SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE IN BIOCHEMISTRY

he Department of Biochemistry at The George Washington University is an academic unit nearly a century old with a reputation of excellence in teaching and research. Over the course of almost ninety years, the vitality and growth of the department has played a pivotal role in the training of medical and basic science undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom have pursued distinguished careers in the medical sciences. In addition to the educational mission, the department has a long history of distinguished faculty who have shaped medicine and science through breakthrough work and leadership.

The founding chair of the department was Joseph H. Roe, PhD, who chaired from 1922-1932 and again from 1938-1959. A renowned teacher and scholar, Dr. Roe pioneered work in carbohydrate metabolism and developed the widely applied Roe-Keuther procedure to determine ascorbic acid concentrations. Vincent du Vigneaud, PhD chaired the Department from 1932-1938. His research focused on insulin, biotin, transmethylation, penicillin, and elucidating and synthesizing oxytocin and vasopressin. In 1955 Dr. du Vigneaud received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the isolation, structural identification, and total synthesis of the cyclic peptide, oxytocin. Carleton R. Treadwell, PhD led the department from 1959-1978. He gained international recognition in the field of lipid metabolism with a primary focus on the mechanism of cholesterol absorption. His work during this era aided in establishing the relationship between the dietary intake of cholesterol, the elevation in serum cholesterol, and the increased risk for development of coronary artery disease.

Within the most recent era, the department was chaired by Allan L. Goldstein, PhD from 1978 to March 2009, when Rakesh Kumar, PhD was appointed to as its chair. An authority on the thymus gland and the workings of the immune system, Dr. Goldstein co-discovered (with Abraham White) the Thymosins, a family of hormone-like peptides isolated from the thymus gland. Dr. Goldstein’s research has helped to define the role of biological response modifiers in health and disease, and led to the discovery of important new links between the immune system, the neuroendocrine system, and the brain.