Robert Schlegel, professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for 16 years, has retired after 33 years of service to the University.
His research involves the study of cell suicide -- the process termed apoptosis -- which is a normal part of the cell's self-renewal process. During apoptosis, dying cells are recognized by specialized cells, called macrophages, which engulf dying cells and destroy them safely. For macrophages to selectively recognize apoptotic cells versus normal cells, the apoptotic cells must display "eat-me" signals on their surfaces.
"My research centers on one of these 'eat-me' signals, a phospholipid called phosphatidylserine (PS)," said Schlegel. "My research concerns how normal cells keep PS hidden inside the cell, how apoptotic cells move PS outside the cell, and how macrophages are able to 'see' PS on an apoptotic cell's exterior surface," he said.
More information is on the Web at http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Schlegel10-2009.htm.
Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State in 1976, Schlegel was a research assistant professor at the University of Utah. He was promoted to full professor at Penn State in 1989. Schlegel earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Iowa in 1967 and a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard University in 1971, supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. He conducted postdoctoral studies in immunology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, supported by a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship.
In 1988, Schlegel was a visiting fellow at the Hall Institute, supported by the International Union Against Cancer. Schlegel also was an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, an associate editor for the Journal of Immunology, and a co-chair of a Gordon Research Conference on apoptotic cell clearance. In 1999, Schlegel received the Penn State Eberly College of Science Distinguished Service Award, which was established in 1979 to recognize individuals who have made exceptional leadership and service contributions to the college.
He was head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State from 1991 to 2007, during which time 25 current faculty members of the department were hired.