Joan A. Steitz

At 83 years old, Joan A. Steitz physical status not available right now. We will update Joan A. Steitz's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Steitz completed postdoctoral research at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) at the University of Cambridge (UK), where she collaborated with Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner, and Mark Bretscher. At the LMB, Steitz focused on the question of how bacteria know where to start the "reading frame" on mRNA. In the process, Steitz discovered the exact sequences on a mature RNA virus encoding three proteins where the virus mRNA binds bacterial ribosomes to produce proteins. In 1969 she published a seminal paper in Nature showing the nucleotide sequence of the binding start points.

In 1970, Steitz joined the faculty at Yale. In 1975, she published a research finding for which she is widely known, demonstrating that ribosomes use complementary base pairing to identify the start site on mRNA.

In 1980, Steitz in collaboration with Michael Lerner published another critical paper, using immunoprecipitation with human antibodies from patients with autoimmunity to isolate and identify snRNPs (pronounced "snurps") and detect their role in splicing. A snRNP is a specific short length of RNA, around 150 nucleotides long, associated with protein, that is involved in splicing introns out of newly transcribed RNA (pre-mRNA), a component of the spliceosomes. Steitz's paper "set the field ahead by light years and heralded the avalanche of small RNAs that have since been discovered to play a role in multiple steps in RNA biosynthesis," noted Susan Berget.

Steitz later discovered another kind of snRNP particle, the snoRNP, involved in an important minority of mRNA splicing reactions. Via analysis of the genetic locations of the genes for snoRNPs, she demonstrated conclusively that introns are not "junk DNA" as they had often been described. Her work helps explain the phenomenon of "alternative RNA splicing." Her discovery of the snRNPs and snoRNPs explains a mysterious finding: humans have only double the number of genes of a fruit fly. "The reason we can get away with so few genes is that when you have these bits of nonsense, you can splice them out in different ways," she said. "Sometimes you can get rid of things and add things because of this splicing process so that each gene has slightly different protein products that can do slightly different things. So it multiplies up the information content in each of our genes."

Steitz's research may yield new insights into the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune disorders such as lupus, which develop when patients make anti-nuclear antibodies against their own DNA, snRNPs, or ribosomes.

Steitz has commented on the sexist treatment of women in science, noting that a woman scientist needs to be twice as good for half the pay. She has been a "tireless promoter of women in science," noted Christine Guthrie, who described Steitz as "one of the greatest scientists of our generation."

Steitz has served in numerous professional capacities, including as scientific director of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (1991–2002) and as editorial board member of Genes & Development.

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• 2021 – Wolf Prize in Medicine.
• 2020 – Microbiology Society Prize Medal by the Microbiology Society to those who have made an impact beyond microbiology.
• 2018 – Lasker-Koshland Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science.
• 2014 – Royal Society of London.
• 2009 – Biochemical Society Jubilee Lecture Award.
• 2011 – Columbia University Honorary Doctorate of Science].
• 2008 – Albany Medical Center Prize (shared with Elizabeth Blackburn).
• 2006 – Rosalind E. Franklin Award for Women in Science, National Cancer Institute.
• 2006 – Gairdner Foundation International Award.
• 2005 – E.B. Wilson Medal, American Society for Cell Biology.
• 2004 – RNA Society Lifetime Achievement Award.
• 2004 – The Caledonian Research Foundation (CRF) Prize Lectureship in Biomedical Sciences and Arts and Letters, Royal Society of Edinburgh.
• 2003 – FASEB Excellence in Science Award.
• 2002 – Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Basic Medical Science.
• 2001 – L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.
• 1992 – Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
• 1992 – Elected to the American Philosophical Society
• 1989 – Warren Triennial Prize.
• 1988 – Dickson Prize for Science.
• 1986 – National Medal of Science, National Science Foundation.
• 1983 – Member, National Academy of Sciences.
• 1983 – Lee Howley, Sr. Award for Arthritis Research.
• 1982 – NAS Award in Molecular Biology.
• 1982 – American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 1976 – Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry.
• 1975 – Passano Foundation Young Scientist Award.