Paul David Gottlieb (December 4, 1943 – November 1, 2003) was an American immunological researcher and professor of medical genetics and microbiology. Paul D. Gottlieb grew up in

Highland Park, New Jersey Highland Park is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area. The borough is located on the northern banks of the Raritan River, in th ...

and received his secondary school education at

Rutgers Preparatory School Rutgers Preparatory School (also known as Rutgers Prep or RPS) is a private, coeducational, college preparatory day school established in 1766. The school educates students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, located on a campus along t ...

. In 1965 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he wrote his senior thesis under the supervision of Noboru Sueoka. In autumn 1965 Gottlieb became a graduate student at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

. On December 27, 1969, in Montgomery, Alabama, he married Nell Wallace Harrell, whom he met at Rockefeller University. She graduated from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

with a Ph.D. in sociology. Paul Gottlieb received his Ph.D. in 1971 from Rockefeller University. He was part of a team of 11 scientists led by

Gerald Edelman Gerald Maurice Edelman (; July 1, 1929 – May 17, 2014) was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research conc ...

. Achieving a major scientific breakthrough, they determined the molecular structure of

gamma globulin Gamma globulins are a class of globulins, identified by their position after serum protein electrophoresis. The most significant gamma globulins are immunoglobulins (antibodies), although some immunoglobulins are not gamma globulins, and some ...

Disulfide bonds In chemistry, a disulfide (or disulphide in British English) is a compound containing a functional group or the anion. The linkage is also called an SS-bond or sometimes a disulfide bridge and usually derived from two thiol groups. In in ...

link together the protein subunits structure of antibody proteins. The protein subunits of antibodies are of two types, the larger heavy chains and the smaller light chains. Gottlieb's contribution was to determine a considerable part of the molecular structure of the light chains. He was a postdoc at Rockefeller University and then Stanford University. In 1980 he became a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. There he also served for some years as chair of the department and in 2001 became director of the School of Biological Sciences. Upon his death he was survived by his wife and their daughter, Erin A. Gottlieb, M.D. In 1989 he was elected a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

. As a memorial tribute, the University of Texas at Austin established the Dr. Paul Gottlieb Lecture Series.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottlieb, Paul David 1943 births 2003 deaths American molecular biologists Jewish American scientists Rutgers Preparatory School alumni Princeton University alumni Rockefeller University alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science People from Highland Park, New Jersey