Thomas Arthur Steitz (August 23, 1940 – October 9, 2018[2]) was an American biochemist, a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, best known for his pioneering work on the ribosome.
Steitz was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Ada Yonath "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".[3] Steitz also won the Gairdner International Award in 2007[4] "for his studies on the structure and function of the ribosome which showed that the peptidyl transferase (EC 2.3.2.12) was an RNA catalyzed reaction, and for revealing the mechanism of inhibition of this function by antibiotics".[5]
Education and career
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,[3] Steitz studied chemistry as an undergraduate at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating in 1962. In June 2010, the University renamed its chemistry building Thomas A. Steitz Hall of Science.[6]
He received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University in 1966 where he worked under the direction of subsequent 1976 chemistry Nobel Prize winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr. While at Harvard, after the training task of determining the structure of the small molecule methyl ethylene phosphate,[7] Steitz made contributions to determining the atomic structures of carboxypeptidase A (EC 3.4.17.1)[8] and aspartate carbamoyltransferase (EC 2.1.3.2),[9] each the largest atomic structure determined in its time.
Steitz did postdoctoral research as a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology during 1967–1970.
Steitz briefly held an assistant professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, but he resigned on the grounds that the institution would not accept his wife Joan into a faculty position because she was a woman.[10]
Both Tom and Joan Steitz instead joined the Yale faculty in 1970, where he continued to work on cellular and structural biology. Steitz and Peter Moore determined the atomic structure of the large 50S ribosomal subunit using X-ray crystallography, and published their findings in Science in 2000.[11] In 2009, Steitz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his ribosome research.
He was also a Macy Fellow at the University of Göttingen during 1976–1977 and a Fairchild Scholar at the California Institute of Technology during 1984–1985.[4]
Steitz was also one of the founders of a company, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, now Melinta Therapeutics for the development of new antibiotics based on the ribosome.
Honors
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)
Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2011[1][12]
Private life
He enjoyed skiing, hiking, and gardening.[13]
It should also be noted that Tom valued a good time. He always looked forward to department happy hours, wine tastings and any other excuse for a party. He hosted many wonderful Halloween parties at his home, always appropriately attire in costume.[14]
Steitz was married to Joan A. Steitz, a distinguished molecular biologist who is also a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. He lived with her in Branford, Connecticut and had one son, Jon, and two grandchildren, Adam and Maddy.[15] He died on October 9, 2018, of complications during treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Publications
Steitz, T. A., et al. "Determination of the Atomic-Resolution Crystal Structure of the Large Subunit from the Ribosome of Haloarcula marismortui;", nsls newsletter, (November 2000).
Steitz, T. A., et al. "The Atomic Resolution Crystal Structure of the Large Ribosomal Subunit from Haloarcula marismortui", NSLS Activity Report (2000).
See also
History of RNA biology
List of RNA biologists
References
"Foreign Members". Royal Society. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
Kolata, Gina (10 October 2018). "Thomas A. Steitz, 78, Dies; Illuminated a Building Block of Life". The New York Times.
2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Foundation.
Thomas Steitz, Thomas Steitz Lab.
Thomas A. Steitz, The Gairdner 50 Foundation.
"Lawrence To Honor Nobel Prize Winner with Building Renaming Ceremony on Friday". Lawrence University. 9 June 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
Steitz, T. A. and Lipscomb, W. N., "Molecular Structure of Methyl Ethylene Phosphate," J Am. Chem. Soc. 87, 2488 (1965).
Ludwig ML, Hartsuck JA, Steitz TA, Muirhead H, Coppola JC, Reeke GN, Lipscomb WN. The Structure of Carboxypeptidase A, IV. Prelimitary Results at 2.8 A Resolution, and a Substrate Complex at 6 A Resolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1967 March; 57(3): 511–514.
Steitz TA, Wiley DC, Lipscomb WN. The structure of aspartate transcarbamylase, I. A molecular twofold axis in the complex with cytidine triphosphate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1967 November; 58(5): 1859–1861.
Ferry, Georgina (2018-10-30). "Thomas A. Steitz (1940–2018)". Nature. 563 (7729): 36. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-07187-2. ISSN 0028-0836.
"Yale Researches Solve Structure of the Ribosome; Groundbreaking Achievement 'Like Climbing Mount Everest'". YaleNews. 10 August 2000. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
Ramakrishnan, V.; Henderson, Richard (2021). "Thomas Arthur Steitz. 23 August 1940—9 October 2018". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 72: 311–336. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2021.0029. S2CID 244731370.
"The Best Job Ever. Reflections On My Time with Tom Steitz, 1985–2018 by Peggy Eatheron". Structural Insights Into Gene Expression And Protein Synthesis. Series in Structural Biology—Volume 12. Singapore: World Scientific. 2020. pp. 29–31. ISBN 9789811215872.
Steitz, Thomas A. (2020). "The Best Job Ever. Reflections On My Time with Tom Steitz, 1985–2018 by Peggy Eatheron". Structural Insights Into Gene Expression And Protein Synthesis. World Scientific. pp. 29–31. ISBN 9789811215872. (quote from p. 31)
"Episode 28 – Thomas Steitz – A Nobel Profession – MIPtalk". Archived from the original on 2011-04-01. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas A. Steitz.
"Inquisitiveness of Milwaukee native leads to a Nobel Prize", The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Thomas Steitz – MIPtalk.com interview
Lawrence University Graduate Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Thomas A. Steitz on Nobelprize.org Edit this at Wikidata
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Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1901–1925
1901: Jacobus van 't Hoff 1902: Emil Fischer 1903: Svante Arrhenius 1904: William Ramsay 1905: Adolf von Baeyer 1906: Henri Moissan 1907: Eduard Buchner 1908: Ernest Rutherford 1909: Wilhelm Ostwald 1910: Otto Wallach 1911: Marie Curie 1912: Victor Grignard / Paul Sabatier 1913: Alfred Werner 1914: Theodore Richards 1915: Richard Willstätter 1916 1917 1918: Fritz Haber 1919 1920: Walther Nernst 1921: Frederick Soddy 1922: Francis Aston 1923: Fritz Pregl 1924 1925: Richard Zsigmondy
1926–1950
1926: Theodor Svedberg 1927: Heinrich Wieland 1928: Adolf Windaus 1929: Arthur Harden / Hans von Euler-Chelpin 1930: Hans Fischer 1931: Carl Bosch / Friedrich Bergius 1932: Irving Langmuir 1933 1934: Harold Urey 1935: Frédéric Joliot-Curie / Irène Joliot-Curie 1936: Peter Debye 1937: Norman Haworth / Paul Karrer 1938: Richard Kuhn 1939: Adolf Butenandt / Leopold Ružička 1940 1941 1942 1943: George de Hevesy 1944: Otto Hahn 1945: Artturi Virtanen 1946: James B. Sumner / John Northrop / Wendell Meredith Stanley 1947: Robert Robinson 1948: Arne Tiselius 1949: William Giauque 1950: Otto Diels / Kurt Alder
1951–1975
1951: Edwin McMillan / Glenn T. Seaborg 1952: Archer Martin / Richard Synge 1953: Hermann Staudinger 1954: Linus Pauling 1955: Vincent du Vigneaud 1956: Cyril Hinshelwood / Nikolay Semyonov 1957: Alexander Todd 1958: Frederick Sanger 1959: Jaroslav Heyrovský 1960: Willard Libby 1961: Melvin Calvin 1962: Max Perutz / John Kendrew 1963: Karl Ziegler / Giulio Natta 1964: Dorothy Hodgkin 1965: Robert Woodward 1966: Robert S. Mulliken 1967: Manfred Eigen / Ronald Norrish / George Porter 1968: Lars Onsager 1969: Derek Barton / Odd Hassel 1970: Luis Federico Leloir 1971: Gerhard Herzberg 1972: Christian B. Anfinsen / Stanford Moore / William Stein 1973: Ernst Otto Fischer / Geoffrey Wilkinson 1974: Paul Flory 1975: John Cornforth / Vladimir Prelog
1976–2000
1976: William Lipscomb 1977: Ilya Prigogine 1978: Peter D. Mitchell 1979: Herbert C. Brown / Georg Wittig 1980: Paul Berg / Walter Gilbert / Frederick Sanger 1981: Kenichi Fukui / Roald Hoffmann 1982: Aaron Klug 1983: Henry Taube 1984: Robert Merrifield 1985: Herbert A. Hauptman / Jerome Karle 1986: Dudley R. Herschbach / Yuan T. Lee / John Polanyi 1987: Donald J. Cram / Jean-Marie Lehn / Charles J. Pedersen 1988: Johann Deisenhofer / Robert Huber / Hartmut Michel 1989: Sidney Altman / Thomas Cech 1990: Elias Corey 1991: Richard R. Ernst 1992: Rudolph A. Marcus 1993: Kary Mullis / Michael Smith 1994: George Olah 1995: Paul J. Crutzen / Mario Molina / F. Sherwood Rowland 1996: Robert Curl / Harold Kroto / Richard Smalley 1997: Paul D. Boyer / John E. Walker / Jens Christian Skou 1998: Walter Kohn / John Pople 1999: Ahmed Zewail 2000: Alan J. Heeger / Alan MacDiarmid / Hideki Shirakawa
2001–present
2001: William Knowles / Ryoji Noyori / K. Barry Sharpless 2002: John B. Fenn / Koichi Tanaka / Kurt Wüthrich 2003: Peter Agre / Roderick MacKinnon 2004: Aaron Ciechanover / Avram Hershko / Irwin Rose 2005: Robert H. Grubbs / Richard R. Schrock / Yves Chauvin 2006: Roger D. Kornberg 2007: Gerhard Ertl 2008: Osamu Shimomura / Martin Chalfie / Roger Y. Tsien 2009: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan / Thomas A. Steitz / Ada E. Yonath 2010: Richard F. Heck / Akira Suzuki / Ei-ichi Negishi 2011: Dan Shechtman 2012: Robert Lefkowitz / Brian Kobilka 2013: Martin Karplus / Michael Levitt / Arieh Warshel 2014: Eric Betzig / Stefan Hell / William E. Moerner 2015: Tomas Lindahl / Paul L. Modrich / Aziz Sancar 2016: Jean-Pierre Sauvage / Fraser Stoddart / Ben Feringa 2017: Jacques Dubochet / Joachim Frank / Richard Henderson 2018: Frances Arnold / Gregory Winter / George Smith 2019: John B. Goodenough / M. Stanley Whittingham / Akira Yoshino 2020: Emmanuelle Charpentier / Jennifer Doudna 2021: David MacMillan / Benjamin List 2022: Carolyn R. Bertozzi / Morten P. Meldal / Karl Barry Sharpless 2023: Moungi G. Bawendi / Louis E. Brus / Alexei I. Ekimov
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