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Richard A. Lockshin (born December 1937 in
Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...
) is an American cellular biologist known for his work on
apoptosis Apoptosis (from ) is a form of programmed cell death that occurs in multicellular organisms and in some eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms such as yeast. Biochemistry, Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes (Morphology (biol ...
.


Academic background

He was educated at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
where, in 1959, he obtained his bachelor's degree. This was followed by doctoral studies at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
under the guidance of Carroll Williams. Lockshin focused mainly on developmental cell death in insects and for which he received his Ph.D. in 1963. In 1964, Lockshin and Williams published their landmark contribution on "Programmed Cell Death: Endocrine potentiation of the breakdown of the intersegmental muscles of silkmoths", in which they coined the term,
programmed cell death Programmed cell death (PCD) sometimes referred to as cell, or cellular suicide is the death of a cell (biology), cell as a result of events inside of a cell, such as apoptosis or autophagy. PCD is carried out in a biological process, which usual ...
, during a time in which little research was being carried out on this topic. Richard Lockshin has made significant contributions to the cell death community. He was one of the founders of th
International Cell Death Society
and acted as the society's President from 1998 to 2002. Richard Lockshin is a retired Emeritus professor of St. John's University (Jamaica, NY). Lockshin has a twin brother, Michael D. Lockshin, a rheumatologist.


Career

His laboratory and study group at St. John's University focused on the causal mechanisms of
apoptosis Apoptosis (from ) is a form of programmed cell death that occurs in multicellular organisms and in some eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms such as yeast. Biochemistry, Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes (Morphology (biol ...
, or
programmed cell death Programmed cell death (PCD) sometimes referred to as cell, or cellular suicide is the death of a cell (biology), cell as a result of events inside of a cell, such as apoptosis or autophagy. PCD is carried out in a biological process, which usual ...
. The following is specifically was taken from his St. John's University Profile Page:
Our laboratory has focused for many years on cell death, a field that now boasts over 100,000 publications and is known also by the terms "apoptosis" and "programmed cell death". First recognized in development (where does the tail of a metamorphosing tadpole go?), cell death is now considered to be a major component of development, homeostasis, aging, and many diseases. Some examples are: Most developmental abnormalities (teratologies) arise from excessive or insufficient cell death. In the developing central nervous system, as many as half of the newly-born cells die, with this death being essential for proper neural development. Many forms of cancer are failures of cells to die at the right time. At least half of the cells that die in a heart attack could be salvaged if we knew how to control cell death. A major approach in treating AIDS is to limit the death of the T-cells (most of which are not infected with virus but rather are induced to commit suicide), and Alzheimer's Disease is inherently a problem of cell death. We have looked for many years at signaling mechanisms inducing cells to die as well as the proteases that take the cells apart and may be the killing mechanism. Currently we focus on two major directions: Proteases other than caspases (proteases with very restricted substrate specificity that are the major proteases in apoptosis) and the acquisition by an embryo of the ability to undergo apoptosis. These studies have taken us, including many students, to many countries including (2000-2002) Canada, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Austria, and Australia.


References


General references

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External links


PubMed list of scientific publicationsGoogle Scholar citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lockshin, Richard A. 1937 births Harvard University alumni 21st-century American biologists Living people American twins