Ira Herskowitz was an American phage and yeast geneticist who studied genetic regulatory circuits and mechanisms.
23 Facts About Ira Herskowitz
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Ira Herskowitz was particularly noted for his work on mating type switching and cellular differentiation, largely using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism.
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Ira Herskowitz and his twin brother Joel were born in Brooklyn, New York on 14 July 1946.
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Ira Herskowitz became interested in bacteriophages when he studied with Robert Stuart Edgar at California Institute of Technology.
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Ira Herskowitz spent his final year at MIT working with David Botstein.
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Ira Herskowitz taught at the University of Oregon from 1972 to 1981.
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Ira Herskowitz studied the regulatory hierarchy of phage genes, in particular the switch between the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle.
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Ira Herskowitz further described the products of the N, cII, and cIII genes, positive regulation of cII and cIII, and N's central role as a positive regulator for rightward and leftward transcription in lambda phage.
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Ira Herskowitz worked with Costa Georgopoulos on host genes that control DNA replication and host mutants with virus growth defects.
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Botstein and Ira Herskowitz developed a technique for making hybrid phage.
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Ira Herskowitz focused on Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism.
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Ira Herskowitz is credited with being the first to use a bar sign in a pathway diagram to denote a negative influence as well as popularizing the phrase "the awesome power of yeast genetics".
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Ira Herskowitz identified the mechanism of the mating of yeast in homothallic strains, describing it via the "cassette model" metaphor.
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Ira Herskowitz used geneticist techniques to study topics in molecular and cell biology.
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Ira Herskowitz identified fundamental patterns in eukaryotic cell growth and division.
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Ira Herskowitz demonstrated that cells often divide asymmetrically and differ in ways that result in growing differently.
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Ira Herskowitz showed that division of yeast cells creates a history of cellular division in the form of molecular marks on the cell's surface.
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Ira Herskowitz studied many other areas through the mechanisms of yeast mating, including signal transduction, control of the eukaryotic cell-cycle, RNA transport, the role of chromatin in transcription, meiosis, sporulation, gene expression, and how human genetic variation leads to different responses to drugs.
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Ira Herskowitz worked with the Annual Review of Genetics and other journals, and was awarded the 1985 NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Ira Herskowitz received in 1983 the Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology.
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Ira Herskowitz was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2002, the National Academy of Sciences in 1986.
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Ira Herskowitz was an engaging and effective communicator, who often used metaphors to explain complex ideas clearly.
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Ira Herskowitz died in San Francisco, California on April 28,2003 of pancreatic cancer.