Biography of Arthur L. Horwich
- Tinsley H. Davis, Freelance Science Writer
Inside cells, crucial helpers latch onto nonnative proteins, preventing them from misfolding. These chaperonins trap unfolded proteins inside molecular cages and facilitate folding to the final native form. Arthur L. Horwich, professor at Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, CT), uncovered chaperonin action in 1989 (1). More than 15 years later, chaperonins remain the major focus of Horwich's research. In his Inaugural Article in this issue of PNAS (2), Horwich, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003, probes the behavior of the bacterial chaperonin GroEL, showing that the unfolded substrate polypeptide is not a passive bystander but has an effect on the activation mechanism.
Some of the current members of the Horwich laboratory: (left to right) Eunice Park, Wayne Fenton, Krystyna Furtak, Jörg Hinnerwisch, Horwich, Fernando Agarraberes, and George Farr. Photograph courtesy of Yale Biomed Communications.
Hooked from the Start
Horwich was born in 1951 and grew up in Oak Park, IL, west of Chicago. “I always loved science as a kid,” he says. Horwich remembers sitting next to a distant relative at one holiday dinner. He did not know the relative all that well but became enthralled by his stories of being a ham radio operator during World War II. “Within a year, I was a ham operator myself,” he says. Such a hobby, however, required federal certification, and Horwich “got a kick out of taking the federal exam as a 10-year-old.” He passed the exam, but when he started high school he became interested in other science fields. During that time, he thought it would be interesting to see medical ward rounds and accompanied some of his father's friends who were doctors. Horwich remembers, “They were pretty sure that one look at patients would kill any possibility of my being interested—they were wrong about that—it was just …
