Professor Joel L. Sussman

Morton & Gladys Pickman Chair in Structural Biology

Department of Structural Biology

Weizmann Institute of Science

Rehovot 76100 Israel

Tel: +972 8 934 4531 Fax: +972 8 934 6312

Joel.Sussman@weizmann.ac.il www.weizmann.ac.il/~joel

A. Education.

1961-1965 B.A. - Physics & Mathematics, Cornell Univ, Ithaca, NY

1965-1972 Ph.D. - Biophysics, MIT, Cambridge, MA (with Prof. Cyrus Levinthal)

B. Positions and Honors.

Positions and Employment

1972- Post doctoral fellow with Prof. Y. Lapidot, Biochemistry Dept, Hebrew Univ, Jerusalem, ISRAEL

1972-1976 Research Associate, with Prof. S.-H. Kim, Biochemistry Dept, Duke Univ, Durham, NC

1976-1980 Senior Scientist, Dept of Structural Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Rehovot, ISRAEL

1979- Visiting Associate with Prof. S.-H. Kim, Chemistry Dept, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

1980-1992 Associate Professor, Dept of Structural Chemistry, WIS

1982-1984 Visiting Scientist, with Dr. D.R. Davies, Lab of Molecular Biology, NIH, Bethesda, MD

1982-1985 Visiting Scientist, with Dr. H.M. Berman, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA

1984-1985 Head, Dept of Structural Chemistry, WIS

1988-1989 Head, Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure & Assembly, WIS

1989-1992 Visiting Scientist, with Dr. A. Wlodawer, NCI, Frederick, MD

1990- John von Neumann Visiting Professor in Residence, Rutgers Univ, Piscataway, NJ

1992- Full Professor, Dept of Structural Biology, WIS

1994-1999 Head, Protein Data Bank, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY

2002- Incumbent of Morton & Gladys Pickman Chair in Structural Biology, WIS

Other Experience and Professional Memberships

1980-1982 Army service, ISRAEL

1991-1992 Special consultant to the ESRF (Grenoble) - Biological Crystallography

1994-2000 Member of the European Molecular Biology Lab (EMBL) SAC Committee

1991-1993 President, Israel Crystallographic Society

1997 - Member of the Synchrotron Priorities Committee EMBL Hamburg Outstation

1998-2003 Member of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics SAC Committee

1998 - Chairman, Israel National Committee for Crystallography

2002 - Chairman, Israel Council of Higher Education Bioinformatics Committee

2000 - Member of the NIH Task Force & Council on Structural Genomics Initiative

2002 - Member of The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility SAC Committee

2002 - Director, Israel Structural Proteomics Center: www.weizmann.ac.il/ISPC

2003 - Member of The Scientific Review Board - Institute for the Study of Aging

2004 - Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the EC-BIOXHIT Project

2005 - Member Journal Editorial Board: Proteins, PEDS & Applied Bioinformatics

2005 - Coordinator EC Project - Forum for European Structural Proteomics (FESP): www.ec-fesp.org

Honors

1979 Bergmann Prize - Outstanding Research in Chemistry in ISRAEL

1991 U.S. Army Science Conference Award for outstanding research

1994 Elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)

2000 Honorary Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2005 Samuel and Paula Elkeles Prize for Outstanding Scientist in Medicine in Israel (together with Prof. Israel Silman)

2006 Teva Founders Prize for Breakthroughs in Molecular Medicine (together with Prof. Israel Silman)

C. Major Research Interests.

* 3D structure/function of nervous system proteins, including acetylcholinesterase, cholinesterase-like adhesion molecules (CLAMs), snake toxins, β-glucosidase, β-secretase & paraoxonase

* Intrinsically unstructured proteins - what is their possible biological role and how can one predict if a particular protein is, in fact, intrinsically unstructured?

* How do proteins adapt to extreme environments, e.g. halophilic and halotolerant proteins.