Sidney Pestka

New Sidney Pestka is

Sidney Pestka
Born	(1936-05-29)May 29, 1936 Drobin, Powiat Plocky, Poland
Alma mater	Princeton University University of Pennsylvania
Awards	2002 National Medal of Technology 2006 Lemelson–MIT Prize Lifetime Achievement Award
Scientific career
Institutions	Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Sidney Pestka (born May 29, 1936) is an American biochemist and geneticist. Is sometimes referred to as the "father of interferon" for his groundbreaking work developing antiviral treatments for hepatitis B and C. He was part of the team working on research involving the genetic code, protein synthesis and ribosome function that led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine received by Marshall Warren Nirenberg.

Research

After completing a pediatric and medical internship at Baltimore City Hospitals, in 1962 he took a position in the laboratory of Dr. Marshall Warren Nirenberg at the National Heart Institute.

While in the Nirenberg Laboratory, he discovered how the genetic code of the mRNA is translated into protein through the small ribosomal subunit, a discovery that was contrary to the scientific thinking at that time. This early work helped create new fundamental tenets about the mechanism of protein biosynthesis and antibiotic action.

In 1966, he moved to the National Cancer Institute, where for three years he continued his research on protein synthesis and began investigations in other areas.

Work

In 1969, he joined the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in Nutley, New Jersey, where he initiated the work on interferon.

His work with IFN-α has led to cancer therapy with interferons and the use of interferon for the treatment of chronic Hepatitis B and C preventing development of liver cancer due to hepatitis. IFN-α is approved for treatment of a number of cancers and is the only approved treatment for advanced melanoma. His developments related to IFN-β led to its use for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

His work is the basis of a number of U.S. and more than 100 foreign patents. In 1993, he was inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. Interferon is a major product of several U.S. companies and foreign companies almost all of which license interferon under his patents, including Schering-Plough, Hoffmann-La Roche, Amgen, Biogen and Berlex. Since 1986, he has been Professor and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Pestka Biomedical Laboratories in Piscataway.

Awards and Honors

At a White House ceremony in June 2002, President George W. Bush honored him with the National Medal of Technology. He was cited for his "pioneering achievements that led to the development of the biotechnology industry, to the first recombinant interferons for the treatment of cancers, leukemias, viral diseases such as hepatitis B and C, and multiple sclerosis; to fundamental technologies leading to other biotherapeutics; and for basic scientific discoveries in chemistry, biochemistry, genetic engineering and molecular biology from protein biosynthesis to receptors and cell signaling." In 2004, he received the Warren Alpert Prize from Harvard. He has also received the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology, the Lemelson-MIT Prize and the Seymour and Vivian Milstein Award from the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research.

Publications

He has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals; edited five books, three of which are classic reference books about interferons in the Methods in Enzymology series.

• "Molecular Mechanisms of Protein Biosynthesis (Molecular Biology)" (Academic Press, 1977) ISBN 0127442502
• "Methods in Enzymology Volume 78: Interferons, Part A" (Academic Press, 1981) ASIN B002JBOWGG
• "Methods in Enzymology Volume 79: Interferons, Part B" (Academic Press, 1982) ISBN 0121819795
• "Methods in Enzymology Volume 119: Inteferons Part C" (Academic Press, 1986) ISBN 012182019X
• "Cytokine Yearbook Volume 1" (Springer, 1996) ISBN 0792338766

External links

• Winners' Circle: Sidney Pestka, MD
• Eminent Scientist Receives $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award
• Sidney Pestka Wins U.S. Medal of Technology
• People: Pestka - Molecular Genetics, Microbiology, and Immunology; UMDNJ
• Faculty - The Cancer Institute of New Jersey
• Pestka Biomedical Laboratories