- Peter Walter
Peter Walter is a German-American
molecular biologist andbiochemist . He earned a B.S. degree inchemistry from theFree University of Berlin , an M.S. degree inorganic chemistry fromVanderbilt University , and a Ph.D. inbiochemistry from theRockefeller University . He is currently Professor and Chairman of the Department ofBiochemistry andBiophysics at theUniversity of California, San Francisco (UCSF).Peter Walter's laboratory at UCSF is engaged in studying
protein folding andprotein targeting , focusing on thesignal recognition particle (which he identified and characterized some years ago as a graduate student withGünter Blobel at the Rockefeller). Peter Walter has discovered afeedback loop within cells called the unfolded protein response. Cells need the right amount ofendoplasmic reticulum (ER) to properly fold new proteins. If there is too little ER, misfolded proteins accumulate, triggering a signaling pathway between the ER and the nucleus that produces more ER to increase the capacity with which the proteins can be properly folded. If this feedback loop does not work and misfolded proteins accumulate inside the ER, the cell commits suicide. Walter's lab has identified threegene s centrally involved in the unfolded protein response. Peter Walter is an Investigator of theHoward Hughes Medical Institute [http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/walter_bio.html] and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. [http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/200404213]Professor Walter is a co-author of [http://garlandscience.com/textbooks/0815332181.asp Molecular Biology of the Cell] , now in its fourth edition.
External links
* [http://walterlab.ucsf.edu/Site/Home.html Walter Lab] on the site of the
University of California, San Francisco
* [http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/walter_bio.html Peter Walter, Ph.D.] , bio on site of theHoward Hughes Medical Institute
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.