Download Dr. Palmiter received a AB in Zoology from Duke University in 1964

Richard D. Palmiter, PhD
Dr. Palmiter received a AB in Zoology from Duke University in 1964 and a PhD in Biological Sciences
from Stanford University in 1968. He has been at the University of Washington since 1974 and was
appointed as Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1976. Prior to moving to the
University of Washington, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University with Robert Schimke, at
G.D. Searle Research Laboratories in England with Norman Carey, and at Harvard University with Fotis
Kafatos. Dr. Palmiter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association of
Arts and Sciences. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the George Thom
Award, The New York Academy of Sciences Award in Biological and Medical Sciences, the CharlesLeopold Mayer Award from the French Academy of Sciences, and The Julius Axelrod Medal.
Dr. Palmiter is known for his contributions to various different areas of molecular biology and animal
physiology. His career began with a molecular dissection of the mechanisms by which steroid hormones
regulate gene transcription. In the 1970's, he and his colleagues showed that sex steroids regulate the
transcription of genes responsible for egg white production by laying hens. Later his group turned their
attention to the regulation and function of metallothionein genes. These gene products bind heavy metals
such as zinc and copper and are thought to play roles in metal homeostasis and protection against metal
toxicity and oxidative damage. Dr. Palmiter's group was the first to clone metallothionein genes and they
have gone on to dissect the regulatory elements involved in their expression. They have also generated
mice that make excess metallothionein or cannot make specific metallothionein proteins as a means of
exploring their function in animals.
Dr. Palmiter is perhaps best known for his pioneering studies making transgenic mice in a
transcontinental collaboration with Dr. Ralph Brinster at the University of Pennsylvania. They were the first
to introduce functional genes into the genome of mice, rabbits, sheep and pigs. Animals carrying foreign
genes are called transgenic. They created the so-called 'super mouse' that grew larger than normal as a
consequence of adding hybrid gene to the genome of the mouse. Those mice carried a growth hormone
gene that was controlled by the regulatory elements of a metallothionein gene.
During their fifteen-year collaboration they produced thousands of transgenic mice in the process of
examining many different biological questions. They used transgenic mice to discover the DNA
sequences important for restriction of gene expression to specific cell types. They also used this
technique to study genes that promote cell transformation and cancer. Palmiter's group has used gene
knockout techniques to inactive genes responsible for synthesis of chemical transmitters that are used by
the nervous system. This allows them to study the role of these messengers in development and function
of the nervous system. Using this approach they have learned that noradrenaline is essential for normal
maternal behavior and defense against cold stress. Mice that cannot make neuropeptide Y eat and grow
normally but they are alcoholic and prone to epileptic seizures. Their group has also learned that zinc is
used as a chemical transmitter in the brain and that it prevents excessive excitability of the CNS. Mice
that cannot make dopamine are hypoactive. In addition they are not motivated to eat or drink. However,
they can be kept alive with pharmacological delivery of L-DOPA or viral gene therapy with vectors that
restore L-DOPA synthesis.
Sources: The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsonʼs Research & The Howard Hughes Medical Institute