SEVEN TRANSMEMBRANE RECEPTORS
ROBERT J. LEFKOWITZ, MD
James B. Duke Professor of Medicine
Duke University School of Medicine
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Robert J. Lefkowitz, MD, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, will be the first speaker in the 2012 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Laureate Lecture Series, a yearlong program highlighting some of the top biomedical researchers in their fields. Dr. Lefkowitz’s lecture, titled “Seven Transmembrane Receptors,” will take place at noon on Wednesday, June 20, in Scaife Hall, Lecture Room 6.

Over a career that has spanned more than three decades, Dr. Lefkowitz essentially defined the field of receptor biology through his work with beta-adrenergic receptors, proteins that translate hormonal signals into cellular responses in the heart and other organs throughout the body.
Dr. Lefkowitz was born in New York City. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Columbia University and an MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed an internship and residency in general medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. After a clinical and research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Lefkowitz completed research and clinical fellowship training in cardiovascular disease at Massachusetts General Hospital, concurrently serving as a teaching fellow and research assistant at Harvard Medical School.

In 1973, Dr. Lefkowitz joined Duke University School of Medicine, where he rapidly climbed the academic ranks. In 1976, he was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a position he still holds. He became a professor of medicine in 1977 and was named James B. Duke Professor of Medicine in 1982. He currently holds secondary appointments in biochemistry and in immunology.

Dr. Lefkowitz studies receptor biology and signal transduction and is best known for his detailed characterizations of the sequence, structure, and function of beta-adrenergic receptors and the proteins required for their regulation. Upon recognizing the sequence and functional homology with the visual protein rhodopsin, Dr. Lefkowitz proposed that adrenergic receptors and rhodopsin were related and characterized them as the first members of a new protein family, the seven transmembrane receptors, or G-protein coupled receptors. This receptor superfamily is now known to be the largest, most diverse, and most therapeutically accessible. Author or coauthor of more than 800 publications, Dr. Lefkowitz is among the most highly cited researchers in the fields of biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine.
He has served on the council of the National Academy of Sciences and as president of both the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He holds 10 patents.

Dr. Lefkowitz has received many honors for his work on cellular receptors, including the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences, the American Heart Association Basic Research Prize, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cardiovascular Research, the Pasarow Cardiovascular Research Award, and the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. In 2007, he received the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research and the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine. In 2008, he received the National Medal of Science, presented to him by President George W. Bush in a White House ceremony.