Christian Rudolf Hubert Raetz (1946 – August 16, 2011[1]) was the George Barth Geller Professor of
Biochemistry at
Duke University.[2] He was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences in 2006.[3] His laboratory's research focused on
lipid biochemistry and has contributed significantly to the understanding of
Lipid A biosynthesis.[3][4][5]
Life and education
Raetz was born in 1946 in
East Berlin. His parents were industrial chemists. In the early 1950s, the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation recruited his father, and Raetz's family moved to
Columbus, Ohio. Raetz earned his undergraduate degree from
Yale University in 1967 and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from
Harvard University in 1973.[3][6] Raetz died of
anaplastic thyroid cancer on August 16, 2011.[7][8]
Career
After graduate and medical school, Raetz was a research associate at the
National Institute of General Medical Sciences in
Bethesda, Maryland. In 1974 he secured a faculty position in the biochemistry department at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1987, Raetz joined the pharmaceutical company
Merck, eventually becoming vice president for biochemistry and microbiology research. In 1993, Raetz joined the biochemistry department at Duke.[3]
Awards and distinctions
2006 - Elected to the National Academy of Sciences