{{Short description|American cell biologist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Randy Schekman | birth_name = Randy Wayne Schekman | image = Randy Shekman 01.JPG | image_size = | caption = Schekman in 2015 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|12|30|mf=y}} | birth_place = Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | field = | thesis_title = Resolution and reconstruction of a multienzyme DNA replication reaction | thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302775556 | thesis_year = 1975 | work_institutions = University of California, Berkeley<br/>UCLA<br/>Howard Hughes Medical Institute<br/>Stanford University | alma_mater = University of California, Los Angeles (BA)<br/>Stanford University (PhD) | doctoral_advisor = Arthur Kornberg | doctoral_students = David Julius<ref>{{cite web |url=http://physio.ucsf.edu/julius/julius.html |title=Julius Lab – David Julius |publisher=Physio.ucsf.edu |access-date=October 7, 2013}}</ref><br/> David Baker | known_for = Editor-in-chief of ''PNAS''<ref name="pnas"/> and ''eLife''<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Schekman | first1 = R. | last2 = Patterson | first2 = M. | doi = 10.7554/eLife.00855 | title = Reforming research assessment | journal = eLife | volume = 2 | article-number = e00855 | year = 2013 | pmid = 23700504| pmc =3656620 | doi-access = free }}</ref> | prizes = {{Plainlist| * Member of the National Academy of Sciences {{small|(1992)}} * Rosenstiel Award {{small|(1993)}} * Gairdner Foundation International Award {{small|(1996)}} * Lasker award {{small|(2002)}} * Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize {{small|(2002)}} * Massry Prize {{small|(2010)}} * E. B. Wilson Medal {{small|(2010)}} * ForMemRS {{small|(2013)}}<ref name="formemrs">{{cite web |url=http://royalsociety.org/people/randy-schekman |title=Professor Randy Schekman ForMemRS |publisher=Royalsociety.org |access-date=October 7, 2013}}</ref> * Nobel Prize in <br> Physiology or Medicine {{small|(2013)}}<ref name="nobel-profile">{{Cite journal | last1 = Wickner | first1 = W. T. | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1319309110 | title = Profile of Thomas Sudhof, James Rothman, and Randy Schekman, 2013 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | year = 2013 | pmid = 24158482 | pmc = 3832004| volume=110 | issue= 46 | pages= 18349–50 | bibcode = 2013PNAS..11018349W | doi-access = free }}</ref>}} | website = {{URL|http://mcb.berkeley.edu/labs/schekman}}<br/>{{URL|http://royalsociety.org/people/randy-schekman}} }} '''Randy Wayne Schekman''' (born December 30, 1948) is an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mcb.berkeley.edu/faculty/CDB/schekmanr.html |title=Randy Schekman: Howard Hughes Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology |access-date=July 12, 2011}}</ref> former editor-in-chief of ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' and former editor of ''Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology''.<ref name="pnas">{{Cite journal | last1 = Zagorski | first1 = N. | title = Profile of Randy Schekman: Reflections on his first year as PNAS Editor-in-Chief | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0610781105 | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 105 | issue = 8 | pages = 2763–2765 | year = 2008 | pmid = 18287009 | pmc =2268533 | bibcode = 2008PNAS..105.2763Z | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Bucci | first1 = M. | title = Randy Schekman | doi = 10.1038/nchembio1106-568 | journal = Nature Chemical Biology | volume = 2 | issue = 11 | pages = 568 | year = 2006 | pmid = 17051227 | s2cid = 40321085 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Zagorski | first1 = N. | title = QnAs with Randy Schekman | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0609700103 | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 103 | issue = 50 | pages = 18881 | year = 2006 | pmid = 17148596 | pmc =1748144 | bibcode = 2006PNAS..10318881Z | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev.cb.15.010199.100001|title=Preface by Randy Schekman|year=1999|last1=Schekman|first1=Randy|journal=Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology|volume=15 |article-number=annurev.cb.15.010199.100001 }}</ref> In 2011, he was announced as the editor of ''eLife'', a new high-profile open-access journal published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust, launching in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2011/WTVM052100.htm |title=New journal editor named as Randy Schekman | Wellcome Trust |access-date=July 12, 2011 |archive-date=October 11, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011172112/http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2011/WTVM052100.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992.{{cn|date=April 2026}} Schekman shared the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with James Rothman and Thomas C. Südhof for their ground-breaking work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking.<ref name="nobel"/><ref name="scopus">{{Scopus|id=7103412555}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Schekman was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Alfred Schekman, an electrical engineer and computer software designer and Esther (Bader) Schekman.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.startribune.com/not-a-prank-st-paul-native-lands-2013-nobel-prize-in-medicine/226771111/|title='Not a prank': St. Paul native lands 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine|website=Star Tribune|date=October 8, 2013 }}</ref> His family were Jewish emigrants from Russia and Bessarabia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2013/schekman/biographical/|title = The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013}}</ref> In the late 1950s his family moved to the new suburban community of Rossmoor, located in Orange County next to Long Beach.
He graduated from Western High School in Anaheim, California, in 1966.<ref>{{cite news|last=Marroquin|first=Art|title=Nobel Prize winner credits high school teacher|newspaper=Orange County Register|date=October 19, 2013|page=Local 7}}</ref> He received a BA in molecular biology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1971. He spent his third year at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, as an exchange student.<ref name="pnas"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Randy Schekman, molecular biologist and UCLA alumnus, wins 2013 Nobel Prize|url=http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/randy-schekman-molecular-biologist-248784.aspx|publisher=University of California, Los Angeles|access-date=October 8, 2013}}</ref> He received a PhD in 1975 from Stanford University for research on DNA replication, working with Arthur Kornberg.<ref name="schekphd">{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Randy Wayne|last=Schekman |title=Resolution and Reconstruction of a multienzyme DNA replication reaction (1975) |publisher=Stanford University |date=1975 |id={{ProQuest|302775556}}}}</ref> After joining the faculty at University of California Berkeley, he was promoted to associate professor in 1981, and professor in 1984.{{cn|date=November 2024}}
==Research and career== Since 1991, Schekman has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/schekman.html |title=HHMI Scientist Abstract: Randy W. Schekman, Ph.D. |access-date=July 12, 2011 |archive-date=May 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513220549/http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/schekman.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, at the University of California, Berkeley. The Schekman Lab at that university carries out research into molecular descriptions of the process of membrane assembly and vesicular traffic<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Schekman | first1 = R. | author-link = Randy Schekman | last2 = Orci | first2 = L. | doi = 10.1126/science.271.5255.1526 | title = Coat Proteins and Vesicle Budding | journal = Science | volume = 271 | issue = 5255 | pages = 1526–1533 | year = 1996 | pmid = 8599108| bibcode = 1996Sci...271.1526S | s2cid = 30752342 }}</ref> in eukaryotic cells<ref>{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Randy+Schekman |title=Randy Schekman publications in Google Scholar |access-date=July 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Deshaies | first1 = R. J. | last2 = Koch | first2 = B. D. | last3 = Werner-Washburne | first3 = M. | last4 = Craig | first4 = E. A. | last5 = Schekman | first5 = R. | author-link5 = Randy Schekman| title = A subfamily of stress proteins facilitates translocation of secretory and mitochondrial precursor polypeptides | doi = 10.1038/332800a0 | journal = Nature | volume = 332 | issue = 6167 | pages = 800–805 | year = 1988 | pmid = 3282178| bibcode = 1988Natur.332..800D | s2cid = 39993735 }}</ref> including yeast.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Novick | first1 = P. | last2 = Field | first2 = C. | last3 = Schekman | first3 = R. | author-link3 = Randy Schekman| doi = 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90128-2 | title = Identification of 23 complementation groups required for post-translational events in the yeast secretory pathway | journal = Cell | volume = 21 | issue = 1 | pages = 205–215 | year = 1980 | pmid = 6996832| doi-access = free }}</ref> Before that, he was a faculty member with the now disbanded{{cn|date=May 2026}} Department of Biochemistry at the same university.
===Awards and honors=== In 1987 Schekman received the Eli Lilly Award in Microbiology. In 1992, he was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.<ref name=nasmember>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/62042.html|title=Randy W. Schekman|website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> In 2002, Schekman received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Malhotra | first1 = V. | last2 = Emr | first2 = S. D. | title = Rothman and Schekman SNAREd by Lasker for trafficking | journal = Cell | volume = 111 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–3 | year = 2002 | pmid = 12372293 | doi=10.1016/S0092-8674(02)01008-5 | s2cid = 16018931 | doi-access = free }}</ref> and Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University, along with James Rothman, for their discovery of cellular membrane trafficking, a process that cells use to organize their activities and communicate with their environment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/research/horwitz-prize/prize-awardees|title=Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize Awardees|access-date=October 13, 2013}}</ref> In 2008, he was named the first Miller Senior Fellow of the Miller Institute at the University of California Berkeley. That same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Randy+Wayne+Schekman&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=May 3, 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> He was awarded the Massry Prize by the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, in 2010. Schekman serves as a member of the Selection Committee and then as chair of Life Science and Medicine which chooses winners of the Shaw Prize.
Schekman was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2013. His nomination reads:
{{quote|text=Using a brilliantly conceived genetic screen, Schekman isolated sec mutants that accumulate secretory pathway intermediates, he cloned the corresponding genes and he established biochemical reactions that faithfully reproduced specific secretory pathway events. These studies transformed the secretion field, previously descriptive and morphological, into a molecular and mechanistic one. The cell-free reactions that Schekman established led to his isolation of the Sec61 translocation complex, the (COPII) vesicle coat complex, and the first purified inter-organelle transport vesicles. The Sec proteins are strikingly conserved and the trafficking mechanisms that Schekman discovered are at the heart of neurotransmission, hormone secretion, cholesterol homeostasis and metabolic regulation.<ref name="formemrs"/>}}
Schekman, Thomas C. Südhof, and James Rothman were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells".<ref name="nobel">{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2013/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=October 7, 2013}}</ref> Schekman donated his share of the prize money, $400,000, to create an endowment for the Esther and Wendy Schekman Chair in Basic Cancer Biology at UC Berkeley. Schekman's mother and sister, for whom the post is named, both died of cancer.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/ac4302da-421b-11e3-bb85-00144feabdc0 |title=US biologist Randy Schekman on being a Nobel Prize winner|newspaper=Financial Times|date=November 8, 2013 |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>
In 2017, Schekman received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}</ref>
In 2021, Schekman was elected honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, with which he has been collaborating since 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |last=MoldovaLive |date=September 19, 2023 |title=Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman Visits Moldova, Celebrates its Roots, and Academic Collaboration |url=https://moldovalive.md/nobel-laureate-randy-schekman-visits-moldova-celebrates-its-roots-and-academic-collaboration/ |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=Moldova |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2023, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa at ''Nicolae Testemitanu'' State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Republic of Moldova.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Professor Randy Schekman, Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine, has become Doctor Honoris Causa of "Nicolae Testemitanu" State University of Medicine and Pharmacy |url=https://usmf.md/en/noutati/professor-randy-schekman-nobel-prize-laureate-medicine-has-become-doctor-honoris-causa |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=usmf.md |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=PHOTO USMF |url=https://www.moldpres.md/en/news/2023/09/19/23007320 |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=www.moldpres.md |language=en}}</ref>
==Open-access science== In December 2013, Schekman called for academic journal publishing reform and open access science publication by announcing that his lab at the University of California, Berkeley would no longer submit to the prestigious closed-access journals ''Nature'', ''Cell'', and ''Science'', citing their self-serving and deleterious effects on science.<ref name="9Dec2013Sample">{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals |title=Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals |first=Ian |last=Sample |work=theguardian.com |date=December 9, 2013 |access-date=December 16, 2013}}</ref> He has criticized these journals for artificially restricting the number of publications accepted to drive up demand.<ref name="9Dec2013Sample"/> In addition, Schekman says the journals accept papers that will be cited often, increasing the prestige of the journal, rather than those which demonstrate important results.<ref name="9Dec2013Sample"/> He has said the prestige and difficulty of publishing in these journals sometimes cause scientists to cut corners or pursue trends, rather than conduct research on important questions. Schekman is the former editor of ''eLife'', an open access journal and competitor to ''Nature'', ''Cell'', and ''Science''.<ref name="9Dec2013Sample"/> Papers are accepted into ''eLife'' based on review by working scientists.<ref name="9Dec2013Sample"/> Access to accepted papers is free.<ref name="9Dec2013Sample"/>
== Parkinson's disease == In the fall of 2017, Schekman's wife, Nancy Walls, died after a 20-year struggle with Parkinson's disease. Near the end of this period, Schekman was enlisted to serve as the scientific director of a new effort called ASAP,<ref>[https://parkinsonsroadmap.org/# ASAP]</ref> aimed at organizing an international program of collaborative research on the origins and mechanisms of progression of Parkinson's disease. In cooperation with The Michael J. Fox Foundation and major philanthropic support, ASAP had grown by 2022 to involve 35 teams across 165 laboratories around the world. The goal of ASAP is bridge the talents of hundreds of scientists to develop novel insights leading to more effective treatments of this disease.
== See also == * List of Jewish Nobel laureates
==References== {{reflist|30em}} ==External links== {{Commons category|Randy Schekman}} {{Scholia|author}} * {{Nobelprize}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schekman, Randy}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Category:American Nobel laureates Category:American biochemists Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society Category:Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Category:Jewish American scientists Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Stanford University alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:Massry Prize recipients Category:Open access activists Category:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America editors Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Annual Reviews (publisher) editors Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Jewish Nobel laureates Category:American fellows of the Royal Society