Charles David Allis
Charles David Allis | |
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Born | March 22, 1951 |
Fields | epigenetics |
Institutions |
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Alma mater |
Charles David Allis (born March 22, 1951) is an American molecular biologist, and is currently the Joy and Jack Fishman Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics at The Rockefeller University. In pursuit of understanding the DNA-histone protein complex and the intricate system which allows for gene activation, the Allis lab focuses on chromatin signaling via histone modifications - acetylation, methylation and phosphorylation. Allis is best known for deciphering regulatory mechanisms that impinge upon the fundamental repeating unit of chromatin and for identifying the responsible enzyme systems that govern the covalent modifications of histone proteins, the principal components that organize chromatin. Allis discovered the critical link, through histone acetyltransferase-containing transcriptional coactivators, between targeted histone acetylation and gene-specific transcriptional activation. In further studies, he linked histone phosphorylation events to mitosis and mitogen action, established a synergy between histone phosphorylation and acetylation events and elaborated the ‘histone code hypothesis’ (and extensions thereof), one of the most highly cited theories governing epigenetics.
Education
- University of Cincinnati, B.S., summa cum laude, Biology, 1973
- Indiana University, Ph.D., Biology, 1978, "Isolation and characterization of pole cells and polar granules from Drosophila melanogaster,"
- University of Rochester, Postdoctoral fellowship, 1978-1981
Honors & Awards
- Phi Beta Kappa
- 2001: Election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2001: DeWitt Stetten Jr. Award Recipient, sponsored by the Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH
- 2002: Dickson Prize in Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
- 2003: Massry Prize in Chromatin and Transcription (shared with Drs. Michael Grunstein and Roger Kornberg)
- 2004: Wiley Prize for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences
- 2005: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences,
- 2007: Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Cincinnati
- 2007: Gairdner Foundation International Award
- 2008: ASBMB-Merck Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences
- 2011: Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research (shared with Dr. Michael Grunstein), Brandeis University
- 2011: Howard T. Ricketts Prize for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences, University of Chicago
- 2013: Nicholson Award Lecturer at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- 2014: Japan Prize[1]
- 2014: Charles-Léopold Mayer Prize of the Académie des Sciences, France
- 2015: Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
- 2016: Gruber Prize in Genetics from the Rockefeller Foundation (jointly with Michael Grunstein) [2]
Notes
- ↑ Philippidis 2014
- ↑ http://gruber.yale.edu/prize/2016-gruber-genetics-prize
References
- Philippidis, Alex (2014). "Rockefeller Professor Wins Japan Prize". Gen. Eng. Biotechnol. News (paper). 34 (4): 7.
...for the pioneering work of his lab in discovering that chemical modifications of DNA-packaging proteins play a key role in regulating the activity of individual genes.
External links
- Allis Lab at The Rockefeller University
- National Academy of Sciences Profile of C. David Allis
- ISI Highly Cited Researchers