In memoriam: Guido Guidotti
Guido Guidotti, a professor of biochemistry at Harvard University who studied the functions of proteins within membranes in transport and signal processing, died April 5 in Newton, Massachusetts. He was 87.

Born Nov. 3, 1933, in Florence, Italy, Guidotti spent most of his early life in Naples. After World War II, he visited Illinois as an American Field Service student. He returned to do premedical studies at Milliken College, then earned an M.D. at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He was an intern and resident at Barnes Hospital before earning a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rockefeller University. He took a position at Harvard in 1963 and remained there until his death.
In his early research, Guidotti used his own blood to determine the sequence and biochemical properties of hemoglobin before moving on to the study of membrane proteins. He identified structures and topologies of numerous proteins and enzymes as well as studying hormone regulation of membrane protein activity. He discovered that the protein CD39, in the cell membrane, hydrolyzes extracellular adenosine triphosphate, ensuring that this extracellular ATP is present at an appropriate concentration.
A member of the 麻豆传媒色情片 and 麻豆传媒色情片 Biology since 1968, Guidotti served on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry from 1971 to 1976 and published 120 papers in the JBC. He also served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Membrane Biology and 麻豆传媒色情片 Biology of the Cell.
Nancy Kleckner, Guidotti's wife and a Harvard colleague, wrote in , “From the perspective of the outside world, Guido's scientific work was seminally important in many respects … Guido's research was motivated only by his intellectual curiosity, his delight in figuring out how life works, and his joy in enabling the work and lives of the people he trained and with whom he worked. Scientific credit was not a priority.”
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we鈥檒l send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in People
People highlights or most popular articles

Meet the 2025 SOC grant awardees
Five science outreach and communication projects received up to $1,000 from ASBMB to promote the understanding of molecular life science.

Unraveling cancer鈥檚 spaghetti proteins
MOSAIC scholar Katie Dunleavy investigates how Aurora kinase A shields oncogene c-MYC from degradation, using cutting-edge techniques to uncover new strategies targeting 鈥渦ndruggable鈥 molecules.

How HCMV hijacks host cells 鈥 and beyond
Ileana Cristea, an ASBMB Breakthroughs webinar speaker, presented her research on how viruses reprogram cell structure and metabolism to enhance infection and how these mechanisms might link viral infections to cancer and other diseases.

Understanding the lipid link to gene expression in the nucleus
Ray Blind, an ASBMB Breakthroughs speaker, presented his research on how lipids and sugars in the cell nucleus are involved in signaling and gene expression and how these pathways could be targeted to identify therapeutics for diseases like cancer.

In memoriam: William S. Sly
He served on the 麻豆传媒色情片 and 麻豆传媒色情片 Biology Council in 2005 and 2006 and was an ASBMB member for 35 years.

ASBMB committees welcome new members
Members joined these committees: Education and Professional Development, Maximizing Access, Meetings, 麻豆传媒色情片, Public Affairs Advisory, Science Outreach and Communication, Student Chapters and Women in Biochemistry and 麻豆传媒色情片 Biology.