- Source: Krzysztof Palczewski
Krzysztof Palczewski, a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, is a Polish-born American biochemist and pharmacologist serving as a Donald Bren Professor and Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine. He holds the Irving H. Leopold Chair of Ophthalmology and is the founding Director of the Center for Translational Vision Research at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute.
Biography
His master and doctoral degrees are from the University of Wrocław (1980) and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (1986) respectively. In 1986, he joined Paul Hargrave's laboratory at that time leading the field in studies of rhodopsin at the University of Florida, thus launching a scientific career in the U.S. that brought him from the biochemistry and structural biology of the visual cycle components to drug discovery and novel treatments of eye diseases. He joined the faculty of the University of Washington (1992-2005), rising to the level of Professor in the departments of Ophthalmology, Pharmacology and Chemistry, including an appointment at the E.K. Bishop Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology. There, he published his most cited work to date, Crystal Structure of Rhodopsin: A G protein-coupled receptor. In 2005, he moved to Case Western Reserve University to lead the Department of Pharmacology and earned the title of Distinguished University Professor in 2016. He left in 2018 to take the position of Irving H. Leopold Chair of Ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine in 2018. He is the founding Director of the Center for Translational Vision Research in UC Irvine's Gavin Herbert Eye Institute where he develops new classical and genome editing therapies against inherited retinal degenerations.
Scientific contributions
He is best known for determining the crystal structure of rhodopsin, which led to new insights into the function of G protein-coupled receptors. His work on the visual cycle has led to both advances in understanding hereditary blindness and novel pharmacological treatments that can slow retinal degeneration. His work has shed light on juvenile- and age-related macular degeneration, suggesting approaches to novel therapeutics for these diseases. His team's efforts indicate that Two-photon imaging of the human eye can safely reveal the visual system's sub-cellular architecture and that humans can detect infrared light due to simultaneous two-photon absorption. The technical breakthroughs in noninvasive animal and human imaging have the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis and evaluation of patients with AMD, both in monitoring treatment efficacy and detecting early disease. Recent studies by his team have demonstrated both structural insights into rhodopsin modulation and mutation-agnostic treatment approaches for retinopathy. He and his collaborators applied a new generation of CRISPR technology called base editing and prime editing as a treatment for inherited retinal diseases. The implications of his research have the potential to lead to new treatments for many other inherited diseases.
Selected honors & Awards
1996 – Cogan Award, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
2011 – Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
2014 – Friedenwald Award from The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
2014 – Beckman-Argyros Award in Vision Research, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
2015 – Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (foreign member)
2018 – Paul Kayser International Award for Retina Research from Retina Research Foundation
2019 – The National Academy of Medicine member
2021 – Donald Bren Professor, University of California, Irvine
2022 – The National Academy of Sciences member
2022 – The Goodman and Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
2023-2024 – The Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research, University of California, Irvine
Personal Life
He married Grazyna Palczewska (nee Szafert), an accomplished biomedical engineer. The couple collaborates on the development and application of new instruments to study eye in health, disease and therapy. They have two sons, Michal and Greg.
Highly-Impactful Papers
External links
Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, Krzysztof Palczewski
Center for Translational Vision Research
Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, Genome Editing Research Program
Google Scholar, Krzysztof Palczewski
Orange County Business Journal Innovation (2023)
An RPB Awardee Tackles Inherited Retinal Diseases (Research to Prevent Blindness, 2023)
Prof. Krzysztof Palczewski -- FNP Prize 2012 laureate (Foundation for Polish Science)
PNAS Profile Krzysztof Palczewski
Goodman and Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology (2022)