Anthony Pawson

Anthony "Tony" James Pawson, OC OOnt CH FRS FRSC (18 October 1952 – 7 August 2013),[1] was a British-born Canadian scientist whose research revolutionised the understanding of signal transduction, the molecular mechanisms by which cells respond to external cues, and how they communicate with each other. He identified the phosphotyrosine-binding Src homology 2 (SH2 domain) as the prototypic non-catalytic interaction module. SH2 domains serve as a model for a large family of protein modules that act together to control many aspects of cellular signalling. Since the discovery of SH2 domains, hundreds of different modules have been identified in many proteins.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Anthony Pawson
Born
Anthony James Pawson

(1952-10-18)18 October 1952
Maidstone, England
Died7 August 2013(2013-08-07) (aged 60)
Toronto, Ontario
NationalityBritish-Canadian
Alma materClare College, Cambridge
King's College London (PhD)
Known forCellular signal transduction
AwardsGairdner Foundation International Award (1994)
Flavelle Medal (1998)
Wolf Prize in Medicine (2005)
Royal Medal (2005)
Kyoto Prize (2008)
Fellow of the Royal Society
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics, microbiology
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto
Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto
Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute
ThesisStudies on the Proteins and Nucleic Acids of RNA Tumour Viruses (1976)

Biography

Born in Maidstone, England,[1] the son of the sportsman and writer Tony Pawson, and botanist and high-school teacher Hilarie, he was the eldest of three children.[11] He was educated at Winchester College[12] and Clare College, Cambridge where he received an MA in biochemistry followed by a PhD from King's College London in 1976. From 1976 to 1980 he pursued postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1981 to 1985, he was Assistant Professor in microbiology at the University of British Columbia.

Pawson was a Distinguished Investigator and former Director of Research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital and Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto both of which he joined in 1985.

Pawson died on 7 August 2013 of unspecified causes at the age of 60.[13][14][15]

Honours and awards
  • 1994 Gairdner Foundation International Award
  • 1994 Fellow of the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada
  • 1995 Robert L. Noble Prize from the National Cancer Institute of Canada
  • 1998 Pezcoller-AACR International Award for Cancer Research
  • 1998 Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1998 The Royal Society of Canada Flavelle Medal for meritorious achievement in biological science
  • 2000 J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine
  • 2004 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University
  • 2004 Poulsson Medal, the Norwegian Society of Pharmacology and Toxicology
  • 2004 Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (US)
  • 2004 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 2005 Wolf Prize in Medicine "for his discovery of protein domains essential for mediating protein-protein interactions in cellular signaling pathways, and the insights this research has provided into cancer"
  • 2005 The Royal Medal (The Queen's Medal) from The Royal Society of London
  • 2006 Companion of Honour
  • 2007 Premiers Summit Award
  • 2007 Howard Taylor Ricketts Award from University of Chicago
  • 2008 Kyoto Prize – "Japan's Nobel" for "Proposing and Proving the Concept of Adapter Molecules in the Signal Transduction"
  • 2012 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates, candidate for Nobel Prize in Medicine "for identification of the phosphotyrosine binding SH2 domain and demonstrating its function in protein-protein interactions"
  • 2013 Annual award of the Canadian National Proteomics Network, thereafter named the CNPN-Tony Pawson Proteomics Award.[16]

References
  1. Bernstein, Alan; Rossant, Janet (2013). "Anthony James Pawson (1952–2013) Biochemist whose vision of cell signalling transformed cancer research". Nature. 501 (7466): 168. Bibcode:2013Natur.501..168B. doi:10.1038/501168a. PMID 24025833.
  2. Pawson, T.; Nash, P. (2003). "Assembly of Cell Regulatory Systems Through Protein Interaction Domains". Science. 300 (5618): 445–452. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.321.3136. doi:10.1126/science.1083653. PMID 12702867.
  3. Nash, P.; Tang, X.; Orlicky, S.; Chen, Q.; Gertler, F. B.; Mendenhall, M. D.; Sicheri, F.; Pawson, T.; Tyers, M. (2001). "Multisite phosphorylation of a CDK inhibitor sets a threshold for the onset of DNA replication". Nature. 414 (6863): 514–521. Bibcode:2001Natur.414..514N. doi:10.1038/35107009. PMID 11734846.
  4. Holland, S. J.; Gale, N. W.; Mbamalu, G.; Yancopoulos, G. D.; Henkemeyer, M.; Pawson, T. (1996). "Bidirectional signalling through the EPH-family receptor Nuk and its transmembrane ligands". Nature. 383 (6602): 722–725. Bibcode:1996Natur.383..722H. doi:10.1038/383722a0. hdl:1807/9444. PMID 8878483.
  5. Salcini, A. E.; McGlade, J.; Pelicci, G.; Nicoletti, I.; Pawson, T.; Pelicci, P. G. (1994). "Formation of Shc-Grb2 complexes is necessary to induce neoplastic transformation by overexpression of Shc proteins". Oncogene. 9 (10): 2827–2836. PMID 8084588.
  6. Henkemeyer, M.; Marengere, L. E.; McGlade, J.; Olivier, J. P.; Conlon, R. A.; Holmyard, D. P.; Letwin, K.; Pawson, T. (1994). "Immunolocalization of the Nuk receptor tyrosine kinase suggests roles in segmental patterning of the brain and axonogenesis". Oncogene. 9 (4): 1001–1014. PMID 8134103.
  7. Stephens, R. M.; Loeb, D. M.; Copeland, T. D.; Pawson, T.; Greene, L. A.; Kaplan, D. R. (1994). "Trk receptors use redundant signal transduction pathways involving SHC and PLC-gamma 1 to mediate NGF responses". Neuron. 12 (3): 691–705. doi:10.1016/0896-6273(94)90223-2. PMID 8155326.
  8. Crowe, A. J.; McGlade, J.; Pawson, T.; Hayman, M. J. (1994). "Phosphorylation of the SHC proteins on tyrosine correlates with the transformation of fibroblasts and erythroblasts by the v-sea tyrosine kinase". Oncogene. 9 (2): 537–544. PMID 8290264.
  9. Marengere, L. E. M.; Songyang, Z.; Gish, G. D.; Schaller, M. D.; Parsons, J. T.; Stern, M. J.; Cantley, L. C.; Pawson, T. (1994). "SH2 domain specificity and activity modified by a single residue". Nature. 369 (6480): 502–505. Bibcode:1994Natur.369..502M. doi:10.1038/369502a0. hdl:1807/9433. PMID 7515480.
  10. Moran, M. F. (1990). "Src Homology Region 2 Domains Direct Protein-Protein Interactions in Signal Transduction". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 87 (21): 8622–8626. Bibcode:1990PNAS...87.8622M. doi:10.1073/pnas.87.21.8622. PMC 55009. PMID 2236073.
  11. Buck, Genna (14 August 2013). "Anthony Pawson helped discover how cells communicate with each other". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  12. Kyriakis, John M. "Retrospective Tony Pawson (1952–2013)". ASBMB Today. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  13. "Renowned Toronto genetic researcher Dr. Tony Pawson dies | Toronto Star". Thestar.com. 8 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  14. "Scientific community reels at the loss of the world-renowned Tony Pawson". Maclean's. 9 August 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  15. Paul Wells (9 August 2013). "RIP Tony Pawson". Maclean's. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  16. "Past award winners". Canadian National Proteomics Network. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
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