S. Walter Englander

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Solomon Walter Englander
Portrait of S. Walter Englander, painted by his wife, Carole Clarke. Philadelphia, PA, 2023.
Born
Baltimore, Maryland
Alma mater
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsBiophysics
Institutions
Websitehttps://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p7873

Solomon Walter Englander is the Gershon-Cohen Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Medical Science at the University of Pennsylvania.[1] He is known for pioneering the development of the field of hydrogen exchange (HX) studies.[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Englander was born in 1930 into an immigrant, working class, orthodox Jewish family in Baltimore.[3] Torn between entering the rabbinate or a career in professional baseball, he instead worked his way through an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, graduating in 1951.[4]

He completed his MS[5] (1953) and PhD[6] (1958) degrees in biophysics at the University of Pittsburgh. Between degrees, Englander was drafted into the post-Korean war army.[3] He returned to do postdoctoral work with William F. Harrington and Peter von Hippel at the National Institutes of Health. In 1960, he joined Dartmouth College with von Hippel, where he remained until 1967.[4] He spent one year at the Danish Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment (AEC) with Sigurd Nielsen as a visiting scientist. In 1967, he joined the University of Pennsylvania where he spent the rest of his academic career until retirement at the age of 91 in 2021.[7]

Research career[edit]

Englander's research has focused on developing methods for HX measurement, accurately calibrating all aspects of protein[8][9] and nucleic acid[10] HX chemistry, and settling the bases for HX interpretation in terms of H-bonded structure, detailed structural dynamics, and energetics.[11][12] As a result, HX methods now provide an important tool in research to discover how proteins and nucleic acids function to make life possible.

Englander has used HX to explain a number of biomolecular problems, including nucleic acid and protein "breathing" reactions and site-resolved energy transfer and utilization.[1] He discovered protein "foldons"[13] and demonstrated their role in stepwise sequential protein folding pathways.[14] The understanding of protein folding, unfolding, and misfolding is fundamental to ongoing research in many biological processes central to health and disease.

Awards and honors[edit]

Englander was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997[15] and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006.[16] He was elected as an honorary fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1998[17] and the Biophysical Society in 2000.[18]

Herbert A. Sober Memorial Lectureship Award (2008)[edit]

In 2008, Englander was awarded the Herbert A. Sober Lectureship[19] at the annual American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting in San Diego. The lectureship is awarded every two years and recognizes outstanding biochemical and molecular biological research with particular emphasis on the development of methods and techniques to aid in scientific research.[4]

On being awarded the Lectureship, George Rose, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor at The Johns Hopkins University, said of Englander:

Scientists are of many types. Among the very best are those rare individuals who devise an important approach as an end in itself, like virtuoso instrumentalists perfecting their art. Rarer still are those who respond to a higher music, developing innovative new methods to pursue fundamental problems. Walter Englander is among the very few who fall squarely into this latter category.[4]

The Biophysical Society Founders Award (2010)[edit]

In 2010, Englander received the Biophysical Society's annual Founders Award. The award is given to scientists for outstanding achievement in biophysics.[20] He received the award "for pioneering the development of hydrogen exchange techniques for exploring the stability, interactions and dynamics of macromolecules and their folding."[21]

Autobiography[edit]

Englander authored a brief autobiography, "HX and Me: Understanding Allostery, Folding, and Protein Machines,"[3] which was published in the May 2023 volume of the Annual Review of Biophysics.[3] The autobiography is a retrospective on his life and journey in biochemistry, biophysics, and medical sciences. Articles in the journal are peer review by the editorial committee and qualified authors in the field.[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "The Jacob Gershon-Cohen Professorship of Medical Science | Endowed Professorships | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania". www.med.upenn.edu. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  2. ^ Englander, S. Walter; Kallenbach, Neville R. (1983). "Hydrogen exchange and structural dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids". Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics. 16 (4): 521–655. doi:10.1017/s0033583500005217. ISSN 0033-5835. PMID 6204354. S2CID 37407781.
  3. ^ a b c d Englander, S. Walter (May 9, 2023). "HX and Me: Understanding Allostery, Folding, and Protein Machines". Annual Review of Biophysics. 52 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1146/annurev-biophys-062122-093517. ISSN 1936-122X. PMID 36630583.
  4. ^ a b c d "The 2008 Herbert A. Sober Lectureship: S. Walter Englander" (PDF). ASBMB Today: 16. January 2008.
  5. ^ Englander, S. Walter. X-Radiation Studies on the Lambda Phage and a Method for Measuring Phage Nucleic Acid. Thesis (M.S.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1954., 1954.
  6. ^ Englander, S. Walter. Studies on the X-Radiation Breakage of Nucleic Acid in Tobacco Mosiac Virus. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1959., 1959.
  7. ^ "The Newly Retired Faculty". almanac.upenn.edu. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  8. ^ Nguyen, David; Mayne, Leland; Phillips, Michael C.; Walter Englander, S. (July 18, 2018). "Reference Parameters for Protein Hydrogen Exchange Rates". Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. 29 (9): 1936–1939. Bibcode:2018JASMS..29.1936N. doi:10.1007/s13361-018-2021-z. ISSN 1044-0305. PMC 6087487. PMID 30022340.
  9. ^ Bai, Yawen; Milne, John S.; Mayne, Leland; Englander, S. Walter (1993). "Primary structure effects on peptide group hydrogen exchange". Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics. 17 (1): 75–86. doi:10.1002/prot.340170110. ISSN 0887-3585. PMC 3438223. PMID 8234246.
  10. ^ Englander, S W; Downer, N W; Teitelbaum, H (1972). "Hydrogen Exchange". Annual Review of Biochemistry. 41 (1): 903–924. doi:10.1146/annurev.bi.41.070172.004351. ISSN 0066-4154. PMID 4563445.
  11. ^ Skinner, John J.; Lim, Woon K.; Bédard, Sabrina; Black, Ben E.; Englander, S. Walter (June 11, 2012). "Protein dynamics viewed by hydrogen exchange". Protein Science. 21 (7): 996–1005. doi:10.1002/pro.2081. ISSN 0961-8368. PMC 3403437. PMID 22544544.
  12. ^ Zhou, Hongxing X.; Hull, Leslie A.; Kallenbach, Neville R.; Mayne, Leland; Bai, Yawen; Englander, S. Walter (1994). "Quantitative evaluation of stabilizing interactions in a prenucleated .alpha.-helix by hydrogen exchange". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 116 (14): 6482–6483. doi:10.1021/ja00093a078. ISSN 0002-7863.
  13. ^ Bai, Yawen; Sosnick, Tobin R.; Mayne, Leland; Englander, S. Walter (July 14, 1995). "Protein Folding Intermediates: Native-State Hydrogen Exchange". Science. 269 (5221): 192–197. Bibcode:1995Sci...269..192B. doi:10.1126/science.7618079. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 3432310. PMID 7618079.
  14. ^ Englander, S. Walter; Mayne, Leland; Kan, Zhong-Yuan; Hu, Wenbing (July 5, 2016). "Protein Folding—How and Why: By Hydrogen Exchange, Fragment Separation, and Mass Spectrometry". Annual Review of Biophysics. 45 (1): 135–152. doi:10.1146/annurev-biophys-062215-011121. ISSN 1936-122X. PMC 5588872. PMID 27145881.
  15. ^ "S. Walter Englander". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  16. ^ "Solomon Walter Englander". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  17. ^ "Elected Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  18. ^ "Society History" (PDF). The Biophysical Society. 2019. Fellows of the Biophysical Society, Class of 2000. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  19. ^ "2008 ASBMB Annual Award winners". www.asbmb.org. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  20. ^ "Society Awards - The Biophysical Society". www.biophysics.org. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  21. ^ "10/13/09, Honors and Other Things - Almanac, Vol. 56, No. 07". almanac.upenn.edu. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  22. ^ "Editorial Principles and Policies". Annual Review of Biophysics.

External links[edit]

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