Pioneer Scientists
Prof. Nathan Sharon
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Prof. Nathan Sharon was born in Poland in 1925, and immigrated to Palestine in 1934. He spent several years after high school in active service of the "Haganah," the Jewish self-defense organization, and in "Hemed," the Israel Defense Forces' scientific corps. He earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Aharon Katzir. Prof. Sharon joined the Weizmann faculty in 1954, and has held several senior positions at the Institute, including Head of the Biophysics Department, Dean of the Biophysics-Biochemistry Faculty, and Chairman of the Scientific Council. Prof. Sharon was a visiting scientist at a number of the world's finest institutions, including the National Institutes of Health, the University of California at Berkeley, and at Santa Barbara, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Oxford University, and College de France. He lectured at leading medical centers in South Africa, Canada, Europe, Japan, and India. He was the recipient of numerous awards from Israeli and foreign academic societies and institutions, including the Israel Prize in Biochemical and Medical Research, a prestigious recognition by the State of Israel for his life's work in science, and an honorary doctorate from Université René Descartes in Paris. He was an honorary member of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 2008, he received the Rosalind Kornfeld Award for Lifetime Contributions to Glycobiology from the Society of Glycobiology (USA). Prof. Sharon was elected in 1969-70 as President of the Israel Biochemical Society. He served in 1981-82 as Chairman of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. In 1989-90 he was the President of International Glycoconjugate Organization, and in 1981-2002 served in the Nomenclature Committee - IUBMB and IUPAC. Prof. Sharon was elected in 1990-2002 as Panel of Advisors' Chairman, Batsheva de Rothschild Foundation for the Advancement of Science in Israel. Prof. Sharon enormously contributed to public awareness of the sciences. He served as editor of the "World of Science" broadcast on Israel Radio, journal editor of "Mada" (“Mada: A scientific journal for all,” “Science” in Hebrew), and science and technology editor of the Haaretz newspaper. |
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| Fields of Research
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Lectins - sugars and
· Glycoproteins
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Infectious diseases –
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Prof. Sharon conducted pioneering studies in lectins. By discovering new properties of lectins and developing medical applications for these proteins, he made major breakthroughs in bone marrow transplantation. Together with Yair Reisner, then his Ph.D. student and later an Institute professor, Sharon developed a method that made it possible to employ lectins for dividing white blood cells into distinct subpopulations, and purging bone marrow for transplantation. These studies led to a treatment that saved the lives of hundreds of “bubble children” born with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). During the 1990s many leukemia patients were also treated with transplanted bone marrow cells isolated with the help of the same lectin. Subsequent research in Sharon's laboratory focused on infectious diseases. He made the important discovery that to initiate infection, many bacteria must first latch on to the carbohydrates present in our tissue cells, and proposed a new approach for treatment of infection, named “anti-adhesion therapy.” |
Selected Awards and Honorary Degrees 1973 Landau Prize, Mifal Hapayis 1977 Weizmann Prize in Exact Sciences, from the City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa 1980 Honorary Member, American Society of Biological Chemists 1987 Datta Lectureship Award, Federation of European Biochemical Societies 1989 Olitzki Prize, Israel Society for Microbiology 1989 Bijvoet Medal, Utrecht University 1990 Docteur Honoris Causa, Université René Descartes, Paris 1994 Israel Prize in Biochemistry and Medicine 2001 Honorary Fellow, Open University of Israel |
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| Selected Publications Link to Scopus Database |
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| Documents Preserved at the WIS Archives Prof. Sharon's personal archive, including documents, letters, lectures, scientific documentation, paper notes, photos, is treasured and preserved in the Weizmann Institute of Science Archives. |
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| Selected Archival Documents | |
A letter from Dr. Marc Atkins, Elsevier Publishing Company, 1971 |
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A letter from the Scientific Attache of the American Embassy, 1975 |
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| Israel Prize in Biochemical and Medical Research to Prof. Nathan Sharon - Press Release, 1994 | |
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Selected
Bibliography |
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| N. Sharon, H. Streicher, and R. Adar. Protein-Carbohydrate Interactions at the Atomic Level: Studies of Legume Lectins, [no date] | |
| E. I. Barak, and E. A. Davidson. Retrospective: Nathan Sharon (1925 – 2011), ASBMB Today, Sept. 2011 | |
| J. Silbert and H. Schachter. OBITUARY Nathan Sharon, 1925–2011, Glycobiology, Vol. 21(9):1119–1120, 2011 | |
| Weizmann Institute of Science. CURRICULUM VITAE Nathan Sharon, [no date] | |
