Biography
James A. Spudich ( / ˈ s p ʊ d ɪ tʃ / [ 1 ] ) is an American scientist and professor. He is the Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of Biochemistry and of Cardiovascular Disease at Stanford University and works on the molecular basis of muscle contraction. He was awarded the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2012 with Michael Sheetz and Ronald Vale . He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences . Spudich was born in Benld , Illinois of Croatian ancestry. [ 2 ] He earned his B.S. in chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , where he worked in John Woodland Hastings 's lab on the topic of bioluminescence , and helped Hastings teach in the physiology course at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole . He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford University under the guidance from Arthur Kornberg . He later did his postdoctoral research at Stanford University with Charles Yanofsky and at MRC in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology with Hugh Huxley . [ 3 ] His research is focused on studying molecular motors particularly myosin . With Huxley, he started working on an actin/myosin/ ATP model for molecular motors, [ 4 ] [ 5 ] proposing that myosin would ratchet actin and exert a stroke. [ 6 ] Spudich first attempted to create an in vitro setup with actin and myosin. However, he faced great difficulty aligning actin filaments. [ 3 ] In 1982 he and Michael Sheetz started to work on the alga Nitella , which has long oriented actin fibers, and observed myosin coated beads moving along actin filaments. [ 7 ] This provided strong clues about the molecular transport of intracellular cargo, later refined to observing a single step of a single myosin molecule. [ 8 ] His research and its place in the overall development of the motility field has been described in a number of well-cited review articles. [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] Fields: Biochemistry, Biophysics
About the Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels."
Quick Facts
- Award: Lasker Award - Basic Medical Research
- Added: 2026-02-07
- Source: Wikipedia
- Established: 1946
- Presented by: Lasker Foundation