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Harvey F. Lodish

Professor of Biology and Professor of Biological Engineering, M.I.T. Founding Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Major works

  • Lodish, H. F., A. Berk, C. Kaiser, M. Krieger, M. Scott, A. Bretscher, H. Ploegh, A. Amon, and K. Martin Molecular Cell Biology, 8th ed. W. H.. Freeman and Company, N.Y. (2016).
  • Lodish, H. Reflections, Translational Control of Protein Synthesis: The Early Years. J. Biol. Chem. 287: 36528 - 36535 (2012)
  • Lodish, H. Cloning Expeditions: Risky but Rewarding. Mol Cell Biol. 33:4620 – 4627 (2013).
  • Lodish, H., Fifty years of mentoring and advising. Molecular Biology of the Cell 28: 2908-2910 (2017).

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About me

Dr. Lodish received his A.B. degree Summa Cum Laude and with Highest Honors in Chemistry and Highest Honors in Mathematics from Kenyon College in 1962, and his Ph.D. degree in genetics from the Rockefeller University in 1966. Following two years of postdoctoral research at the M.R.C. Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, he joined the faculty of the MIT Department of Biology. He was promoted to Professor in 1976, and in 1983 was appointed Founding Member of the new Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. In 1999 he also became Professor of Biological Engineering in the new MIT Department of Bioengineering.

Dr. Lodish is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Associate (Foreign) Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. Dr. Lodish is a member of the Board of Trustees of Boston Children’s Hospital and from 2008 to 2016 he was the Founding Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the group charged with oversight of the state’s 10- year $1 billion investment in the life sciences. He was a founder and scientific advisory board member of several companies including Genzyme, Inc., Arris Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and has served on the scientific advisory boards of numerous biopharmaceutical companies. Dr. Lodish is the lead author of the textbook Molecular Cell Biology ; the eighth edition was published in April 2016; the book has been translated into 12 languages. During 2004 Dr. Lodish served as President of the American Society for Cell Biology.