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Dr. Lindquist is also Member and former Director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to this she was Albert D. Lasker Professor of Medical Sciences in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago. She received her undergraduate degree in microbiology from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University. Dr. Lindquist was recently honored with the Stein and Moore Award from the Protein Society, the Otto Warburg Prize from the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the Genetics Society of America Medal. In 2007, she was awarded the Nevada Silver Medal for Scientific Achievement. Dr. Lindquist is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
RESEARCH ABSTRACT SUMMARY:
Susan Lindquist's pioneering work in protein folding has demonstrated that alternative protein conformations have profound and unexpected effects in fields as wide ranging as human disease, evolution, and biomaterials. Her work on yeast prions has provided evidence for a mechanism of protein-only inheritance and contributed to a structural understanding of amyloid fiber formation. She has shown that molecular chaperones can influence the expression and evolution of new traits by chaperoning the folding of key players in signal transduction pathways. Her group has also developed yeast models to study protein-folding transitions in neurodegenerative diseases and to test therapeutic strategies.
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Photo: Justin Knight
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