Randy Schekman

Randy Schekman
Born	Randy Wayne Schekman 30 12, 1948
Birthplace	Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Cell biologist, academic, journal editor
Employer	University of California, Berkeley Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Known for	Research on vesicle trafficking; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2013)
Education	Stanford University (PhD, 1975) University of California, Los Angeles (BA)
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2013) Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2002) Fellow of the Royal Society (2013)
Website	[Official lab page Official site]

Randy Wayne Schekman (born December 30, 1948) is an American cell biologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, whose research into the molecular mechanisms of vesicle trafficking in cells earned him the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with James Rothman and Thomas C. Südhof. Using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism, Schekman identified and characterized a set of genes essential for the transport of proteins within cells — work that provided foundational understanding of how cells organize the movement of molecules packaged in membrane-bound vesicles. A longtime investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Schekman has also held prominent editorial roles, serving as editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and as the founding editor of eLife, an open-access scientific journal. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992 and became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2013. Beyond his research, Schekman has been an outspoken advocate for open-access publishing and has criticized the dominance of high-profile commercial journals in shaping scientific careers.

Early Life

Randy Wayne Schekman was born on December 30, 1948, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He developed an early fascination with the natural world; in a 2025 lecture at UC Berkeley, Schekman recounted that his scientific curiosity began with pond scum and a toy microscope, suggesting that simple childhood observations set the course for his career in biological research.

Details of Schekman's family background and upbringing in Minnesota are not extensively documented in available sources. What is known is that his early interest in biology carried him from the Midwest to California, where he would pursue both his undergraduate and graduate studies at prominent research universities.

Education

Schekman attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. In a 2025 event featuring UCLA alumni Nobel laureates, Schekman reflected on how his experience at the university set him on a path toward the Nobel Prize, alongside fellow alumni Fred Ramsdell and Ardem Patapoutian.

For his graduate studies, Schekman enrolled at Stanford University, where he worked under the mentorship of Arthur Kornberg, himself a Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine (1959) for his work on the enzymatic synthesis of DNA. Schekman's doctoral dissertation, titled "Resolution and reconstruction of a multienzyme DNA replication reaction," was completed in 1975. Training in Kornberg's laboratory provided Schekman with rigorous experience in biochemistry and enzymology, skills that he would later adapt to study the secretory pathway in eukaryotic cells.

Career

Faculty Appointment at UC Berkeley

Following the completion of his doctoral and postdoctoral work, Schekman joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, where he has spent the majority of his career. He became a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, where he established a laboratory focused on understanding the genetic and biochemical basis of protein secretion and membrane trafficking.

Schekman also served as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), one of the largest private funders of biomedical research in the United States. His association with HHMI provided long-term funding stability that allowed his laboratory to pursue fundamental questions about cellular organization over many years.

Research on Vesicle Trafficking

Schekman's principal scientific contribution lies in elucidating the molecular machinery that governs the transport of proteins within eukaryotic cells via membrane-bound vesicles. Cells produce large quantities of proteins that must be delivered to specific destinations — to the cell surface, to other organelles, or for secretion outside the cell. This transport is mediated by small membrane-enclosed packages called vesicles, which bud off from one compartment and fuse with another in a highly regulated process.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the mechanisms controlling this vesicle transport were poorly understood. Schekman chose the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism, taking advantage of yeast genetics to identify mutations that disrupted the secretory pathway. Through systematic genetic screens, Schekman and his colleagues identified a collection of genes — referred to as SEC genes — whose protein products are required for various steps of vesicle budding, transport, and fusion.

Two seminal studies from the 1980s emerging from Schekman's work and converging research in mammalian cells catalyzed major advances in the vesicle trafficking field. The identification of SEC genes provided a molecular framework for the secretory pathway that has informed decades of subsequent research.

The SEC gene products were found to include coat proteins that help shape vesicles as they bud from donor membranes, as well as factors involved in targeting and fusion of vesicles with their correct acceptor compartments. Schekman's yeast-based genetic approach complemented the biochemical approach of James Rothman, who used cell-free mammalian systems to identify many of the same classes of proteins. Together, the two lines of research demonstrated that vesicle trafficking is governed by a conserved set of molecular machines operating across eukaryotic species — from yeast to humans. Thomas C. Südhof further extended this understanding by characterizing the calcium-dependent triggering mechanism for neurotransmitter release, a specialized form of vesicle fusion at nerve synapses.

The discovery that vesicle transport is controlled by a precise genetic and molecular program has had far-reaching implications. Defects in vesicle trafficking have been linked to a variety of human diseases, including diabetes, immunological disorders, and neurological conditions. Understanding the basic biology of this process has therefore informed both basic science and clinical medicine.

Doctoral Mentorship

Schekman's influence on the field extends through his mentorship of graduate students, several of whom have gone on to distinguished scientific careers. Among his doctoral students at UC Berkeley were David Julius, who later became a professor at the University of California, San Francisco and was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch, and David Baker, the computational biochemist and protein designer who became a leading figure in protein engineering. The fact that two of Schekman's former doctoral students achieved such prominence in distinct fields of biology speaks to the breadth and rigor of the training environment in his laboratory.

Editorial Roles

In addition to his research, Schekman has been active in scientific publishing and editorial leadership. He served as editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the most widely cited multidisciplinary scientific journals in the world. He also served as editor of the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology.

In 2011, Schekman was announced as the founding editor of eLife, a new open-access journal supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust. The journal launched in 2012 with the aim of providing a high-quality, freely accessible venue for biomedical and life sciences research, challenging the traditional subscription-based model of scientific publishing.

Advocacy for Open-Access Publishing

Following the announcement of his Nobel Prize in 2013, Schekman made headlines by publicly declaring a personal boycott of what he called the "luxury journals" — Nature, Cell, and Science. In a commentary published in The Guardian in December 2013, Schekman argued that these journals distort the scientific process by acting as "an incentive to do flashy work that may not be the most important" and that their restricted access and emphasis on impact factor create perverse incentives in science. He stated that his laboratory would no longer submit papers to these three journals and encouraged other scientists to consider alternatives, including open-access journals such as eLife.

Schekman's stance drew significant attention and debate within the scientific community. Supporters praised him for using the platform of the Nobel Prize to advocate for systemic reform in how scientific research is disseminated and evaluated. Critics questioned whether boycotting the most prominent journals was practical for early-career scientists who depend on high-profile publications for career advancement. Regardless, Schekman's advocacy helped amplify a growing movement toward open-access publishing and alternative metrics for evaluating scientific contributions.

Recent Research and Public Engagement

In more recent years, Schekman has applied his expertise in cell biology to the study of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson's disease. In a 2026 interview, Schekman noted concerns about rising rates of Parkinson's disease globally, with particular attention to projections suggesting that China may account for a significant proportion of new cases in the coming decade, potentially linked to environmental toxin exposure.

Schekman has also engaged in international science advocacy, traveling to speak and consult with researchers around the world. In October 2025, he praised Hong Kong's openness and scientific spirit while expressing concern about political tensions impacting scientific collaboration between the United States and China. During a visit to Bengaluru, India, in early 2026, Schekman praised the city's growth as a center for biological research, while also urging greater support for Indian scientific institutions so that talented Indian researchers would not have to travel abroad to do top-tier work.

In mid-2025, Schekman was among prominent scientists voicing concern about threats to academic research funding in the United States, underscoring the importance of sustained public investment in basic science.

Personal Life

Schekman has maintained a relatively private personal life. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, consistent with his long faculty tenure at UC Berkeley. In public remarks, he has occasionally spoken about the childhood curiosity — fueled by simple tools like a toy microscope — that led him to a life in science.

Recognition

Schekman has received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, reflecting the significance of his contributions to cell biology and molecular medicine.

His most prominent recognition came in 2013, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared equally with James Rothman and Thomas C. Südhof, "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells." The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet cited Schekman specifically for his genetic dissection of the secretory pathway in yeast.

Prior to the Nobel Prize, Schekman received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2002, often considered a precursor to the Nobel Prize in biomedical sciences. He was also a co-recipient of the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University, which recognizes outstanding contributions in biology or biochemistry.

Schekman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. In 2013, the same year as his Nobel Prize, he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS).

Legacy

Schekman's work on the genetic basis of vesicle trafficking fundamentally changed the understanding of how eukaryotic cells organize intracellular transport. By demonstrating that specific genes encode the molecular machinery for vesicle budding, targeting, and fusion, Schekman and his collaborators established a framework that has guided cell biology research for over four decades. The SEC genes he identified in yeast were subsequently found to have homologs in all eukaryotic organisms, including humans, confirming the deep evolutionary conservation of the secretory pathway.

The practical implications of this research extend into medicine. Disruptions in vesicle trafficking have been implicated in conditions ranging from type II diabetes (where insulin secretion is impaired) to genetic immunodeficiency disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Schekman's more recent focus on Parkinson's disease reflects a natural extension of his career-long interest in how cells package and deliver molecular cargo.

As a mentor, Schekman's influence is multiplied through the careers of his former students and postdoctoral researchers. The fact that David Julius went on to win his own Nobel Prize in 2021 is an exceptional testament to the training environment Schekman cultivated at Berkeley.

Through his editorial work, particularly his leadership of eLife and his vocal criticism of the commercial publishing model, Schekman has contributed to broader institutional changes in how scientific research is communicated and evaluated. His public boycott of luxury journals in 2013 helped catalyze discussions about open-access publishing, research assessment reform, and the relationship between journal prestige and scientific quality.

Schekman's ongoing international engagement — from Hong Kong to Bengaluru to public lectures at Berkeley — reflects a commitment to the global scientific enterprise and to ensuring that the next generation of researchers, regardless of geography, has access to the tools and support necessary for discovery.