The NAVBO Meritorious Awards Committee has named Dr. Mark H. Ginsberg, Scripps Research Institute, as the recipient of the 2003 Earl P. Benditt Research Career Award for his seminal work on platelet receptor function and integrin biology.
Dr. Ginsberg obtained his undergraduate degree in Psychology from McGill University in 1965 and his MD degree from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center in 1970. Dr. Ginsberg did his internship, residency and post-doctoral training with Dan McCarty in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where his early work focused on gout and platelets in inflammation. Dr. Ginsberg was a Founding Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology. From Chicago, Dr. Ginsberg traveled west to what was then the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation. As a Research Associate at Scripps, Dr. Ginsberg initiated studies examining the effects of monosodium urate crystals and bacterial lipopolysaccharides on platelet activation. These early studies served as a critical foray into the field of cell adhesion, which at that time was still in its infancy. Dr. Ginsberg rose quickly through the ranks at Scripps to his current position of Professor of Cell Biology/Division of Vascular Biology. Throughout his years at Scripps, Dr. Ginsberg made many important discoveries that have dramatically advanced our thinking of cell-cell interactions and cellular signaling through the family of integrin receptors. In the 1980’s, Dr. Ginsberg and his colleagues elucidated a number of platelet surface proteins including fibronectin, and the gpIIbIIIa receptor (PNAS 77:1049-1053, 1980; J Cell Biol. 92:565-573, 1982; PNAS 83:6002-6006, 1986; Science 231:1559-1562, 1986). This led to the discovery of a broadly distributed family of cell adhesion receptors, now known as integrins (PNAS 84:7114-7118, 1987; Science 242:91-93, 1988; Cell 65:409-416, 1991). These studies paved the way for Dr. Ginsberg’s elegant work on so-called “inside-out” signaling that he popularized and helped shape (J Cell Biol. 124:1047-1059, 1994; Nature 402:676-681, 1999).
Along the way, Dr. Ginsberg made a number of other noteworthy discoveries including the first isolation and cloning of Gravin (aka SSeCKS or AKAP12), which is a tumor suppressor gene, involved in, among other things, vascular wall growth control. Dr. Ginsberg has trained nearly fifty post-doctoral fellows, many of whom have gone on to illustrious careers in their own right. Dr. Ginsberg serves on several prominent Editorial Boards and numerous National and Regional Committees. His work has been recognized with many awards including a MERIT Award from the NIH, several Memorial Lectures and The Nobel Symposium Lecture in 1995. Dr. Ginsberg’s Benditt Award Lecture, “Cell Adhesion in Cardiovascular Biology,” will be given on April 12, 2003 at VB2003 in San Diego, California.
