Daniel J. Klionsky

Daniel Jay Klionsky (born 1958) is an American biochemist and molecular biologist. He is the Alexander G. Ruthven Professor of Life Sciences and professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at the University of Michigan. As a cell biologist, Klionsky pioneered the understanding of autophagy, the process by which cells break down to survive stress conditions such as starvation, and the role autophagy plays in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and other areas of human health.

Early life and education Klionsky was born in 1958 in California. Although he enjoyed biology in high school, Klionsky enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles while majoring in history. He eventually switched to biology and enrolled at Stanford University for his PhD. Upon completing his PhD, Klionsky accepted a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology.

Career UC Davis In 1990, Klionsky was appointed an assistant professor of Microbiology at the University of California, Davis. In 1997, he was named a full professor

Michigan Klionsky left UC Davis to accept a similar dual position at the University of Michigan's Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and in the Department of Biochemistry in the Medical School in 2000. Klionsky also moved to the Life Sciences Institute Department, where he was named the Alexander G. Ruthven Professor of Life Sciences in 2006. As a result, Klionsky was singled out by Thomson Reuters as a future Nobel Laureate. He was later awarded the 2015 van Deenan Medal from the Institute of Biomembranes at Utrecht University in the Netherlands for being "a leading scientist in biomembrane research." Following this, he was recognized with a University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award In 2019, Klionsky was the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Bordeaux.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Klionsky wrote Highlights in the fight against COVID-19: does autophagy play a role in SARS-CoV-2 infection? with Elizabeth Delorme-Axford. He also proposed that autophagy could be a link between SARS-CoV-2 and cancer.