Solomon Walter Englander is the Gershon-Cohen Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Medical Science at the University of Pennsylvania.[1] He is known for pioneering the development of the field of hydrogen exchange (HX) studies.[2]
Early life and education
Englander was born in 1930 into an immigrant, working class, orthodox Jewish family in Baltimore.[3] Torn between entering the rabbinate or a career in professional baseball, he instead worked his way through an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, graduating in 1951.[4]
Englander's research has focused on developing methods for HX measurement, accurately calibrating all aspects of protein[8][9] and nucleic acid[10] HX chemistry, and settling the bases for HX interpretation in terms of H-bonded structure, detailed structural dynamics, and energetics.[11][12] As a result, HX methods now provide an important tool in research to discover how proteins and nucleic acids function to make life possible.
Englander has used HX to explain a number of biomolecular problems, including nucleic acid and protein "breathing" reactions and site-resolved energy transfer and utilization.[1] He discovered protein "foldons"[13] and demonstrated their role in stepwise sequential protein folding pathways.[14] The understanding of protein folding, unfolding, and misfolding is fundamental to ongoing research in many biological processes central to health and disease.
Herbert A. Sober Memorial Lectureship Award (2008)
In 2008, Englander was awarded the Herbert A. Sober Lectureship[19] at the annual American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting in San Diego. The lectureship is awarded every two years and recognizes outstanding biochemical and molecular biological research with particular emphasis on the development of methods and techniques to aid in scientific research.[4]
On being awarded the Lectureship, George Rose, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor at The Johns Hopkins University, said of Englander:
Scientists are of many types. Among the very best are those rare individuals who devise an important approach as an end in itself, like virtuoso instrumentalists perfecting their art. Rarer still are those who respond to a higher music, developing innovative new methods to pursue fundamental problems. Walter Englander is among the very few who fall squarely into this latter category.[4]
The Biophysical Society Founders Award (2010)
In 2010, Englander received the Biophysical Society's annual Founders Award. The award is given to scientists for outstanding achievement in biophysics.[20] He received the award "for pioneering the development of hydrogen exchange techniques for exploring the stability, interactions and dynamics of macromolecules and their folding."[21]
Autobiography
Englander authored a brief autobiography, "HX and Me: Understanding Allostery, Folding, and Protein Machines,"[3] which was published in the May 2023 volume of the Annual Review of Biophysics.[3] The autobiography is a retrospective on his life and journey in biochemistry, biophysics, and medical sciences. Articles in the journal are peer review by the editorial committee and qualified authors in the field.[22]
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