Jack William Szostak FRS was born on November 9, 1952. He is a Canadian American biologist with Polish and British heritage. He has won the Nobel Prize and has worked as a university professor at the University of Chicago. He also worked as a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and as an Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Szostak has made important contributions to the field of genetics. His work helped scientists locate genes in mammals and develop methods to change genes. His research was also important for the Human Genome Project. In 2009, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol W. Greider, for discovering how telomeres protect chromosomes.

Early life and education

Szostak was born in Montreal and Ottawa. Even though he does not speak Polish, he mentioned in an interview with Wprost weekly that he remembers his Polish heritage. He studied at Riverdale High School in Quebec and graduated at the age of 15 with a scholarship award. He earned a B.Sc in cell biology from McGill University at the age of 19. In 1970, while still a student, he took part in The Jackson Laboratory's Summer Student Program with the help of Dr. Chen K. Chai. He completed his PhD in biochemistry at Cornell University, where his advisor was Prof. Ray Wu. Afterward, he went to Harvard Medical School to begin his own research lab at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute. He thanked Ruth Sager for helping him get the job there when he had little experience. In 1984, Howard Goodman invited him to join Massachusetts General Hospital and the Department of Molecular Biology. He received tenure and became a full professor at Harvard Medical School in 1988. In 2022, he moved to the University of Chicago as a university professor in the Department of Chemistry and the college.

Research and career

Szostak helped create the first yeast artificial chromosome, which was important for finding where genes are located in mammals and for developing ways to change genes.

His research helped scientists understand how genes mix during cell division and how telomeres, which are special DNA parts at the ends of chromosomes, work.

In the early 1990s, his lab changed its focus to study RNA enzymes, which had recently been discovered by Cech and Altman. He created a method called in vitro evolution of RNA (also developed separately by Gerald Joyce), which helps find RNAs with specific functions through repeated steps of selection, copying, and changing. He found the first aptamer (a term he introduced) and discovered RNA enzymes that can join RNA pieces directly from random sequences (a project led by David Bartel).

His lab now studies how life began on Earth and how to create artificial cells in the lab. They have studied how RNA might have copied itself before enzymes existed. They focused on molecules called phosphorimidazolides, which can help build new RNA strands. Szostak and Katarzyna Adamala showed that adding citric acid to early cell models can solve problems caused by magnesium ions, which harm RNA and break down cell membranes.

Szostak created the idea of functional information, which measures the information in biological molecules like DNA or RNA based on their role.

In September 2022, Szostak became a professor at the University of Chicago, leading a new program called the Origins of Life Initiative.

Szostak also warns about the risks of creating mirror life, as he wrote in a 2024 article in Science.

Szostak has received many honors for his work. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, New York Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Kosciuszko Foundation Collegium of Eminent Scientists of Polish Origin and Ancestry.

He has received the following awards:
• United States National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology (1994)
• Hans Sigrist Prize, University of Bern, Switzerland (1997)
• Genetics Society of America Medal (2000)
• Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2006)
• Dr. H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008)
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2009, shared with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol W. Greider)
• Oparin Medal (2011)

According to the Alfred Nobel Foundation.