Adrian R. Krainer
The information listed below is current as of the date the transcript was finalized.
Interview Details
Interview Sessions
Abstract of Interview
Adrian R. Krainer was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay in a Jewish family of eastern European descent (Hungary and Romania), the younger of two brothers. (Krainer's father was forced to work in a Romanian labor camp during World War II and on his way through Italy to Uruguay after the war, a clerical error changed the family name from Kreiner to Krainer). His parents had a small business making leather items in Montevideo. Political unrest framed his teenage years in the 1970s, as did the Zionist movement and witnessing anti-Semitism. Krainer went to a bilingual French elementary school (such that half of his classes were conducted in French, and half in Spanish) before transitioning into a public school for two years and then into a Hebrew school to complete his pre-college education. He was inspired by some of his high-school teachers to pursue science as a career, which he did instead of medicine, and developed an early interest in classical genetics. Seeing all the science being produced in the United States in genetics, Krainer decided that he wanted to attend a U. S. academic institution and set about learning English. He applied to and decided to matriculate at Columbia University and major in biochemistry, finding a laboratory course with James A. Lewis and lectures by Charles R. Cantor quite stimulating. He worked for a time in a photocopying and messenger office on campus; he later worked in Catherine L. Squires's lab, successfully cloning a bacterial ribosomal operon. While still not feeling totally comfortable with the English language, he did quite well academically at Columbia, and was accepted both to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's graduate programs, choosing the former for his doctoral research. While at Harvard, Krainer rotated through James Wang's and Walter Gilbert's labs, and wrote a computer program in Mathew S. Meselson's lab to correlate recombination frequencies and distance of residues within proteins, before joining the lab of Thomas P. Maniatis, who had done groundbreaking work cloning full-length cDNAs. While a graduate student, Krainer developed an efficient in vitro splicing system, which made it possible to study detailed aspects of human pre-mRNA splicing mechanisms, regulation, and disease-associated splicing defects. From this work Krainer had three articles published in Cell. He moved on to an independent fellow position at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York, being mentored by Richard J. Roberts (a co-discoverer of splicing in 1977) and worked on purifying and characterizing snRNP and protein components of the spliceosome, before accepting a faculty position there in 1989. Throughout the interview Krainer talks about his scientific life and balancing family life with his career, all the while reflecting on life and science in Uruguay. In addition, he discusses Richard J. Roberts and Phillip A. Sharp's Nobel Prize; the system of staff promotion at Cold Spring Harbor; the rationale behind Cold Spring Harbor's "rolling-five system"; the National Cancer Institute grant review process; the advantages of the Pew scholars network; the growing tendency for clinical research to be funded over basic research; and James D. Watson' s program of bringing Eton students to Cold Spring Harbor. The interview ends with his thoughts on his participation in Programa de Desarrollo de Ciencias Básicas and the Pew Latin American Fellows program; and the valuable interactions at the Pew scholars annual meetings.
Education
Year | Institution | Degree | Discipline |
---|---|---|---|
1981 | Columbia University | BA | Biochemistry |
1986 | Harvard University | PhD | Biochemistry |
Professional Experience
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Honors
Year(s) | Award |
---|---|
1981 | Phi Beta Kappa |
1981 | Phi Lambda Upsilon Honorary Chemical Society |
1981 | Josiah Macy Foundation Scholar |
1986 to 1989 | Cold Spring Harbor Outstanding Junior Fellow |
1992 to 1996 | Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences |
Table of Contents
Family background. Uruguayan national identity. Jewish identity. Parental expectations. Attends a French school. Political unrest in Uruguay. The tracking system for science students in high school. High school science education. Decides to continue his education in the United States. Applies to American universities. Learns English. Encouragement from high school science teachers. The escalating political crisis in Uruguay in the 1970s. Trip to Argentina. Anti-Semitism. The Zionist movement in Uruguay. Interest in genetics. Desire to pursue a PhD rather than an MD.
The lack of career opportunities for scientists in Uruguay. Declares a major in biochemistry at Columbia University. The premed orientation of the biology department at Columbia. Takes math classes. Humanities requirements. Chemistry and biochemistry course work. Stimulating lab courses with James A. Lewis and Charles R. Cantor. Works part-time in a photocopying office on Campus. Begins work in the Catherine L. Squires lab. Applying to graduate school. Off-campus trips into New York City. Cost of education at Columbia. Encouragement from mentors at Columbia. Success cloning a ribosomal operon in the Squires lab. Decides to attend Harvard University instead of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Physical chemistry. Fellow students. Writes a computer program for Matthews . Meselson to correlate recombination frequencies and distance of residues within proteins. Maniatis's groundbreaking cloning of full-length cDNAs provides the basis for his lab' s cell culture studies. Attempt to clone a defective, thalassemia-related gene. Rotation in the James Wang lab. Interests in the roles of enhancers and splicing in gene expression. Studying enhancer function using S1 mapping of in vitro transcripts. Article on in vitro splicing is accepted by Cell. Work in the field coupling transcription and splicing. Maniatis's role in work on T7 RNA polymerase. Travels to Uruguay with future wife Denise Roberts. The process of deciding authorship for the Cell publication. Barbara Ruskin's Cell article on the lariat structure. Evidence that U2 is involved in splicing. Identifying the lariat structure. Denise Roberts's career trajectory. Juggling family life and career. Important mentoring from Richard J. Roberts. Attempts to characterize snRNP components. James D. Watson.
Richard J. Roberts and Phillip Sharp's Nobel Prize acceptance lecture. The system of staff promotion at Cold Spring Harbor. The rationale behind Cold Spring Harbor's "rolling-five system. " The National Cancer Institute grant review process. Funding. The Pew scholars network. The caliber of lab graduate students and postdocs. Watson' s program of bringing Eton students to Cold Spring Harbor. The state of science in Uruguay. Programa de Desarrollo de Ciencias Basicas and the Pew Latin American Fellows program. Qualifying exams at Harvard. Valuable interactions at the Pew scholars annual meetings.