In 1986, Dr. H. Robert Horvitz’s father was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). He came to Boston and was seen by Dr. Robert Brown, a supportive, sympathetic neurologist from Mass General Hospital. After ongoing talks about ALS, Dr. Horvitz and Dr. Brown decided to collaborate to study the genetics on ALS.

Since then, a small team engaged by Dr. Horvitz has performed research in Dr. Brown's laboratory. This effort, in conjunction with that of other scientists globally, led to the discovery that one gene is responsible for familial ALS encodes - the enzyme copper-zinc superoxide dismutase.

In 1989, Dr. Horvitz’s father died from ALS. Seeing his father suffer from – and succumb to – this horrific neurodegenerative disease, reinforced Dr. Horvitz’s strong desire to find a cure.

Dr. Horvitz received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002 for his discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.

Today, his valuable work continues. He is the David H. Koch Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Neurobiologist (Neurology) at the Massachusetts General Hospital; and a Member of the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Dr. Horvitz graduated from MIT, performed his graduate studies at Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in Biology for biochemical and genetic studies of mechanisms of regulating gene expression. Since then he has studied the development and behavior of the microscopic roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, and this research has helped define evolutionarily conserved molecular genetic pathways important in human biology and human disease, including the pathway responsible for programmed cell death (apoptosis).

Dr. Horvitz has served on many editorial boards, visiting committees and advisory committees, and has received many honors, including the U.S. National Academies of Science Award in Molecular Biology; the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health; the Gairdner Foundation International Award; the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology; and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience.

For more information about Dr. Horvitz, visit or Directors & Staff page.