Susan Lindquist

Susan Lindquist
Susan Lindquist in 2015, portrait via the Royal Society
Born	Susan Lee Lindquist McKenzie (1949-06-05) June 5, 1949 Chicago
Nationality	United States
Fields	Molecular biology
Institutions	Whitehead Institute MIT University of Chicago
Alma mater	Harvard University University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Thesis	Protein and RNA synthesis induced by heat treatment in Drosophila melanogaster tissue culture cells (1976)
Doctoral advisor	Matthew Meselson
Known for	protein folding heat-shock proteins prions
Notable awards	Dickson Prize (2003) Genetics Society of America Medal (2008) FASEB Excellence in Science Award (2009) National Medal of Science (2010) E. B. Wilson Medal (2012) ForMemRS (2015)
Website lindquistlab.wi.mit.edu

Susan Lindquist (born June 5, 1949) is a professor of biology at MIT specializing in molecular biology, particularly the protein folding problem within a family of molecules known as heat-shock proteins, and prions. Lindquist is a member and former Director of the Whitehead Institute and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2010.

Education

Although expected to become a housewife by her parents, Lindquist studied microbiology at the University of Illinois as an undergraduate and received her PhD in biology from Harvard University in 1976.

Research and career

Lindquist is best known for her research that provided strong evidence for a new paradigm in genetics based upon the inheritance of proteins with new, self-perpetuating shapes rather than new DNA sequences. This research provided a biochemical framework for understanding other mysteries in biology, such as Alzheimer's disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. She is considered an expert in protein folding which, as explained by Lindquist in the following excerpt, is an ancient, fundamental problem in biology:

"What do "mad cows", people with neurodegenerative diseases, and an unusual type of inheritance in yeast have in common? They are all experiencing the consequences of misfolded proteins. ... In humans the consequences can be deadly, leading to such devastating illnesses as Alzheimer's Disease. In one case, the misfolded protein is not only deadly to the unfortunate individual in which it has appeared, but it can apparently be passed from one individual to another under special circumstances - producing infectious neurodegenerative diseases such as mad-cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease in humans."

--from "From Mad Cows to 'Psi-chotic' Yeast: A New Paradigm in Genetics," NAS Distinguished Leaders in Science Lecture Series, November 10, 1999.

Lindquist worked on the PSI+ element in yeast (a prion) and how it can act as a switch that hides or reveals numerous mutations throughout the genome, thus acting as an evolutionary capacitor. She also proposed that a heat shock protein, hsp90, may act in the same way, normally preventing phenotypic consequences of genetic changes, but showing all changes at once when the HSP system is overloaded, either pharmacologically or under stressful environmental conditions. Most of these variations are likely to be harmful, but a few unusual combinations may produce valuable new traits, spurring the pace of evolution. Cancer cells too have an extraordinary ability to evolve. Lindquist's lab investigates closely related evolutionary mechanisms involved in the progression of cancerous tumors and in the evolution of antibiotic-resistant fungi.

Recently, Lindquist has made advances in nanotechnology, researching organic amyloid fibers capable of self-organizing into structures smaller than manufactured materials. Her group also developed a yeast “living test tube” model to study protein folding transitions in neurodegenerative diseases and to test therapeutic strategies through high-throughput screening. She is a co-founder of FoldRx, a company developing drug therapies for diseases of protein misfolding and amyloidosis.

Dr. Lindquist lectures nationally and internationally on a variety of scientific topics. In June 2006, she was the inaugural guest on the "Futures in Biotech" podcast on Leo Laporte's TWiT network. In 2007, she participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland with other MIT leaders.

She was the Albert D. Lasker Professor of Medical Sciences in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago, and the Director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research from 2001-2004. She is currently a member of the Whitehead Institute, a professor of biology at MIT, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Significant Publications

Susan Lindquist

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Awards and honors

Lindquist has won numerous awards and honors including:

• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.
• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997.
• Named a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 1997.
• Named Albert D. Lasker Professor of Medical Sciences in 1999.
• Received the Novartis/Drew Award in Biomedical Research in 2000.
• Served as director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research from 2001-2004.
• Received the Dickson Prize in Medicine in 2002.
• Named one of the 50 most important women in science by Discover Magazine in 2002.
• Awarded the Sigma Xi William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement in 2006.
• Elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2006.
• Awarded the Genetics Society of America Medal in 2008.
• Awarded the Otto Warburg Medal by the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2008.
• Awarded the FASEB Excellence in Science Award in 2009.
• Awarded the Max Delbrück Medal, Berlin, Germany, in 2010.
• Awarded the Mendel Medal by The Genetics Society, UK, in 2010.
• Awarded the National Medal of Science (for 2009) in 2010.
• Awarded the E.B. Wilson Medal by The American Society for Cell Biology in 2012.
• Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) In 2015

Personal life

Lindquist is married to Edward Buckbee and has two adult daughters, one of whom is an alumna of Northwestern University.