Glyn Dawson, an expert on lipid biochemistry and longtime professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago, died April 14 at the age of 83.
Dawson was known for multiple discoveries about the nervous system and cell membranes, and made contributions to understanding and treating a group of rare inherited neurogenerative disorders found in children.
He pioneered the use of mass spectrometry for analyzing sphingolipids, a type of lipids that provide structure for cell membranes, particularly in the nervous system. His work first identified gangliosides, which regulate cell signaling and adhesion, and he discovered processes involved with lysosomal hydrolase deficient disorders, a group of genetic metabolic disorders caused by deficiencies in enzymes that break down larger molecules.
An avid collaborator and mentor
Born in 1943 in New Mills, England, Dawson was the first in his family to attend university. He received his B.S. degree and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, in 1964 and 1967 respectively. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh before joining UChicago as assistant professor of pediatrics and biochemistry in 1969.
Dawson studied the role of sphingolipids in cell signaling in the nervous system and advanced our understanding of lipid functions in cell membranes. This led to research on how sphingolipids such as ceramides can enhance cell death programs, how much sphingolipids affect central nervous system-active drugs, and how these pathways are impacted by stress.
Dawson was especially interested in lipid pathology of the Batten disease family, a group of rare, fatal, inherited neurodegenerative disorders that primarily affect children, as well as in the function of enzymes that are mutated in different forms of these disorders. Because of the need to develop enzyme replacement therapies for lysosomal storage diseases, more recently he focused on using quantum dots as agents to deliver proteins to the central nervous system.
Dawson was a noted teacher and mentor who trained 13 Ph.D. students and 17 postdocs, and he was an avid collaborator with many scientific interactions at UChicago and around the world.
A longtime member of the American Society for Neurochemistry, he published over 230 manuscripts and reviews, and his research was continually funded by the National Institutes of Health, Guggenheim Foundation and Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation.
Beyond the laboratory, Dawson was described as a devoted husband, father, and grandfather, and a man of wide-ranging curiosity. A lifelong trainspotter and avid birder who observed over half the world’s species, he traveled the globe with his wife Sylvia, whom he met at a university dance and married in 1966.
He is survived by his wife, Sylvia Dawson (nee Sharland); sons Philip (married to Denise) and Kenneth (married to Veronica); grandchildren Nathan and Eric; and sister Margaret (Joan) Stafford.
The American Society for Neurochemistry is planning a memorial symposium at its next annual meeting.
—Adapted from an article first published by the Biological Sciences Division.
