# Thomas Sakmar

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**Thomas P. Sakmar** (born 1956) is an American [physician-scientist](/source/Physician-scientist) and the former acting president of [The Rockefeller University](/source/The_Rockefeller_University).[2] Prior to becoming acting president he was associate dean for graduate studies in the [Tri-Institutional MD–PhD Program](/source/Tri-Institutional_MD%E2%80%93PhD_Program).

Sakmar earned his A.B. in chemistry from [University of Chicago](/source/University_of_Chicago) and in 1982 received his [M.D.](/source/M.D.) from [University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine](/source/University_of_Chicago_Pritzker_School_of_Medicine). He carried out clinical training in internal medicine at [Massachusetts General Hospital](/source/Massachusetts_General_Hospital) and postdoctoral training with [H. Gobind Khorana](/source/H._Gobind_Khorana) at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology) before starting the laboratory of molecular biology and biochemistry at [The Rockefeller University](/source/The_Rockefeller_University) in 1990.

With 200 peer-reviewed research articles[3] he is best known for his work on spectral tuning[4] in [photopigments](/source/Photopigments) and for developing drug discovery methods[5] targeting [G protein-coupled receptors](/source/G_protein-coupled_receptor). He has been a senior fellow[6] of the [Ellison Medical Foundation](/source/Ellison_Medical_Foundation), an investigator [7] of the [Howard Hughes Medical Institute](/source/Howard_Hughes_Medical_Institute), the [Marie Krogh](/source/Marie_Krogh) Visiting Professor at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the [University of Copenhagen](/source/University_of_Copenhagen) as well as guest professor at the [Karolinska Institute](/source/Karolinska_Institute) in [Stockholm, Sweden](/source/Stockholm,_Sweden).

In 2020 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) from Karolinska Institute.[8]

## References

1. ["Thomas P. Sakmar receives 2020 honorary doctorate from Karolinska Institute"](https://news.ki.se/pascale-cossart-sven-hagstromer-and-thomas-sakmar-appointed-honorary-doctors-at-ki-2020?_ga=2.195751214.324701738.1587237457-1651733068.1587091924). *[Karolinska Institutet](/source/Karolinska_Institutet)*. Retrieved 15 April 2020.

1. Arenson, Karen W. (12 February 2002). ["Thomas P. Sakmar assumes office as the university's acting president"](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/12/nyregion/rockefeller-researcher-chosen-as-university-s-acting-president.html). *The New York Times*. Retrieved 1 September 2016.

1. ["Bibliography for Thomas P. Sakmar"](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1uX0rugAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao). *scholar.google.com*. Retrieved 19 April 2020.

1. Kochendoerfer, Gerd G.; Lin, Steven W.; Sakmar, Thomas P.; Mathies, Richard A. (August 1999). "How color visual pigments are tuned". *Trends in Biochemical Sciences*. **24** (8): 300–305. [doi:10.1016/S0968-0004(99)01432-2](https://doi.org/10.1016/S0968-0004(99)01432-2). [PMID 10431173](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10431173)

1. Ellis, Clare (July 2004). "The state of GPCR research in 2004". *Nature Reviews Drug Discovery*. **3** (7): 577–626. [doi:10.1038/nrd1458](https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd1458). [PMID 15272499](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15272499). [S2CID 33620092](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:33620092)

1. ["Ellison Medical Foundation, Senior Scholar Award in Aging of the Visual System"](http://www.ellisonmedicalfoundation.com/content/chromophore-regeneration-pathway-age-related-macular-degeneration)

1. ["HHMI Alumni: Thomas P. Sakmar, MD"](https://www.hhmi.org/scientists/thomas-p-sakmar). *HHMI.org*

1. ["Honorary Doctors at Karolinska Institute"](https://ki.se/en/about/honorary-doctors-at-karolinska-institutet?_ga=2.264201996.1000289623.1587312604-624490495.1583430254). *[Karolinska Institutet](/source/Karolinska_Institutet)*. Retrieved 15 April 2020.

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