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Edward Arthur Kravitz, Ph. D. (born December 19, 1932) is the George Packer Berry Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School[1]. Events 324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. Harvard Medical School ( HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University and currently the #1 medical school in America as ranked by U Early in his scientific career Ed and colleagues demonstrated that gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) functions as a neurotransmitter[2]. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA is the chief inhibitory Neurotransmitter in the Mammalian Central nervous system. In addition, he and Tony Stretton were the first to use the intracellular dye procion yellow to visualize neuronal architecture[3]. Later, Ed’s work with neuroamines demonstrated that serotonin and octopamine act as synaptic modulators. Ed continued to explore the function of amines using Homarus americanus, the American lobster, as a model organism to study aggression. The American lobster, Homarus americanus, is one Species of Lobster found on the Atlantic coast of North America. The American lobster, Homarus americanus, is one Species of Lobster found on the Atlantic coast of North America. He currently works on aggressive behavior using the genetically manipulable model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly. Drosophila melanogaster (from the Greek for black-bellied dew-lover) is a two-winged insect that belongs to the Diptera, the order

Contents

Childhood and Personal Life

Ed Kravitz was born in New York to Ada Machlus and Isadore Kravitz. He has one older brother named Bill, born in 1929. Ed was a gifted child growing up in a small one-bedroom apartment in The Bronx during the Great Depression. More than once he skipped an entire grade in order to be challenged in school and ended up in college at age 16 [4]. As a young boy Ed loved playing noisy street games such as Johnny on the Pony, Ring-o-levy-o, Stoop ball, and Stickball. Stoop ball (also spelled "stoopball" is a game that is played by throwing a ball against a stoop (stairs leading up to a building on the pavement in front of a building Stickball is a Street game related to Baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game in large cities in the Northeastern United States (especially In high school and college he played baseball and basketball. Ed met his wife Kathryn Anne Frakes at the University of Michigan; they were married in 1959. The University of Michigan Ann Arbor ( U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a top-ranked Coeducational public research Together they had two sons, David (b. February 21, 1964) and James (b. May 14, 1966).

Scientific career

After graduating from Evander Childs High School in The Bronx, Ed remained in the neighborhood he grew up in and began his studies at City College of New York (CCNY). Evander Childs Educational Campus occupies the building and grounds originally used by Evander Childs High School The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as the City College of New York or simply City College, CCNY, or colloquially as In 1954 Ed graduated from CCNY with a double major in Biology and Chemistry. Unsure of what to do next, Ed applied to be an officer in the U. S. Army Medical Corps as well as to two medical schools, and for a Research Assistant position. He ended up at Sloan-Kettering in the laboratory of George Tarnowski. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC is a Cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. Under the supervision of George Tarnowski, Lou Kaplan, a young biochemist at the time, and Christine Riley, director of the chemotherapy unit, Ed began an independent research project studying amino acid metabolism in ascites tumor cells. It was this experience that led to Ed’s decision to pursue a career as a Scientist. In 1954, Ed began graduate school at the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan Ann Arbor ( U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a top-ranked Coeducational public research Ed met a lot of great colleagues at this time, including Marshall Nirenberg with whom he shared an apartment on Huron Avenue in Ann Arbor. Marshall Warren Nirenberg (born April 10, 1927) is a US Biochemist and geneticist. Ann Arbor is a city in the US state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. Ed’s thesis work was done in the laboratory of Armand Guarino and led to his first paper “On the effect of inorganic phosphate on hexose phosphate metabolism” which was published in the journal Science. In 1959 Ed received his Ph. D. in Biological Chemistry and began working in Earl Stadtman’s laboratory at the National Institutes of Health. "NIH" redirects here For other meanings of NIH see NIH (disambiguation. Although at one time Ed planned on pursuing two additional post-doctoral positions after studying morphine metabolism in the Stadtman laboratory, he was recruited to Harvard Medical School by Steve Kuffler in 1960. A postdoctoral fellow (colloquially " post-doc " is a temporary research position held by a person who has completed his or her doctoral studies Medical uses Morphine can be used as an analgesic in hospital settings to relieve pain in Myocardial infarction pain in Harvard Medical School ( HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University and currently the #1 medical school in America as ranked by U Almost immediately, Ed began working with Steve Kuffler, Dave Potter and Nico van Gelder on the experiments that would eventually demonstrate that GABA functions as a neurotransmitter. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA is the chief inhibitory Neurotransmitter in the Mammalian Central nervous system. From his biochemistry training and friends at NIH, Ed knew that by growing Pseudomonas fluorescens on GABA as a sole carbon source, an enzymatic assay could be used to quantify the amount of GABA in the neurons of crustaceans. "NIH" redirects here For other meanings of NIH see NIH (disambiguation. Pseudomonas fluorescens is a common Gram-negative, rod-shaped Bacterium. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA is the chief inhibitory Neurotransmitter in the Mammalian Central nervous system. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA is the chief inhibitory Neurotransmitter in the Mammalian Central nervous system. Using this enzymatic assay, the group quickly learned that GABA was highly expressed in inhibitory neurons. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA is the chief inhibitory Neurotransmitter in the Mammalian Central nervous system. Later Ed worked with Masanori Otsuka, Les Iversen, and Zach Hall to show that GABA was released from inhibitory neurons of lobsters [5]. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA is the chief inhibitory Neurotransmitter in the Mammalian Central nervous system. While today Ed’s work on GABA is well respected, it was quite controversial when first presented publicly. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA is the chief inhibitory Neurotransmitter in the Mammalian Central nervous system. After Ed’s first talk on the work at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, David Nachmanson commented “Well, we don’t know what that little bit of an amino acid that you see being released is when you stimulate a nerve, but it certainly is not a chemical transmitter compound, because we all know that transmission is electrical”[6]. The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL is an international center for research and education in biology and ecology Woods Hole is a Census-designated place (CDP in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States.

The second project Ed took on in the mid-1960s was much more anatomical in nature. In collaboration with his postdoctoral fellow Tony Stretton, Ed began developing a technique to visualize the structure of neurons in order to determine whether neuronal shapes are genetically specified. Neurons (ˈnjuːɹɒn also known as neurones and nerve cells) are responsive cells in the Nervous system that process and transmit information Two other Scientists at Harvard Medical School, Ed Furshpan and Jaime Alvarez, had been using intracellular dyes to localize their recording electrodes in the brains of fish, but none of their dyes were able to stain the neuropil processes of the injected neurons. Harvard Medical School ( HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University and currently the #1 medical school in America as ranked by U Ed and Tony contacted Imperial Chemicals, a manufacturer of fabric staining dyes located in Providence, RI and obtained over 120 dyes to inject into lobster neurons. In the end they found a single dye, Procion Yellow, that was highly soluble, readily released from microelectrodes, completely filled cells and their processes, survived fixation and dehydration, and, most importantly, was fluorescent. Using Procion Yellow, Ed, Tony, and Edith Maier found that neurons from two different animals had strikingly similar morphological shapes. They eventually injected over 100 physiologically identified neurons, processed and sectioned the ganglia, and reconstructed the cell shapes by hand from photographs of the serial sections[7]. Neurons (ˈnjuːɹɒn also known as neurones and nerve cells) are responsive cells in the Nervous system that process and transmit information In Anatomy, a ganglion (pl ganglia) is a tissue mass. Neurology In neurological contexts ganglia are composed mainly of

In the 1970s Ed’s laboratory turned their focus back to neurotransmitters. See Chemical synapse for an introduction to concepts and terminology used in this article After finding evidence that glutamate acts as an excitatory transmitter in crustaceans, they found that acetylcholine functions as the lobster sensory transmitter compound. Glutamic acid (abbreviated as Glu or E) is one of the 20 Alpha Amino acids It is not among the human Essential amino acids Its The Chemical compound acetylcholine (often abbreviated ACh) is a Neurotransmitter in both the Peripheral nervous system (PNS and Central Around this time, the laboratory also began experimenting with the neuroamines serotonin and octopamine. Serotonin (ˌsɛrəˈtoʊnən ( 5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) is a Monoamine Neurotransmitter synthesized in serotonergic Neurons Octopamine is a Biogenic amine which is closely related to Noradrenaline, and has Noradrenergic and Dopaminergic effects By trying to understand how naturally occurring neuromodulators might act, Marge Livingstone, a graduate student at the time, injected serotonin or octopamine into two different lobsters. Serotonin (ˌsɛrəˈtoʊnən ( 5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) is a Monoamine Neurotransmitter synthesized in serotonergic Neurons Octopamine is a Biogenic amine which is closely related to Noradrenaline, and has Noradrenergic and Dopaminergic effects The result completely astounded Ed! The lobster injected with serotonin stood tall and looked just like a dominant animal while the lobster injected with octopamine adopted a lowered posture and looked like a subordinate animal [8]. Serotonin (ˌsɛrəˈtoʊnən ( 5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) is a Monoamine Neurotransmitter synthesized in serotonergic Neurons Octopamine is a Biogenic amine which is closely related to Noradrenaline, and has Noradrenergic and Dopaminergic effects These lobster injection experiments were the birth of the aggressive behavior studies that are still ongoing in Ed’s laboratory today.

In the 1980s and 1990s Ed’s laboratory evolved into a neuroethology laboratory. Neuroethology ("neuro" Greek related to Nerve cells, "ethos" Greek habit or custom is an evolutionary and comparative approach to the study of animal behavior In collaboration with his postdoctoral fellow Robert Huber, a quantitative analysis of lobster fighting behavior was underway. Lobsters proved to be an excellent model system for studies on aggression due to the ease in getting animals to fight and that fact that anatomical and physiological studies were possible. Clawed lobsters compose a family ( Nephropidae, sometimes also Homaridae) of large marine Crustaceans Lobsters are economically important as However, Ed soon realized that in order to discover new neurons and pathways that were important for aggression, he needed an organism whose genome was sequenced and where genetic methods were available for solving sophisticated problems. In classical genetics the genome of a Diploid Organism including Eukarya refers to a full set of chromosomes or genes in a Gamete, thereby This led to the birth of the Fruit Fly Fight Club. The studies began with three Harvard undergraduates, Selby Chen, Ann Lee, and Nina Bowens who did the initial experiments of getting two flies to fight, and are ongoing in his laboratory.

Honors and Awards (partial list)

American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976)

Einstein Visiting Fellow, Hebrew University (1981)

National Academy of Sciences, USA (1984)

Institute of Medicine (1986)

Governing Council, Institute of Medicine (1990-1994)

Humboldt Research Award (1992)

John S. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים الجامعة العبرية في القدس abbreviated HUJI) is The National Academy of Sciences (NAS is a corporation in the United States whose members serve Pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science Guggenheim Fellowship (1992)

A. Clifford Barger Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, Harvard Medical School (1998)

Education Award, Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs (2001)

Harold Amos Diversity Award, Harvard Medical School (2007)

References

  1. ^ Edward Kravitz Faculty Biography, Harvard Medical School
  2. ^ Kravitz, E.A., Potter, D.D., Van Gelder, N.M. 1962. Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid and Other Blocking Substances extracted from Crab Muscle. Nature, 194: p.382-3.
  3. ^ Stretton A.O., Kravitz E.A. 1968. Neuronal geometry: determination with a technique of intracellular dye injection. Science, 162: p.132-4.
  4. ^ Camhi J. 2000. Introduction to the King Solomon lecture of Edward Kravitz. J Comp Physiol., 186: p. 219-20.
  5. ^ Otsuka M., Iversen L.L., Hall Z.W., Kravitz E.A. 1966. Release of gamma-aminobutyric acid from inhibitory nerves of lobster. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 56: p.1110-5.
  6. ^ Kravitz, E.A. 2003. My life up to now. In Squire L. (ed) The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography, Volume 4. Academic Press, NY p.280-343.
  7. ^ International Society for Neuroethology Newsletter March 2000
  8. ^ Livingstone M.S., Harris-Warrick R.M., Kravitz E.A. 1980. Serotonin and Octopamine Produce Opposite Postures in Lobsters. Science. 208: p.76-79.

External links

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