Prof. Jan-Åke Gustafsson

Date of Birth: August 4, 1943

Education: Ph.D., Dept of Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet, 1968; M.D., Karolinska Institutet, 1971
 
Career/Academic Appointments:
1964: Bachelor of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
1971: Associate Professor in Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet
1976: Professor of Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet
1978: Professor of Chemistry, University of Gothenburg
1979: Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Dept of Medical Nutrition, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet
2006-present: Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Dept of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet

Administrative Positions:
1985: Director of the Center for Biotechnology, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet
1987: Founder of KaroBio AB (a campus-situated biotechnology company sponsored by pension and governmental funds with about 80 employees).
2004-present: Coordinator for the EU funded CASCADE Network of Excellence
 
Board Certification:
He has been member of the Faculty Board of the Karolinska Institutet and regularly carries out various assignments for the President’s Office of the Karolinska Institutet.
Awards Committee Member, Endocrine Society, USA 2002-06.
Elected Member of Council (Board) of Endocrine Society, USA, 2007.

Professional Honors & Recognition

A) International/National/Regional
2005: Descartes Research Prize for excellence in scientific collaborative research
2005: 2nd Ernst Knobil Memorial Lecture, San Diego, USA
2004: Medal from Biomedicum Helsinki
2004: Bristol-Meyers Squibb/Mead Johnson Award for Nutrition Research
2003: FEBS Lectureship Datta Award
2002: Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques
2002: Foreign Honorary Member of the US National Academy of Sciences
2002: Chairman of the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet
2002: Fred Conrad Koch Award (Endocrine Soceity USA)
2001: The AF Group Prize for the creation of Novum Research Park
2001: Lorenzini Gold Medal, Lorenzini Foundation
2001: Vice chairman of the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet
2000: One of ISI Top 258 Researchers in Biology & Biochemistry
2000: Garvan International Fellow
2000: Burroughs Wellcome Fund Lecture
2000: Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2000: European Medal, British Society for Endocrinology
2000: Curt Nicolin’s Prize for Achievements for the Development of South Stockholm
1999: Medal of the IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg’s Research Foundation
1999: Fogarty Scholar NIH
1998: Adjunct Member of the Nobel Committee of the Karolinska Institutet
1998: The Söderberg Prize in Medicine
1998: Member of the Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
1997: Member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences
1994: Gregory Pincus Medal and Award, Worcester Foundation
1992: Keith Harris Lecture, Australian Endocrine Society, Adelaide
1992: The Anders Jahre Prize, Oslo
1992: Medal from Collège de France, Paris
1990: Honorary Member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
1986: Honorary Member of the Japanese Biochemical Society
1986: Member of the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet
1983: The Fernström Prize of the Karolinska Institutet
1982: The Svedberg Prize in Chemistry, Stockholm
 
B) University
2008: Honorary doctorate in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Milan
2007: Honorary Professor at the University of Chongquin, China
2004: Guest Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei
2003: J.G. Moore Visiting Professor, UCLA, USA
2003: Marius Tausk Visiting Professor at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC)
2003: McDowell Lecture in Physiology, King’s College, London, U.K.
2002: Burroughs Wellcome Fund Visiting Professor in the Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine
2000: Center for Bioenvironmental Research Distinguished Visiting Professor, Tulane University, New Orleans
1995: Sterling Visiting Professor, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
1991: Consultant to The Rockefeller University Hospital
1987: Adjunct Full Professor at the Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Other Activities:
Has participated in the supervision of 95 Ph.D. students to the presentation of their thesis.
Has supervised 127 postdocs/visiting scientists.
Has 1290 peer-reviewed publications. Can be sent upon request.
Has so far been cited 58 282 times.

Professional Service

Peer Review Groups/Grant Study Sections:
2007: Member of the LTA (LAM Treatment Alliance) SAB (Scientific Advisory Board, Boston
2007: Member of the IRB Barcelona External Advisory Board
2007: Member of the selection committee for The King Faisal International Prize in Science
2005-2007: Member of the International Academic Advisory Committee (IAAC), Hefei, Peoples’s Republic of China
Since 1995: Member of the International Advisory Board of the WHO Center in Oulu

He has had several appointments at and tasks for The Swedish Board for Planning and Coordination of Research, The Swedish Medical Research Council, The Swedish Cancer Society, The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and The Swedish Fund for Strategic Research.

Has participated in several international reviewing panels, e.g.:
1995: Chairman of a board evaluating the Center for Biotechnology, University of Oslo
1994: Member of a board evaluating the Center for Biotechnology, Helsinki
1991: As chairman of a board evaluating the Norwegian Biotechnology Program
 
Journal Service:
Member, currently and/or previously, of the editorial board or similar position in Steroids, The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Molecular Endocrinology, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, The Prostate, Anticancer Research, Japanese Journal of Cancer Research, Journal of Molecular Medicine, Molecular Pharmacology and the International Journal of Oncology.

Meeting Planning/Participation:

Regular co-organizer of The Summer School of Signal Transduction held in Spetsai, Greece, every two years since 1990.
2007: Spetses Summer School on Nuclear Receptor Signalling: From Molecular Mechanisms to Integrative Physiology, Island of Spetses, Greece 
2006: “Nuclear Receptors 2006” An International Symposium arranged by the Center for Biosciences, Karolinska Institutet.
2004: “Nuclear Receptors 2004” An International Symposium arranged by the Center for Biotechnology (CBT), Karolinska Institutet.
2003: FEBS Advanced Study Institute, International Summer School on “From Transcription to Physiology: Regulation of Gene Expression and Protein Function in an Integrated Context”, Island of Spetses, Greece
2003: Nobel Conference No 40: “Transcriptional control of lipid homeostasis”.
2003: EMBO Conference, Biology of Nuclear Receptors, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France.
2002: “Nuclear Receptors 2002”, A joint International Symposium arranged by the Center for Biotechnology (CBT), Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with the Summer University of Southern Stockholm.
2001: EMBO Workshop on Nuclear Receptor Structure and Function, Erice, Italy.
2000: 10th CBT symposium “Nuclear receptors in health and disease”.
2000: FEBS Advanced Study Institute, International Summer Shool on “New Dimensions in the Regulation of Gene Expression, Island of Spetses, Greece.
1999: EMBO Workshop; Steroid and Nuclear receptors, Villefranche, France.
1999: Nobel symposium “Estrogens and women’s health – benefit or threat?”
1997: 9th CBT Symposium “Steroid and orphan nuclear receptors”.
1995: EMBO Workshop; Structure and Function of Steroid and Nuclear Receptors, Alghero, Sardinia, Italy.
1995: 7th CBT Symposium “Nuclear orphan receptors: Novel regulators in physiology and pathology”.
1993: 5th CBT Symposium “Intracellular hormone receptors and ligand-dependent transcriptional regulation”.
1988: 2nd CBT Symposium “The steroid/thyroid hormone receptor family and gene regulation”.
1983: Nobel symposium “Steroid hormone receptors: Structure and function”.

Bibliography

Has over 1270 peer-reviewed publications. Can be sent upon request. The list below is selected.

Top 10 publications:

1. Ö. Wrange and J.-Å. Gustafsson: Separation of the hormone- and DNA-binding sites of the hepatic glucocorticoid receptor by means of proteolysis. J. Biol. Chem. 253, 856-865, 1978.
First demonstration of domain structure of a nuclear receptor

2. Ö. Wrange, J. Carlstedt-Duke and J.-Å. Gustafsson: Purification of the glucocorticoid receptor from rat liver cytosol. J. Biol. Chem. 254, 9284-9290, 1979.
First purification of a nuclear receptor to homogeneity

3. F. Payvar, Ö. Wrange, J. Carlstedt-Duke, S. Okret, J.-Å. Gustafsson and K.R. Yamamoto: Purified glucocorticoid receptors bind selectively in vitro to a cloned DNA fragment whose transcription is regulated by glucocorticoids in vivo. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78, 6628-6632, 1981.
First demonstration of specific binding of a nuclear receptor to DNA

4. R. Miesfeld, S. Okret, A.-C. Wikström, Ö. Wrange, J.-Å. Gustafsson and K. Yamamoto: Characterization of a steroid receptor gene and mRNA in wild-type and mutant cells. Nature 312, 779-781, 1984.
First cloning of a nuclear receptor cDNA

5. T. Härd, E. Kellenbach, R. Boelens, B. A. Maler, K. Dahlman, L. P. Freedman, J. Carlstedt-Duke, K. R. Yamamoto, J.-Å. Gustafsson, and R. Kaptein: Solution structure of the glucocorticoid receptor DNA-binding domain. Science, 249, 157-160, 1990.
First 3-D structure of a nuclear receptor domain (the DBD)

6. M. Göttlicher, E. Widmark, Q. Li, and J.-Å. Gustafsson: Fatty acids activate a chimera of the clofibric acid-activated receptor and the glucocorticoid receptor. Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci. USA, 89, 4653-4657, 1992.
First described activators of an orphan nuclear receptor (fatty acids for PPARα)

7. M. Teboul, E. Enmark, Q. Li, A.C. Wikström, M. Pelto-Huikko, and J.-Å. Gustafsson: OR-1, a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily that interacts with the 9-cis-retinoic acid receptor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 92, 2096-2100, 1995.
Discovery of LXRβ

8. G.G.J.M. Kuiper, E. Enmark, M. Pelto-Huikko, S. Nilsson, and J.-Å. Gustafsson: Cloning of a novel estrogen receptor expressed in rat prostate and ovary. Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci. USA, 93, 5925-5930, 1996.
Discovery of the 2nd estrogen receptor, ERβ, causing a paradigm shift in our understanding of estrogen signaling

9. A.M. Brzozowski, A.C.W. Pike, Z. Dauter, R.E. Hubbard, T. Bonn, O. Engström, L. Öhman, G.L. Greene, J.-Å. Gustafsson and M. Carlquist: Insights into the molecular basis of agonism and antagonism in the oestrogen receptor as revealed by complexes with 17β-oestradiol and raloxifene. Nature, 389, 753-758, 1997.
Discovery of the molecular mechanism of antagonism (Helix 12 perturbation) within nuclear receptors

10. Z. Weihua, S. Mäkelä, L. C. Andersson, S. Salmi, S. Saji, J. I. Webster, E. V. Jensen, S. Nilsson, M. Warner, and J.-Å. Gustafsson: A role for estrogen receptor in the regulation of growth of the ventral prostate. Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci. USA, 98, 6330-6335, 2001.
Discovery of the regulatory role of ERβ in the growth of the prostate