Renato Dulbecco

About Renato Dulbecco

Who is it?: Virologist
Birth Day: February 22, 1914
Birth Place: Italy, American
Died On: February 19, 2012(2012-02-19) (aged 97)\nLa Jolla, California
Birth Sign: Pisces
Residence: Imperia, Milan, La Jolla
Alma mater: University of Turin
Known for: Reverse transcriptase
Awards: Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1964) Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1973) Selman A. Waksman Award (1974) ForMemRS (1974) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1975)
Fields: Virologist
Institutions: Indiana University Bloomington California Institute of Technology Salk Institute London Research Institute
Doctoral students: Howard Temin

Renato Dulbecco Net Worth

Renato Dulbecco was born on February 22, 1914 in Italy, American, is Virologist. Renato Dulbecco was an Italian American virologist who won a share of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1975. A medical researcher, he performed significant work on oncoviruses, the viruses that can cause cancer when they infect animal cells. A good student from a young age, he was deeply influenced by an uncle who was a respected physician. Motivated by him, Dulbecco decided to study medicine at the University of Turin and graduated in morbid anatomy and pathology under the supervision of Professor Giuseppe Levi. He served in the Italian army in World War II, but later joined the resistance. After the war, he moved to the United States and began his research on viruses. After working with Salvador Luria on bacteriophages, he moved to Caltech on the invitation of Max Delbrück and joined his group. It was here that he began his seminal work on animal oncoviruses, especially of polyoma family. Over the course of his career, he collaborated with several other brilliant scientists including his student Howard Temin and the cancer biologist and virologist Marguerite Vogt. While working at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute), he was a part of the team that launched the Human Genome Project.
Renato Dulbecco is a member of Virologists

💰Renato Dulbecco Net worth: $15 Million

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Biography/Timeline

1936

Dulbecco was born in Catanzaro (Southern Italy), but spent his childhood and grew up in Liguria, in the coastal city Imperia. He graduated from high school at 16, then moved to the University of Turin. Despite a strong interest for mathematics and physics, he decided to study Medicine. At only 22, he graduated in morbid anatomy and pathology under the supervision of professor Giuseppe Levi. During these years he met Salvador Luria and Rita Levi-Montalcini, whose friendship and encouragement would later bring him to the United States. In 1936 he was called up for military Service as a medical officer, and later (1938) discharged. In 1940 Italy entered World War II and Dulbecco was recalled and sent to the front in France and Russia, where he was wounded. After hospitalization and the collapse of Fascism, he joined the resistance against the German occupation.

1949

After the war he resumed his work at Levi's laboratory, but soon he moved, together with Levi-Montalcini, to the U.S., where, at Indiana University, he worked with Salvador Luria on bacteriophages. In the summer of 1949 he moved to Caltech, joining Max Delbrück's group (see Phage group). There he started his studies about animal oncoviruses, especially of polyoma family. In the late 1950s, he took Howard Temin as a student, with whom, and together with David Baltimore, he would later share the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell." Temin and Baltimore arrived at the discovery of reverse transcriptase simultaneously and independently from each other; although Dulbecco did not take direct part in either of their experiments, he had taught the two methods they used to make the discovery.

1962

Throughout this time he also worked with Marguerite Vogt. In 1962, he moved to the Salk Institute and then in 1972 to The Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now named the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute). In 1986 he was among the Scientists who launched the Human Genome Project. From 1993 to 1997 he moved back to Italy, where he was President of the Institute of Biomedical Technologies at C.N.R. (National Council of Research) in Milan. He also retained his position on the faculty of Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Dulbecco was actively involved in research into identification and characterization of mammary gland cancer stem cells until December 2011. His research using a stem cell model system suggested that a single malignant cell with stem cell properties may be sufficient to induce cancer in mice and can generate distinct populations of tumor-initiating cells also with cancer stem cell properties. Dulbecco's examinations into the origin of mammary gland cancer stem cells in solid tumors was a continuation of his early investigations of cancer being a disease of acquired mutations. His interest in cancer stem cells was strongly influenced by evidence that in addition to genomic mutations, epigenetic modification of a cell may contribute to the development or progression of cancer.

1965

In 1965 he received the Marjory Stephenson Prize from the Society for General Microbiology. In 1973 he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Theodore Puck and Harry Eagle. Dulbecco was the recipient of the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences in 1974. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1974.

1980

Oncoviruses are the cause of some forms of human cancers. Dulbecco's study gave a basis for a precise understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which they propagate, thus allowing humans to better fight them. Furthermore, the mechanisms of carcinogenesis mediated by oncoviruses closely resemble the process by which normal cells degenerate into cancer cells. Dulbecco's discoveries allowed humans to better understand and fight cancer. In addition, it is well known that in the 1980s and 1990s, an understanding of reverse transcriptase and of the origins, nature, and properties of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, of which there are two well-understood serotypes, HIV-1, and the less-common and less virulent HIV-2), the virus which, if unchecked, ultimately causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), led to the development of the first group of drugs that could be considered successful against the virus, the reverse transcriptase inhibitors, of which zidovudine is a well-known Example. These drugs are still used today as one part of the highly-active antiretroviral therapy drug cocktail that is in contemporary use.