James Martin Hogle (born July 16, 1951) is an American

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

who discovered the structure of

poliovirus Poliovirus, the causative agent of polio (also known as poliomyelitis), is a serotype of the species '' Enterovirus C'', in the family of '' Picornaviridae''. There are three poliovirus serotypes, numbered 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed ...

in 1985. He is an

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

Edward S. Harkness Professor at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

where he was also Chair of the Biophysics Program, as well as a faculty dean for Dudley House and a faculty director at

Peabody Terrace Peabody Terrace, on the north bank of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a Harvard University housing complex primarily serving graduate students, particularly married students and their families. Designed in the Brutalist archi ...

Early life and education

Hogle was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

and grew up in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, where he lived from the age of 9. After receiving a B.A. in

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, Hogle was accepted to both the oncology program and the biochemistry program at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, and chose biochemistry because he was "afraid (oncology) might be too specialized." He interviewed virologist Roland Rueckert, who was not available at the time, and did a summer rotation in the laboratory of pioneering X-ray crystallographer Muttaiya Sundaralingam, where he was "immediately hooked" on

crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

. Hogle worked on a number of projects at this lab, and developed an interest in

virology Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...

. As a postdoctoral student working in Stephen C. Harrison's lab at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, he worked on the structure of turnip crinkle virus and tomato bushy stunt virus, and began investigating

structure.

Academia

At Scripps Research Institute, Hogle used a three-pronged approach to determine the poliovirus structure:

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing i ...

, direct methods, and the heavy atom method. In 1985, at the age of 35, he succeeded in determining the structure of poliovirus using

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to Diffraction, diffract in specific directions. By measuring th ...

. Hogle went to

in 1991, continuing to work on polio and its close relatives such as

herpes simplex virus Herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2) are two members of the Herpesviridae#Human herpesvirus types, human ''Herpesviridae'' family, a set of viruses that produce Viral disease, viral infections in the majority of humans. Both HSV-1 a ...

as well as echovirus and other

picornavirus Picornaviruses are a group of related Viral envelope, nonenveloped RNA viruses which infect vertebrates including fish, mammals, and birds. They are viruses that represent a large family of small, Positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus, positi ...

es. His lab had two major areas of focus: structural and biochemical characterization of the cell entry pathway of polio and related viruses, and structural characterization of components of the Herpes virus replication complex and nuclear egress complex. He retired in 2019.

References

External links

The Hogle LaboratoryProfessor Hogle's page at Harvard Medical School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogle, James American biophysicists Harvard Medical School faculty 1951 births Living people University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Scripps Research faculty Harvard University alumni