Annette Herscovics

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Annette Herscovics
Born1938
DiedSeptember 6, 2008
Alma mater
ChildrenPhilippe Herscovics
AwardsFellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Scientific career
FieldsGlycobiology
Institutions

Annette Herscovics (1938–2008) was a scientist at McGill University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a pioneer in the field of glycobiology.[1]

Personal life[edit]

Herscovics was born in Paris, France, the daughter of Polish Jews. She survived the Holocaust as a hidden child in Nazi-occupied France.[2][3] After immigrating to Canada, she obtained a PhD in biochemistry at McGill University in Montreal in 1963.[2]

Herscovics died of cancer on September 6, 2008.[3]

Career[edit]

Herscovics worked in the Department of Anatomy at McGill from 1967–1971, during which she made several important discoveries in glycobiology.[3] She discovered in 1969 that thyroglobulin undergoes carbohydrate modifications, part of a class of proteins known as glycoproteins.[4]

After completing her post-doctoral work at McGill, Herscovics moved to Harvard Medical School in 1971, where she remained until 1981. During this time she published more than 20 original papers in her field.[3]

In 1981, Herscovics returned to McGill University as an associate professor in the McGill Cancer Centre. She was appointed a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry in 1987, and a professor in the Department of Oncology in 1992.[3] During this time she made several other important discoveries, including how the carbohydrate modifications are relevant to disease, including cancer.[4]

Herscovics was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1998.[2][3] She has published 110 peer-reviewed papers during her academic career.[3]

Published works[edit]

  • Herscovics, Annette, and Peter Orlean. "Glycoprotein biosynthesis in yeast." The FASEB Journal 7.6 (1993): 540-550.
  • Hosokawa, Nobuko, et al. "A novel ER α‐mannosidase‐like protein accelerates ER‐associated degradation." EMBO Reports 2.5 (2001): 415-422.
  • Moremen, Kelley, Robert B. Trimble, and Annetté Herscovics. "Glycosidases of the asparagine-linked oligosaccharide processing pathway." Glycobiology 4.2 (1994): 113-125.
  • Herscovics, Annette. "Importance of glycosidases in mammalian glycoprotein biosynthesis." Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects 1473.1 (1999): 96-107.
  • Whur, P., Annette Herscovics, and C. P. Leblond. "Radioautographic visualization of the incorporation of galactose-3H and mannose-3H by rat thyroids in vitro in relation to the stages of thyroglobulin synthesis." The Journal of cell biology 43.2 (1969): 289-311.
  • Herscovics, Annette. "Processing glycosidases of Saccharomyces cerevisiae." Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects 1426.2 (1999): 275-285.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Annette Herscovics". Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Professor Annette Herscovics: 1938-2008". McGill Reporter. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2019-03-31.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Schachter, Harry (2009-06-01). "Obituary: Annette Herscovics (1938–2008)". Glycobiology. 19 (6): 562–563. doi:10.1093/glycob/cwp033. ISSN 0959-6658.
  4. ^ a b "Canada's Unsung Female Heroes of Life Sciences". IISD. Retrieved 2019-03-31.