Profile of Michael A. Marletta

Abstract

For more than three decades, Michael Marletta has traveled a serpentine road, working to elucidate a molecule whose importance to human physiology is as well recognized as his own contributions to his field. Named “Molecule of the Year” in 1992 by Science , nitric oxide, a noxious atmospheric gas, plays a pivotal role in biological functions as diverse as forming long-term memory and maintaining penile erections (1). Marletta, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006, has shed light on the biochemistry of nitric oxide and the cellular machinery through which the molecule performs its functions. Michael A. Marletta. Marletta's work on nitric oxide not only led to a fundamental understanding of enzyme reaction mechanisms, but it has informed the development of treatments. For example, he showed that substrate lookalikes, called arginine analogs, block the activity of the enzyme nitric oxide synthase. The analogs help curb the overproduction of nitric oxide, preventing vasodilation and the precipitous drop in blood pressure experienced by patients suffering from septic shock (2). His discovery helped other researchers develop treatments for septic shock. Marletta's scientific foray began in California, where he obtained his doctorate in 1978 from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). That journey, with stops in Massachusetts and Michigan, has led him back to California, where he is now the Aldo DeBenedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley. His love of science is deep-seated. Born in Rochester, NY, to parents of Italian ancestry, Marletta says the space race of the late 1950s spurred his scientific temperament. As a 6-year-old space buff, Marletta recalls watching Sputnik 1 fly overhead on a cold October night in 1957 in Rochester. “I was completely fascinated by the idea that a satellite …