preview

Bruce Alan Beutler's Life And Accomplishments

Decent Essays

Bruce Alan Beutler was born on December 29, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois. Shortly after being born, he and his family relocated to Arcadia, California in 1959 due to his father accepting a position as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California. His father was a scientist and physician and his mother a technical writer. From a young age, Beutler was exposed to the world of science and was quickly engrossed with its endless wonders. He attended public schools up to the age of 13. He then was admitted to Polytechnic School, a college preparatory school in Pasadena, California. The mission of Polytechnic School is, “To develop the intellect, talents, and character of each student in a community of learning dedicated to principles of academic excellence that values the uniqueness and dignity of each member and fosters personal responsibility and service to others” (Polytechnic). No wonder why his parents felt it necessary to enroll him into this prestigious school.
In high school and in college, Beutler began to work in his father's laboratory and conducted his own authentic research. By age 14 Beutler could purify proteins and characterize …show more content…

By cloning the LPS locus, he was able to identify a ‘toll-like receptor’ (TLR4) which acted sense the presence of invading microbes bearing LPS. Receptors of the same family, ten of which are now known to exist in humans, each ‘tuned’ to detect different kinds of microbes, also initiate inflammation to combat infection, but sometimes shock as well. It was for this work that Beutler won the Nobel Prize, and his team at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center continues to search for proteins that protect mammals against defined infections. In the process, they have identified genes required for other functions, including the regulation of iron absorption, hearing and the development of embryos

Get Access