Biography
Peter Walter (born December 5, 1954) is a German-American molecular biologist and biochemist . He is currently the Director of the Bay Area Institute of Science at Altos Labs and an emeritus professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). [ 2 ] [ 3 ] He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator until 2022. Walter was born and raised in West Berlin in 1954. His parents owned a pharmacy , and he was drawn to chemistry at a young age. [ 4 ] He entered the Free University of Berlin in 1973 to study chemistry, but the rigid way of teaching science did not engage him. Instead, Walter became interested in biochemistry , which studies the chemistry of cells . [ 4 ] [ 5 ] In the last year of his Vordiplom (equivalent to a BSc ) in 1976, he went on exchange to Vanderbilt University and conducted research under Thomas M. Harris at the Department of Chemistry on the biosynthetic pathway of slaframine , a fungal alkaloid that is toxic to cows . [ 6 ] Eventually, Walter completed his M.S. at Vanderbilt in 1977. [ 1 ] Fields: Molecular biology, Biochemistry Education: Free University of Berlin Vordiplom Vanderbilt University MS Rockefeller University PhD [
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