Lorsch Named NIGMS Director
NIGMS Deputy Director Dorit Zuk, Ph.D.
Former NIGMS Deputy Director Judith H. Greenberg, Ph.D.
Curriculum Vitae [PDF, 325KB]
Jon R. Lorsch, Ph.D., became the director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) in August 2013.
In this position, Lorsch oversees all of the Institute's mission-related activities, supporting basic research that increases understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
Lorsch came to NIGMS from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he was a professor in the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry. He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1999 and became a full professor in 2009.
A leader in RNA biology, Lorsch studies the initiation of translation, a major step in controlling how genes are expressed. When this process goes awry, viral infection, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer can result. To dissect the mechanics of translation initiation, Lorsch and collaborators developed a yeast-based system and a wide variety of biochemical and biophysical methods. The work also has led to efforts to control translation initiation through chemical reagents, such as drugs. Lorsch continues this research as a tenured investigator in NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
NIGMS supported Lorsch's research from 2000 to 2013. He also received grants from NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and National Institute of Mental Health, as well as from other funding organizations.
Lorsch is as passionate about education as he is about research. During his tenure at Johns Hopkins, he worked to reform the curricula for graduate and medical education, spearheaded the development of the Center for Innovation in Graduate Biomedical Education, and launched a program offering summer research experiences to local high school students, many from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. In addition, he advised dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Lorsch received a B.A. in chemistry from Swarthmore College in 1990 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1995, where he worked in the laboratory of Jack Szostak, Ph.D. He conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University in the laboratory of Daniel Herschlag, Ph.D.
Lorsch is the author of more than 80 peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters, and other papers. He has also been the editor of six volumes of Methods in Enzymology and has been a reviewer for numerous scientific journals. He is the author on two awarded U.S. patents. His honors include six teaching awards from Johns Hopkins.
Prior to joining NIH, Lorsch's other activities included membership on the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's mentoring committee, the RNA Society's board of directors, and NIH review committees.
At NIH, he has taken on a number of leadership roles, including serving as a co-chair of the NIH Scientific Data Council, Extramural Activities Working Group, and the NIH UNITE-E committee; and as a member of the Administrative Data Council and the Scientific Management Review Board.
