Krzysztof Palczewski, a member of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

and the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, is a Polish-born American biochemist and pharmacologist serving as a Donald Bren Professor and Distinguished Professor at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

. 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 The University of Wrocław (, UWr; ) is a public research university in Wrocław, Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researcher ...

(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 The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, thus launching a scientific career in the U.S. that brought him from the

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 ...

and

structural biology Structural biology deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every level of organization. Early structural biologists throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries we ...

of the visual cycle components to drug discovery and novel treatments of

eye diseases This is a partial list of human eye diseases and disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) publishes a classification of known diseases and injuries, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, or ...

. He joined the faculty of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

(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 Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

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 Rhodopsin, also known as visual purple, is a protein encoded by the ''RHO'' gene and a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). It is a light-sensitive receptor protein that triggers visual phototransduction in rod cells. Rhodopsin mediates dim ...

, which led to new insights into the function of

G protein-coupled receptors G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-(pass)-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors (GPLR), form a large protein family, group of evoluti ...

. 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 Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred vision, blurred or vision loss, no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no sym ...

, 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 CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...

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 (née 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) {{Authority control Living people 1957 births Polish pharmacologists Polish scientists Members of the National Academy of Medicine Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of California, Irvine faculty Case Western Reserve University faculty University of Washington faculty