Joel Sussman


Joel L. Sussman is an Israeli crystallographer best known for his studies on acetylcholinesterase, a key protein involved in transmission of nerve signals. He is the Morton and Gladys Pickman Professor of Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and its director of the Israel Structural Proteomics Center.

Early life and education

Sussman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
In 1965, Sussman received his B.A. at Cornell University in math and physics. He received his PhD from MIT in biophysics in 1972, having worked with Cyrus Levinthal. Sussman conducted postdoctoral research in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972, with Yehuda Lapidot, and in the Duke University in 1973 with Sung-Hou Kim.

Appointments and positions held

Sussman held the following positions at the Weizmann Institute of Science:
In 1994–99, he was also the director of the Protein Data Bank at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Scientific interests and contributions

Sussman was a pioneer of macromolecular refinement, developing CORELS and applying it to yeast tRNAphe. He subsequently determined the structures of 'bulge'-containing DNA fragments as models for insertion mutations.
Sussman's current research focuses on nervous system proteins, especially acetylcholinesterase, whose 3D structure was first determined in his lab. This structure revealed:
He has investigated the molecular basis for halophilicity and halotolerance, shedding light on the molecular basis of how proteins function over extreme ranges of salt concentration, with unexpected implications for kidney diseases. He determined the structures of acid-β-glucosidase, a protein defective in Gaucher disease, paving the way to novel therapeutic approaches, and of paraoxonase, a protein relevant to treatment of atherosclerosis.

Honors and awards