Protein Structure and Function (Primers in Biology) |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-955684-7 }} He was also the author of a monthly column in Genome Biology{{Cite journal

| last1 = Petsko | first1 = G. A.

| author-link = Gregory Petsko

| title = A Faustian bargain

| journal = Genome Biology

| volume = 11

| issue = 10

| page = 138

| year = 2010

| pmid = 21062515

| pmc = 3218652

| doi=10.1186/gb-2010-11-10-138

| doi-access = free

}}{{Cite journal

| last1 = Petsko | first1 = G. A.

| author-link1 = Gregory Petsko

| title = Food of the dogs

| doi = 10.1186/gb-2011-12-7-122

| journal = Genome Biology

| volume = 12

| issue = 7

| page = 122

| year = 2011

| pmid = 21787380

| pmc = 3218821

| doi-access = free

}} modelled after an amusing column in Current Biology penned by Sydney Brenner.{{Cite journal

| last1 = Brenner | first1 = S.

| title = The worm's turn

| journal = Current Biology

| volume = 12

| issue = 21

| pages = R713

| year = 2002

| pmid = 12419193

| doi=10.1016/s0960-9822(02)01241-1

| doi-access = free

| bibcode = 2002CBio...12.R713B

}} The first ten years of that column are available as an eBook.{{Cite book |last=Petsko |first=Gregory |title=Gregory Petsko in Genome Biology: The first 10 years |date=2010-10-10 |publisher=BioMed Central |language=en}}

Petsko is best known for his collaborative work with Dagmar Ringe, in which they used X-ray crystallography to solve important problems in protein function including protein dynamics as a function of temperature and problems in mechanistic enzymology,{{Cite journal | last1 = Frauenfelder | first1 = H. | last2 = Petsko | first2 = G. A. | author-link2 = Gregory Petsko| last3 = Tsernoglou | first3 = D. | doi = 10.1038/280558a0 | title = Temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction as a probe of protein structural dynamics | journal = Nature | volume = 280 | issue = 5723 | pages = 558–563 | year = 1979 | pmid =460437| bibcode = 1979Natur.280..558F | s2cid = 4280206 }}{{Cite journal | last1 = Schlichting | first1 = I. | last2 = Berendzen | first2 = J. | last3 = Chu | first3 = K. | last4 = Stock | first4 = A. M. | last5 = Maves | first5 = S. A. | last6 = Benson | first6 = D. E. | last7 = Sweet | first7 = R. M. | last8 = Ringe | first8 = D. | last9 = Petsko | first9 = G. A. | author-link9 = Gregory Petsko | last10 = Sligar | first10 = S. G.| title = The Catalytic Pathway of Cytochrome P450cam at Atomic Resolution | doi = 10.1126/science.287.5458.1615 | journal = Science | volume = 287 | issue = 5458 | pages = 1615–1622 | year = 2000 | pmid =10698731| bibcode = 2000Sci...287.1615S }}{{Cite journal

| last1 = Karplus | first1 = M.

| last2 = Petsko | first2 = G. A.

| author-link2 = Gregory Petsko

| doi = 10.1038/347631a0

| title = Molecular dynamics simulations in biology

| journal = Nature

| volume = 347

| issue = 6294

| pages = 631–639

| year = 1990

| pmid = 2215695

| bibcode = 1990Natur.347..631K

| s2cid = 6143542

}} and for his collaborative work with Dr. Scott Small of Columbia University, which focuses on the retromer endosomal protein trafficking pathway and its role in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.{{Cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Jessica E. |last2=Holstege |first2=Henne |last3=Andersen |first3=Olav M. |last4=Petsko |first4=Gregory A. |last5=Small |first5=Scott A. |date=2023 |title=On the causal role of retromer-dependent endosomal recycling in Alzheimer's disease |journal=Nature Cell Biology |language=en |volume=25 |issue=10 |pages=1394–1397 |doi=10.1038/s41556-023-01245-2 |pmid=37803174 |s2cid=263741870 |issn=1465-7392|pmc=10788784 }}{{Cite journal |last1=Jensen |first1=Anne Mette G. |last2=Kitago |first2=Yu |last3=Fazeli |first3=Elnaz |last4=Vægter |first4=Christian B. |last5=Small |first5=Scott A. |last6=Petsko |first6=Gregory A. |last7=Andersen |first7=Olav M. |date=2023-01-24 |title=Dimerization of the Alzheimer's disease pathogenic receptor SORLA regulates its association with retromer |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=120 |issue=4 |pages=e2212180120 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2212180120 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=9942828 |pmid=36652482|bibcode=2023PNAS..12012180J }}{{Cite journal |last1=Qureshi |first1=Yasir H. |last2=Berman |first2=Diego E. |last3=Marsh |first3=Samuel E. |last4=Klein |first4=Ronald L. |last5=Patel |first5=Vivek M. |last6=Simoes |first6=Sabrina |last7=Kannan |first7=Suvarnambiga |last8=Petsko |first8=Gregory A. |last9=Stevens |first9=Beth |last10=Small |first10=Scott A. |date=2022 |title=The neuronal retromer can regulate both neuronal and microglial phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease |journal=Cell Reports |language=en |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=110262 |doi=10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110262 |pmc=8830374 |pmid=35045281}}{{Cite journal |last1=Small |first1=Scott A. |last2=Petsko |first2=Gregory A. |date=2020-12-02 |title=Endosomal recycling reconciles the Alzheimer's disease paradox |journal=Science Translational Medicine |language=en |volume=12 |issue=572 |doi=10.1126/scitranslmed.abb1717 |issn=1946-6234 |pmc=8025181 |pmid=33268506}}{{Cite journal |last1=Petsko |first1=Gregory A. |last2=Small |first2=Scott A. |date=2022 |title=Elucidating the causes of neurodegeneration |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adc9969 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=377 |issue=6601 |pages=31–32 |doi=10.1126/science.adc9969 |pmid=35771902 |bibcode=2022Sci...377...31P |s2cid=250175089 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Jessica E. |last2=Fong |first2=Lauren K. |last3=Frankowski |first3=Harald |last4=Petsko |first4=Gregory A. |last5=Small |first5=Scott A. |last6=Goldstein |first6=Lawrence S.B. |date=2018 |title=Stabilizing the Retromer Complex in a Human Stem Cell Model of Alzheimer's Disease Reduces TAU Phosphorylation Independently of Amyloid Precursor Protein |journal=Stem Cell Reports |language=en |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=1046–1058 |doi=10.1016/j.stemcr.2018.01.031 |pmc=5919412 |pmid=29503090}}{{Cite journal |last1=Small |first1=Scott A. |last2=Simoes-Spassov |first2=Sabrina |last3=Mayeux |first3=Richard |last4=Petsko |first4=Gregory A. |date=2017 |title=Endosomal Traffic Jams Represent a Pathogenic Hub and Therapeutic Target in Alzheimer's Disease |journal=Trends in Neurosciences |language=en |volume=40 |issue=10 |pages=592–602 |doi=10.1016/j.tins.2017.08.003|pmid=28962801 |pmc=5654621 }}{{Cite journal |last1=Small |first1=Scott A. |last2=Petsko |first2=Gregory A. |date=2015 |title=Retromer in Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease and other neurological disorders |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn3896 |journal=Nature Reviews Neuroscience |language=en |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=126–132 |doi=10.1038/nrn3896 |pmid=25669742 |s2cid=5166260 |issn=1471-003X|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Mecozzi |first1=Vincent J |last2=Berman |first2=Diego E |last3=Simoes |first3=Sabrina |last4=Vetanovetz |first4=Chris |last5=Awal |first5=Mehraj R |last6=Patel |first6=Vivek M |last7=Schneider |first7=Remy T |last8=Petsko |first8=Gregory A |last9=Ringe |first9=Dagmar |last10=Small |first10=Scott A |date=2014 |title=Pharmacological chaperones stabilize retromer to limit APP processing |journal=Nature Chemical Biology |language=en |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=443–449 |doi=10.1038/nchembio.1508 |issn=1552-4450 |pmc=4076047 |pmid=24747528}}

At MIT and Brandeis, he and Dagmar Ringe trained a large number of current leaders in structural molecular biology who now have leadership roles in science. These individuals include:

References

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{{Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry}}

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Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:American Rhodes Scholars

Category:Brandeis University faculty

Category:Living people

Category:1948 births

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Category:Presidents of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Category:Alumni of Merton College, Oxford