Jeffrey Esko
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Jeffrey David Esko, Ph.D.,M.D. (h.c) is currently a Distinguished Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine[1] and a Founding Director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center[2] at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on understanding the structure, biosynthesis and biological roles of proteoglycans in cells and model organisms. Esko popularized[3][citation needed] proteoglycans through his pioneering genetic and functional studies in cells and model organisms. He discovered the dependence of tumor formation on heparan sulfate, the first small molecule inhibitors of heparan sulfate, the action of proteoglycans as receptors for hepatic lipoprotein clearance and for delivery of therapeutic agents. Esko cofounded Zacharon Pharmaceuticals and TEGA Therapeutics.[4] He was an editor and author of the first textbook in the Glycobiology field, Essentials of Glycobiology, which is currently in its fourth edition.[5]
Esko received his Ph.D.in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. After an independent fellowship at the Molecular Biology Institute at the University of California,Los Angeles, he moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and then to the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego in 1996 to help build a program in Glycobiology. He has published over 350 scholarly papers, reviews and book chapters and was editor/author of the first textbook in the field, Essentials of Glycobiology (1st , 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions).[5][6] The 2nd through 4th editions of Essentials of Glycobiology are made freely available online and became one of the pioneering textbooks to be distributed electronically.[6][7]
Early work
Esko’s work has focused on the structure, assembly and function of heparan sulfate proteoglycans for the last 40 years. In the 1980s, Esko was the first to isolate and characterize animal cell mutants altered in the assembly of heparan sulfate.[8] His studies of the mutants revealed regulatory mechanisms that control the composition of glycosaminoglycans in cells. The mutants provided the first genetic evidence showing that heparan sulfate was required for growth factor activation and tumor growth. These cell lines have been used by hundreds of laboratories worldwide and they served as the benchmark for analysis of proteoglycan deficiencies in other systems, including zebrafish, fruit flies, nematodes and mice.[3] Since 1996, Esko has focused on the development of mutant mice bearing conditional mutations in enzymes involved in heparan sulfate assembly, the development of small molecule inhibitors, and analytical methods for characterizing heparan sulfate structure and proteoglycan core proteins.[9]
