Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein is a preeminent molecular biologist who has served as Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center since 1977. A Regental Professor of the University of Texas since 1985, he holds the distinguished Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine and the Julie and Louis A. Beecherl Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science. Born in Kingstree, South Carolina in 1940, he received his undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University in 1962 before earning his medical degree from UT Southwestern Medical School in 1966. Following residency training and a two-year fellowship at the University of Washington with human genetics pioneer Arno G. Motulsky, Goldstein returned to UT Southwestern in 1972 as Assistant Professor and head of the Division of Medical Genetics, establishing himself as a rising leader in medical biochemistry.
Dr. Goldstein's groundbreaking research with Michael S. Brown revolutionized our understanding of cholesterol metabolism through their discovery of the low-density lipoprotein receptor and elucidation of how these receptors control cholesterol homeostasis. This seminal work opened the entire field of receptor-mediated endocytosis and provided the conceptual foundation for statin drugs that lower blood cholesterol and prevent heart attacks, saving millions of lives worldwide. In the 1990s, Goldstein and Brown made another transformative discovery with the Sterol Regulatory Element-Binding Proteins family, revealing the regulatory mechanism of regulated intramembrane proteolysis that controls cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis. Their work has had profound clinical impact, with research papers collectively garnering tens of thousands of citations and establishing fundamental principles in cellular metabolism that continue to guide therapeutic development.
Beyond his research, Dr. Goldstein has profoundly shaped the scientific landscape through leadership roles as Chairman of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury and as a Trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2002. He serves on the board of trustees of The Rockefeller University and scientific advisory boards of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Broad Institute, and Genentech. As both a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, Goldstein continues to mentor the next generation of scientists while maintaining an active research program at UT Southwestern. His laboratory remains at the forefront of lipid metabolism research, building on decades of pioneering work to address emerging questions in cellular regulation and metabolic disease, ensuring his legacy of transformative discovery continues to advance biomedical science.
