Thomas Steitz (University of Yale)

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Thomas Steitz - Prof. of Chemistry, University of Yale - was awarded an Honoris Causa on the 25th of June 2014.

Photo : Thomas Steitz © University of Yale
Thomas Steitz © University of Yale

Professor Sterling of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Chemistry professor at Yale University, researcher at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Thomas A. Steitz previously carried out his studies at Harvard.

For over 30 years, he has researched the structural bases and the process of how DNA is duplicated, transcripted into RNA and translated into proteins. His research is based on understanding the functioning of macromolecules according to their detailed structure, especially those involved in the fundamental theory of molecular biology formulated in 1958 by Francis Crick (co-discoverer of DNA's double helix structure). 

Research, collaboration, distinctions

Prof. Steitz received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United-Kingdom) and Ada E. Yonath (Weizmann Institute if Science, Israël) for their work on the structure and function of the ribosome. 

It was during a research seminar, organised at the Bordeaux European Institute of Chemistry and Biology (IECB) by the Bordeaux RNA club, that Thomas A. Steitz was reunited with a former post-doctoral student from his laboratory at the University of Yale, Axel Innis. This postdoctorate led to several joint publications in prestigious scientific reviews. Since early 2013, the IECB, directed by Dr Jean-Jacques Toulmé, has welcomed Dr Axel Innis as group leader. For the past few years therefore, the IECB collaborates closely with the laboratory of Prof. Steitz, in particular concerning the interactions of " bacterial ribosomes - emerging peptide" which may lead to important discoveries in the development of new antibiotics. 

The DHC for Prof. Steitz was proposed by Dr Jean-Jacques Toulmé, Director of the Bordeaux European Institute of Chemistry and Biology.