Dr. Paul C. Sternweis received his B.A. in Chemistry (summa cum laude) from the College of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN.) and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1977 with Dr. Leon Heppel at Cornell University (Ithaca, N.Y.). His graduate thesis focused on the elucidation of molecular mechanisms of the proton-translocating ATPase in Escherichia coli. As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Alfred Gilman, Dr. Sternweis began working on mammalian systems and contributed to the discovery, purification and characterization of the first G protein, Gs, that is responsible for hormonal regulation of adenylyl cyclase. In 1982, Dr. Sternweis became an assistant professor of pharmacology at UT-Southwestern where he has risen to the rank of full professor and currently holds the Alfred and Mabel Gilman Chair in Molecular Pharmacology. During this time, Sternweis has continued to work on the mechanisms of hormonal signaling with a focus on G protein-dependent mechanisms including the identification of novel G proteins, regulation of phospholipases that produce lipid-derived second messengers and pathways that lead to the monomeric GTPases involved in cell architecture and movement. Sternweis has served as Division Chair of the Molecular Pharmacology Division of ASPET, served on various review panels, chaired the Graduate Admissions committee for several years and coordinates the Signal Transduction course among other teaching responsibilities. He currently chairs the Cell Regulation graduate program. Besides his individual research group, Dr. Sternweis also is the Director of the Cell Preparation and Experimental Laboratory of the Alliance for Cellular Signaling.
