Dr mark ptashne biography

American molecular biologist

Mark Ptashne (born June 5, 1940, in Chicago) is a molecular biologist. He is the Ludwig Chair of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Template:TOCnestleft Mark Ptashne (born , Chicago) is a prominent biochemist and left wing activist.

Template:TOCnestleft Mark Ptashne (born , Chicago) is a prominent biochemist and left wing activist.

Ptashne is the Renaissance man of Harvard's molecular and cellular biology department.

Ptashne grew up in Chicago.

Biographical / Historical.

Dr.

Ptashne grew up in Chicago.^[1] He earned his undergraduate degree at Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1961 and his PhD from Harvard in 1968, after which he joined the faculty of Harvard. He was made professor there in 1971 and became chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1980.

In 1993 he was awarded an endowed chair, and in 1997 he left Harvard for MSK.^[2]

The focus of his scientific career has been gene regulation.^[1]

Ptashne was the first scientist to demonstrate specific binding between protein and DNA, and his lifelong work has been the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of switch between lytic and lysogenic lifecyle of bacteriophage lambda, as well as how the yeast transcriptional activator