Richard Losick

{{Short description|American molecular biologist}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Richard Losick.jpg | birth_name = | birth_date = 1943 | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | fields = Molecular Biology | workplaces = Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute | education = Princeton University, MIT | known_for = Investigating endospore formation in Gram positive organisms | awards = National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Microbiology, American Philosophical Society, Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology }}'''Richard Pero Losick''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|oʊ|s|ɪ|k}} {{Respell|LOH|sik}};<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgAbRc0T2po |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211218/PgAbRc0T2po |archive-date=2021-12-18 |url-status=live|title=Richard Losick (Harvard) Part 3: Stochasticity and Cell Fate|website=YouTube |accessdate=7 September 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> born 1943) is an American molecular biologist. He is the Emeritus Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Biology at Harvard University<ref name=HarvardProfile>{{cite web|url=https://www.mcb.harvard.edu/mcb/faculty/profile/richard-m-losick/ |accessdate=29 October 2016 |title=Faculty Profile: Richard M Losick |publisher=Harvard University}}</ref> and was from 2002 to 2024 a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.<ref name="HHMI">{{cite web|url=http://www.hhmi.org/scientists/richard-m-losick |accessdate=29 October 2016 |title=Our Scientists: Richard M. Losick, PhD |publisher=Howard Hughes Medical Institute}}</ref> He is especially noted for his investigations of endospore formation in Gram positive organisms such as ''Bacillus subtilis''.

== Education and career == Losick received his AB in Chemistry from Princeton University in 1965, and his PhD in biochemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 working under supervision of Phillips Robbins.<ref name=iBio>{{cite web|url=https://www.ibiology.org/ibioseminars/microbiology/richard-losick-part-1.html |accessdate=29 October 2016 |title=Richard Losick: Developmental Biology of a Simple Organism - Speaker Bio |publisher=iBiology}}</ref><ref name="Losick 2022">{{cite journal|last1=Losick|first1=Richard|title=Richard Losick|journal=Current Biology|date=April 2022|volume=32|issue=7|pages=PR298-R299|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.011|pmid=35413250}}</ref> Following his graduate studies, Losick was named a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows, and there initially worked in the laboratory of Jack L. Strominger.<ref name="Losick 2022"/> He joined the Harvard faculty in 1972.<ref name=cc2000>{{cite web|url=https://news.cornellcollege.edu/2000/09/harvard-biologist-lectures-as-phi-beta-kappa-visiting-scholar/|title=Harvard biologist lectures as Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar|date=6 September 2000|website=Cornell College News Center|publisher=Cornell College|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> He has held the position of chairman in the Departments of Cellular and Developmental Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology.<ref name=gaird/> Along with Daniel Kahne, Robert Lue, and Susan Mango, he teaches Life Sciences 1a, an introductory biology and chemistry course, which was the fourth largest lecture course taught at Harvard College in 2015.<ref name=crimson2015>{{cite news|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/14/ec10-cs50-largest-enrollments/|title=Ec 10 and CS50 Compete for Largest Enrollment Numbers|last=Rodman|first=Melissa C.|publisher=The Harvard Crimson|date=14 September 2015|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref>

== Research == Losick's research interests include RNA polymerase, sigma factors, regulation of gene transcription, and bacterial development. He is known for his studies of asymmetric division in ''Bacillus subtilis'', which divides to form one endospore and one nurturing cell.<ref name=gaird/> Currently, Losick studies biofilm formation by the opportunistic pathogen ''Staphylococcus aureus''. His research group has demonstrated that chromosomal DNA is recycled to form an electrostatic extracellular net in order to hold neighboring bacterial cells together.<ref name="research">{{cite web|url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/rlosick/pages/research|title=Research|website=Richard Losick|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> Notable trainees include Robert Tjian.

== Awards and honors == * Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (1973)<ref name=dreyfus>{{cite web|url=https://www.dreyfus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/camille-past.pdf|title=Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Past Awards|website=Dreyfus Foundation|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> * Member, National Academy of Sciences (1992)<ref name=nas>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/62035.html|title=Richard M. Losick|website=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> * Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996)<ref name=aaas96>{{cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/academy/multimedia/pdfs/publications/bookofmembers/ChapterL.pdf|title=Book of Members 1780-2017, Chapter L|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> * Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1998)<ref name=aaas98>{{cite web|url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic|title=Historic Fellows|website=American Association for the Advancement of Science|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> * Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology (elected prior to 2000)<ref name=gaird/>{{when|year unknown|date=April 2019}} * Visiting Fellow, Phi Beta Kappa (2000)<ref name=cc2000/> * Member, American Philosophical Society (2005)<ref name=aps05>{{cite web|url=https://mcbpublic.unix.fas.harvard.edu/mcb/news/news-detail/3347/richard-losick-elected-to-american-philosophical-society/|title=Richard Losick Elected to American Philosophical Society|last=Hopkin|first=Karen|date=13 June 2005|website=Harvard Molecular & Cellular Biology|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> * Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology, National Academy of Sciences (2007)<ref name=Waksman>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/waksman-award-in-microbiology.html|title=Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> * Gairdner Foundation International Award (2009)<ref name=gaird>{{cite web|url=https://gairdner.org/award_winners/richard-losick/|title=Richard Losick|website=Les Prix Canada Gairdner Awards|access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref> * Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Columbia University (2012)<ref name=Horwitz>{{cite web|url=https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/research/louisa-gross-horwitz-prize/horwitz-prize-awardees|title=Horwitz Prize Awardees|website=Columbia University Medical Center|date=20 June 2018 |access-date=22 April 2019}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.techtransfer.harvard.edu/crop/investigators/investigator.php?id=101 Research Summary & Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120416194234/http://www.techtransfer.harvard.edu/crop/investigators/investigator.php?id=101 |date=2012-04-16 }}, Harvard University *[http://www.hhmi.org/research/professors/losick_bio.html Biography of Richard M. Losick] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202094953/http://www.hhmi.org/research/professors/losick_bio.html |date=2009-02-02 }} on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Losick, Richard}} Category:Living people Category:1943 births Category:Princeton University alumni Category:MIT School of Science alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society