Awards

Titled Professor (Emeritus) - 1975

Showalter Professor of Biochemistry

About David M. Gibson

Dr. Gibson received an A.B. degree from Wabash College in 1944 and a M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1948. After internship at Northwestern University hospitals, he undertook eight years of postdoctoral research in biochemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana, 1950-53, and the Enzyme Institute of the University of Wisconsin, 1953-58.

His affiliation with IU began in the Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Indianapolis, as Associate Professor in 1958. He remained there over thirty-four years, serving as Chairman of the Department from 1965 to 1988. Dr. Gibson was the first to be awarded the Grace M. Showalter Professorship in 1975.

Gibson's research interests initially concerned the separation of plasma proteins, Harvard Medical School; isolation and characterization of the liver enzyme lactate dehydrogenase, Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois; discovery of the GTP-linked enzyme succinyl CoA synthetase in the citric acid cycle and the CO2-biotin-dependent fatty acid synthesizing system, Enzyme Institute, University of Wisconsin. At IU, his studies concerned the control of lipogenesis in animals; coordinate induction of a set of enzymes catalyzing fatty acid synthesis in response to insulin; discovery of protein kinase cascade that phosphorylates (inhibits) the limiting enzymes in cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis. He was the coauthor of text on Metabolic Regulation in Mammals (2002).

Dr. Gibson held visiting appointments at the University of Padua, 1964-65, the University of Utrecht, 1975, and the University of Ankara, 1982. Honors include early fellowships from the American Heart Association (Established Investigator Award); Public Health Service (CDA); School of Medicine teaching awards, 1962, 1972, including the Golden Apple Award in 1966; recognition through Medical Class of 1970 student fellowship designation; Sigma Xi (IUSM) Research Prize designation; research awards from the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association.