Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.

Daniel E. Koshland

Koshland in 1991
Born March 30, 1920
New York City
Died July 23, 2007 (aged 87)
Lafayette, California
Fields Biochemistry
Institutions University of California at Berkeley
Alma mater University of California at Berkeley (B.S., 1941)
University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1949)
Known for Induced fit model
Notable awards National Medal of Science (1990), Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award (1998)
Spouse Marian Elliot Koshland (until her death)
Yvonne Cyr San Jule
Children with Elliot:
--Ellen Koshland
--Phyllis Koshland
--James Koshland
--Gail Koshland
--Douglas Koshland

Daniel Edward Koshland, Jr. (March 30, 1920 – July 23, 2007) was an American biochemist. He reorganized the study of biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the editor of the leading US science journal, Science, from 1985 to 1995. He was a Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.[1]

Early life

Koshland is one of three children born to a Jewish family, the son of Daniel E. Koshland, Sr. and Eleanor Haas, daughter of the Haas family patriarch Abraham Haas.[2] He has two siblings: Frances "Sissy" Koshland Geballe and Phyllis Koshland Friedman.[2] His father served as CEO of Levi Strauss & Company from 1955 to 1958[2] and is widely credited with saving the company during the Great Depression.[3]

Koshland's private fortune, derived from Levi Strauss, put him on lists of America's wealthiest men. However, he chose not to tap in to the fortune and instead went to school to learn a different trade.

Research career

Attending Philips Exeter Academy[4] for high school Koshland then became the third generation of his family to matriculate to the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) where he majored in chemistry. The next five years, 1941–46, were spent working with Glenn Seaborg at the University of Chicago on the top-secret Manhattan project, where his team purified the plutonium that was used to make the atomic bomb at Los Alamos.[5]

In 1949, he received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago.[6] His early work was in enzyme kinetics at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, and Rockefeller University, New York. This led him to propose the induced fit model for enzyme catalysis. After this advance, he turned to studying how bacteria control their movements in chemotaxis. Dr. Koshland's laboratory made three major discoveries concerning protein phosphorylation in bacteria. (1) The first phosphorylated bacterial protein, isocitrate dehydrogenase, was identified.[7] (2) It was demonstrated that substituting an aspartate residue for the serine residue that was phosphorylated causes the protein to behave as if it were phosphorylated.[8] (3) The response regulators in the two-component regulatory systems were shown to be phosphorylated on an aspartate residue and to be protein phosphatases with a covalent intermediate.[9][10]

He spearheaded the reorganization of the biological sciences at Berkeley, merging 11 departments into three.[11] Koshland Hall is named for Dan E. Koshland Jr. The building is located next to (and on some floors connected to) Barker Hall. Koshland Hall houses a number of laboratories in both Molecular and Cell Biology as well as Plant and Microbial Biology. The basement has a storeroom that serves all of campus.

Koshland wrote in an autobiographical article that he decided to become a scientist in the eighth grade after reading two popular books about science, Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif and Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis.[12]

In 1998, Koshland was awarded the Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award given by the Lasker Foundation for medical research in the United States.[13] In 2008, the award was renamed the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science in honor of Koshland.[14]

Personal life

He was married to Marian (née Elliot) Koshland, a fellow UC Berkeley Professor, from 1946 until her death in 1997. Marian was a gentile, the daughter of a teacher who had immigrated from Denmark and a hardware salesman father of Southern Baptist background.[15] They had 5 children: Ellen Koshland, Phyllis Koshland, James Koshland, Gail Koshland, and Douglas Koshland.[16] After his wife's death in 1997 he reconnected with onetime classmate Yvonne Cyr San Jule and they were married in August 2000.[17] One of his sons, Douglas Koshland is currently a professor at UC Berkeley.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Schekman R (2007). "The nine lives of Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. (1920 2007)". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (37): 14551–2. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707644104. PMC 1976236. PMID 17720803.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Butler Koshland Fellowships: "Daniel E. Koshland, Sr. retrieved April 21, 2014
  3. ↑ JWeekly: "Daniel Koshland, biologist and philanthropist, dies at 87" by Joe Eskenazi July 27, 2007
  4. ↑ "Phillips Exeter Academy | Dr. Daniel E. Koshland '37 to Receive the John Phillips Award". Exeter.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  5. ↑ "Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science". laskerfoundation.org. The Lasker Foundation. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
  6. ↑ "Remembrances: Daniel E. Koshland Jr. (1920 - 2007)". The Wall Street Journal. July 28, 2007.
  7. ↑ "The reversible phosphorylation of isocitrate dehydrogenase of Salmonella typhimurium". Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 218: 59–67. 1982-10-01. doi:10.1016/0003-9861(82)90321-6.
  8. ↑ "Inactivation of isocitrate dehydrogenase by phosphorylation is mediated by the negative charge of the phosphate.". J Biol Chem 262: 10422–5. 2013-03-25. PMID 3112144.
  9. ↑ http://www.jbc.org/content/264/36/21770.full.pdf
  10. ↑ "Phosphorylation site of NtrC, a protein phosphatase whose covalent intermediate activates transcription". J Bacteriol 174: 5117–22. 2013-03-25. PMC 206329. PMID 1321122.
  11. ↑ Sanders, Robert (July 24, 2007). "Eminent biochemist Daniel Koshland has died". UC Berkeley News.
  12. ↑ Koshland D (1996). "How to Get Paid for Having Fun". Annu. Rev. Biochem. 65: 1–13. doi:10.1146/annurev.bi.65.070196.000245. PMID 8811172.
  13. ↑ "1998 Winners Award Description".
  14. ↑ "Discoverers of Small Regulatory RNAs and Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs to Receive Lasker Awards for Medical Research". MarketWatch. 2008-09-13. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  15. ↑ Guyer, Ruth Levy. "Marian E. Koshland Biographical Memoir". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
  16. ↑ Thomas H. Maugh II (2007, July 26). "Obituaries - Daniel Koshland Jr., 87; UC Berkeley molecular biologist, editor of the journal Science," Los Angeles Times, accessed 12 Nov 2009.
  17. ↑ Sanders, Robert (2007-07-24). "Eminent biochemist Daniel Koshland has died". berkeley.edu. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 2013-07-06.