Prof. Arthur Horwich Yale University, USA

Arthur Horwich attended Brown University's 6-year med program, trained in Pediatrics at Yale, joined Walter Eckhart and Tony Hunter at the Salk Institute to train in molecular tumor virology, returned to Yale to train in Medical Genetics, carried out postdoctoral work with Leon Rosenberg on ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC), and then... read morejoined the Yale faculty in Genetics. Studies of OTC biogenesis led to studies of its normal import into mitochondria using a yeast system, and during these studies a genetic mutant was identified that affected the folding of proteins imported into mitochondria, involving Hsp60/GroEL. Horwich's group has studied the chaperonin system ever since, applying genetic, biochemical, and biophysical tools to understand mechanism. Along with Professor Ulrich Hartl, Dr Horwich was received 2011 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.