Quick Facts
Biography
Howard Cedar or Chaim Cedar (Hebrew: חיים סידר; born January 12, 1943) is an Israeli American biochemist who works on DNA methylation, the mechanism that turns genes on and off.
Biography
Cedar was born in the United States. He received a bachelor's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and, in 1970, received an MD and PhD from New York University.
From 1971 to 1973 he was in the U.S. Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
In 1973 he joined the medical school of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and now serves as professor emeritus in the Department for Developmental Biology & Cancer Research, The Institute For Medical Research, Israel-Canada (IMRIC).
He is married to Zipora, a psychodramtist, and has six children, Joseph, Dahlia, Noa, Yoav, Yonatan and Daniel, and 21 grandchildren. Joseph Cedar is a film writer and director.
Awards and honors
- In 1999, Cedar was awarded the Israel Prize, for biology.
- In 2003, be became a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
- In 2008, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine, jointly with Aharon Razin, "for their fundamental contributions to our understanding of the role of DNA methylation in the control of gene expression."
- In 2009, he was awarded the EMET Prize for his work in cancer research.
- In 2011 he received the Canada Gairdner International Award, together with Aharon Razin for their "pioneering discoveries on DNA methylation and its role in gene expression."
- In 2011 he received the Rothschild Prize in Biology
- In 2016 he received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize together with Aharon Razin and Gary Felsenfeld.