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Nobel Laureates Lee Hartwell and H. Robert Horvitz Are SOT 2008 Honorary Members
SOT is pleased to induct Lee Hartwell and H. Robert Horvitz as Honorary Members of the Society. Dr. Hartwell is the Plenary Opening Lecturer at the 2008 SOT Annual Meeting; view the article on his accomplishments.
Pioneering studies by Dr. Horvitz have made him one of the central figures in research on programmed cell death. He discovered key genes that control cell death in C. elegans, the tiny transparent worm made up of fewer than 1,000 cells. For this work and for his studies concerning organ development in C. elegans, he won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, an award he shared with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston, whose studies made important related contributions. Dr. Horvitz is David H. Koch Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Neurobiologist and Geneticist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
He has identified many additional genes that act in programmed cell death. His apoptosis studies may improve the understanding of neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that killed Dr. Horvitz’s father in 1989. In collaboration with others, Dr. Horvitz identified a gene involved in the inherited form of ALS, and he also is pursuing other genes involved in the disease. He has stated, “My hope is that my discoveries will one day lead to advances in medicine that alleviate human suffering and contribute to the world in ways that will benefit mankind.”
While he is perhaps best known for apoptosis research, for many years he has turned his attention to understanding how genes control other aspects of development and also behavior, revealing specific pathways shared by both worms and humans that are involved in a variety of human diseases.
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