Mark Hochstrasser, PhD, Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Yale University, received a PhD from the University of California, San Francisco and his postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the laboratory of Dr Alex Varshavsky, one of the pioneers in the field of ubiquitin research, and the developer of the “N-end rule” of protein degradation in cells. He is one of several outstanding young scientists who trained with Prof. Varshavsky and are now leaders in today’s rapidly growing ubiquitin field.
Dr Hochstrasser is well known as an expert in (1) protein turnover occurring in cells via the ubiquitin-proteasome system; and (2) the function and dynamics of protein modification by other proteins. Using yeast genetics and cellular biology/biochemistry tools, he has contributed much toward current knowledge of protein turnover and modification by ubiquitin and “ubiquitin-like proteins”, describing, for example, the SUMO proteases of yeast (Ulp1,2).
Dr Hochstrasser is the author of numerous articles, including seminal research papers as well as extensive reviews of the field, and his views on current developments in ubiquitin related research appear regularly as commentaries in Nature and Science.