Philip Beachy
| Philip Beachy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Philip Arden Beachy October 25, 1958 Red Lake, Ontario |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | The UBX Domain in the Bithorax Complex of Drosophila (1986) |
| Doctoral advisor | David Hogness |
| Known for | Hedgehog signaling pathway |
| Notable awards |
NAS Award in Molecular Biology (1998) Keio Medical Science Prize (2011) |
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Website |
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Philip Arden Beachy (born October 25, 1958) is Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California and an Associate at Stanford's Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.
Beachy was born in Red Lake, Ontario on October 25, 1958. Beachy spent eight of his early years of life in the hills of central Puerto Rico. His father was a pastor of a rural church. He attended a school taught in Spanish during the day and then learned to read and write English once he came home from school. At nine, Beachy and his family returned to their home base of Goshen, Indiana where he began attending public school. At the early age of 16, Beachy headed off to Goshen College which was very close to home. At this time, Beachy still did not know of his love for science. “Unlike many people who knew they were going to be scientists from a very early age, I didn't decide that I would try to become a scientist until fairly late on in college,” he says.
Beachy received his bachelor's degree in natural sciences at Goshen College. Beachy first envisioned himself as a doctor, but after his first year of college, he decided against pursuing that career. He then decided to focus on biological research. He became interested in this field after reading a serialized form of Horace Freeland Judson’s book, The Eighth Day of Creation in The New Yorker. "Reading those articles got me excited about molecular biology," says Beachy. After graduating, he decided to take chemistry courses and do more research at the nearby South Bend campus of Indiana University. A year later, he decided to attend graduate school at Stanford University. There, he studied the molecular genetics behind fruit fly development with David Hogness. Beachy earned his Ph.D in biochemistry in 1986 at Stanford for research into the UBX protein domain.
After receiving his Ph.D, he began working at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Embryology in Baltimore for two years. After his short time there, he accepted a faculty position at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Beachy began focusing on the Drosophila hedgehog gene, for which he’s known for, in 1990. The gene’s name originated because fly embryos look spikey if the hedgehog gene is faulty or mutated. The hedgehog gene’s main function is to create protein signals in specific cells. These signals, in turn, allow for the formation of embryonic tissues. They do this by instructing neighboring cells to become a certain type of differentiated cell or to simply divide. In other words, this gene is responsible for the development of the appendages and body segments in Drosophila or fruit flies. Humans and other invertebrates have hedgehog genes that behave slightly different than the same gene in the fruit fly. In vertebrates, the hedgehog gene codes for the fingers and toes on the limbs. It also functions in organizing the brain and the spinal cord. Consequently, mutated hedgehog genes often cause birth defects. Also, if it is activated later in life, certain cancers can be triggered and begin to spread.
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