Ptashne, Mark
Person
Biography
Mark Ptashne, born in Chicago on June 5, 1940, is a molecular biologist who has focused on gene regulation throughout his career. He earned his undergraduate degree at Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1961 and his PhD from Harvard in 1968, afterwards joining the Harvard faculty. In 1971, he was made a professor. In 1980 he became the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and in 1993 he was awarded an endowed chair. He left Harvard in 1997 for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he is currently the Ludwig Chair of Molecular Biology.
Ptashne’s work has been the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of the lytic and lysogenic life cycles of bacteriophage lambda. He was the first scientist to demonstrate bindings between protein and DNA, and is the originator of the “ball and stick” model of transcription factor functions. This demonstrates how bacteria and yeast typically consist of regions that mediate DNA binding and interaction with transcriptional activators or repressors.
In addition to his scientific work with bacteriophage lambda and gene regulation, Ptashne also co-founded Genetics Institute, Inc. with Thomas Maniatis, at the time considered a controversial move by a Harvard scientist.
He holds multiple awards for his work, including the 1985 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University, the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1997, and the Massry Prize from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in 1998. He has written multiple books, including “Gene and Signals” and “A Genetic Switch.”
Found in 55 Collections and/or Records:
Postcard from the Universidad Nacional De Mar Del Plata Republica Argentina to Sydney Brenner, 1969-1979
Item — Box CP13, Folder: 7
Identifier: SB_01_01_0522_011
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
1969-1979
Ptashne, Mark, 1961-1994
File — Box 13, Folder: 7
Identifier: SB_1_1_522
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates:
1961-1994
Ptashne, Mark, 2015
File — Box CR88, Folder: 25
Identifier: JDW_02_02
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The correspondence series includes handwritten and typed letters, carbon copies, postcards and notes dating from 1916-2012. The bulk of the material covers Watson’s sojourn in Cambridge (1951-1954), Harvard (1956-1975) and as Director (1968-1994), President (1994-2003), Chancellor (2003-2007), and Chancellor Emeritus (2007-2011) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Watson’s career at the Copenhagen Crystallography Lab and time at California Institute of Technology are...
Dates:
2015
Ptashne, Mark, 2015
File — Box CR90, Folder: 24
Identifier: JDW_02_02
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The correspondence series includes handwritten and typed letters, carbon copies, postcards and notes dating from 1916-2012. The bulk of the material covers Watson’s sojourn in Cambridge (1951-1954), Harvard (1956-1975) and as Director (1968-1994), President (1994-2003), Chancellor (2003-2007), and Chancellor Emeritus (2007-2011) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Watson’s career at the Copenhagen Crystallography Lab and time at California Institute of Technology are...
Dates:
2015
Ptashne, Mark, 1960 - 2015
File — Box 5, Folder: 6
Identifier: MSM_b04_f11_001
Scope and Contents
From the Sub-Series:
Of particular note in this subseries is the correspondence between Meselson and Jean Weigle (University of Geneva) in which they discuss Meselson's experiments on transduction (1959-1962).
Dates:
1960 - 2015
Mark Ptashne Collection
Collection
Identifier: MSP
Scope and Contents
The Mark Ptashne Collection contains two separate correspondence series. The first contains correspondence with Dr. George Klein of the Karolinska Institute, the renowned microbiologist, philosopher, and author. The second series contains correspondence with over one hundred scientists, including Nobel laureates Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner, and Walter Gilbert. This series also contains clippings, photographs, essays, and reports.The Ptashne-Klein materials cover a wide range of...
Dates:
1967 - 2019
Found in:
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives
Ptashne, Mark, 1985 - 1997
File — Box 8: Series Correspondence, Folder: 5
Identifier: Correspondence
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing mail generated from 1975 to around 2012. Early parts of the collection consist mostly of handwritten or typed letters, with onion paper copies being common. In the later years, Maniatis transitioned to mostly using email and the majority of the correspondence is in that format.The collection is separated into seven subseries:I. Chronological Files, Set 1, 1981-1983
II. Chronological Files, Set 2, 1975-2005...
Dates:
1985 - 1997
Ptashne, Mark (1 of 3), 1965 - 1989
File — Box CR33, Folder: 34
Identifier: JDW_02_02_1451_001
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The correspondence series includes handwritten and typed letters, carbon copies, postcards and notes dating from 1916-2012. The bulk of the material covers Watson’s sojourn in Cambridge (1951-1954), Harvard (1956-1975) and as Director (1968-1994), President (1994-2003), Chancellor (2003-2007), and Chancellor Emeritus (2007-2011) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Watson’s career at the Copenhagen Crystallography Lab and time at California Institute of Technology are...
Dates:
1965 - 1989
Ptashne, Mark (2 of 3), 1990 - 1994
File — Box CR34, Folder: 01
Identifier: JDW_02_02_1452_001
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The correspondence series includes handwritten and typed letters, carbon copies, postcards and notes dating from 1916-2012. The bulk of the material covers Watson’s sojourn in Cambridge (1951-1954), Harvard (1956-1975) and as Director (1968-1994), President (1994-2003), Chancellor (2003-2007), and Chancellor Emeritus (2007-2011) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Watson’s career at the Copenhagen Crystallography Lab and time at California Institute of Technology are...
Dates:
1990 - 1994
Ptashne, Mark (3 of 3), 1994 - 2000
File — Box CR34, Folder: 02
Identifier: JDW_02_02_1453_001
Scope and Contents
From the Series:
The correspondence series includes handwritten and typed letters, carbon copies, postcards and notes dating from 1916-2012. The bulk of the material covers Watson’s sojourn in Cambridge (1951-1954), Harvard (1956-1975) and as Director (1968-1994), President (1994-2003), Chancellor (2003-2007), and Chancellor Emeritus (2007-2011) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Watson’s career at the Copenhagen Crystallography Lab and time at California Institute of Technology are...
Dates:
1994 - 2000
Additional filters:
- Type
- Archival Object 53
- Collection 2
- Subject
- Correspondence as Topic 5
- Personnel Selection 5
- Employment references 4
- Publications 4
- Travel 4
- Bacteriophages 3
- Invitations 3
- Reprints (Publications) 3
- Thank-you notes 3
- Cambridge (England) 2
- Cambridge (Mass.) 2
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2
- DNA 2
- Employment 2
- Experiments 2
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2
- Sample requests 2
- Science Study and teaching 2
- Adenoviruses 1
- Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules. 1
- Bacterial genetics 1
- Banbury Center 1
- Biochemistry 1
- Biotechnology Patents 1
- Bloomington (Ind.) 1
- Book reviews 1
- Books 1
- Boston (Mass.) 1
- Cancer 1
- Cancer--Research 1
- Career Choice 1
- Cells 1
- Chicago (Ill.) 1
- Cloning, Molecular 1
- Cold Spring Harbor (N.Y.) 1
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Press 1
- Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology 1
- Communication in science 1
- Copenhagen (Denmark) 1
- DNA Replication 1
- DNA Restriction Enzymes 1
- DNA, Recombinant 1
- DNA--Structure 1
- Education 1
- Eukaryota 1
- Genes 1
- Genetics 1
- Greece 1
- Holocaust 1
- Human Genome Project 1
- Human Genome Project--Economic aspects--United States. 1
- Human Genome Project--Moral and ethical aspects 1
- Human Genome--Patents 1
- Human genome 1
- Human genome--Congresses. 1
- Klein, George 1
- Laurel Hollow (N.Y.) 1
- Long Island (N.Y.) 1
- Manuscripts as Topic 1
- Membership 1
- Molecular Biology 1
- Music 1
- Neurobiology 1
- Nobel Prize winners 1
- Nobel Prizes 1
- Proteins--Synthesis 1
- RNA 1
- RNA, Transfer 1
- Recombinant DNA 1
- Research 1
- Retroviruses 1
- SV40 (Virus) 1
- Tobacco Mosaic Virus 1
- UK Human Genome Mapping Project 1
- Viruses 1
- Women in Science 1
- Work 1
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- Writing 1
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