Residence Bethesda, Maryland Name Susan Gottesman | Thesis 1972 | |
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Born 19 May 1945 (age 78)
New York, New York ( 1945-05-19 ) Institutions National Institutes of Health Known for Bacterial small RNAs
Proteases and their function in ATP-hydrolysis.
Discovered central features of new family of proteases requiring energy for their function in the form of ATP-hydrolysis. Institution National Institutes of Health Alma mater Radcliffe College, Harvard University Fields Genetics, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology | ||
Susan Gottesman is microbiologist at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is a pioneer in the area of biological regulation in which enzymes that destroy specific other proteins, called proteases, play a central role inside the cell. In groundbreaking work, she discovered and elucidated the central features of a whole new family of proteases that require energy for their function in the form of ATP-hydrolysis. She has also played a major role in the discovery and characterization of bacterial small RNAs.
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Life
She was born on May 19, 1945, in New York. Her father was trained as an accountant and ran a company that made rotisseries and other small appliances. Her mother was a high school teacher and later became a guidance counselor.
Dr. Gottesman received a B.A. in biochemical sciences, in 1967, from Radcliffe College, and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Harvard University, in 1972. She did her postdoctoral training from 1971 to 1974 in NCI's Laboratory of Molecular Biology. From 1974 to 1976, she was a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before returning as a senior investigator to NCI’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Today she is co-chief of that Laboratory and head of its Biochemical Genetics Section.