Cell Biology

Chairman's Overview

Sandra L. Schmid, Ph.D.

New live cell imaging methodologies have revealed that ornate and complex cellular assemblies, such as adhesion plaques, adhesion junctions, muscle fibers, clathrin coated pits, etc., which were once thought to be static structures, are in fact in continuous and rapid flux. Rapid flux enables these structures to quickly adapt, to respond to change, to break down in some areas and rebuild in others, as needed. Similarly, it has been a year of flux in the Cell Biology department.

Several faculty have left Scripps this year and moved their programs to other institutes. Each of these moves represents new opportunities for the investigator and, in many cases, career advancements. Thus, Klaus Hahn (Associate Professor) has been named the Thurman Professor of Pharmacology at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Jeff Harper (Associate Professor) has accepted a Full Professorship at the University of Nevada, Reno. Sandy Shattil leaves TSRI for UCSD, where he will be a Professor of Medicine and Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology. Last, but not least, Mark Ginsburg, who undertook his postdoctoral studies at Scripps in 1975 and rose through the ranks to Full Professor in 1990 becomes a Professor of Medicine at UCSD. Thankfully, Sandy and Mark remain in the neighborhood and strong scientific interactions will continue. Indeed, science is a global endeavor and the valuable collaborations initiated at TSRI will undoubtedly continue.

Examples of positive flux, include the academic promotion of many of our distinguished faculty, reflecting their success and the respect that they have earned amongst their local, national and international colleagues. Congratulations to Mari Manchester who was promoted to Associate Professor, in recognition of her work on the mechanisms of immuno-suppression by measles virus and her recent program focused on engineering viral particles for vaccine development, and other nanotechnology applications. Shelley Halpain was promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure). Shelley is a recognized leader in the regulation and function of cytoskeletal dynamics during early neurite development and in the establishment and maintenance of postsynaptic dendritic spines. Finally, completing his meteoric rise from TSRI graduate student, Ben Cravatt was promoted this year to Full Professor. Ben’s work spans both Cell Biology and Chemistry. Attesting to his outstanding contributions in both areas of research Ben received two prestigious awards: the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry and the Cope Scholar Award for Organic Chemistry.

Other researchers in Cell Biology have been recognized this year for their outstanding contributions. John Yates was awarded the Biemann Medal from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in recognition of his achievements and contributions to protein sequence analysis and tandem mass spectrometry. Clare Waterman-Storer was named a Keith Porter Fellow by the American Society for Cell Biology and a Nikon Instruments Partner in Science, in recognition of her innovation in the development and application of molecular microscopy. Sandra Schmid has been named Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Biology of the Cell, a leading cell biology journal owned and operated by the American Society for Cell Biology. Our young scientists are also being recognized for their past accomplishments and exciting potential. Lisa Stowers was named a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences and Elizabeth Winzeler was named a WM Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholar in Medical Research.

In the following pages you will read the impressive research accomplishments. Please note the breadth and quality of the work. Significant advances have been made in the genomics and proteomics of malaria (Yates, Winzeler), in high resolution electron microscopy of transcription factors (Asturias) and new classes of molecular motors (Milligan), in the development of the inner ear and mechanotransduction in hearing (Mueller), in the discovery of temperature sensing ion channels (Patapoutian), in understanding complex behaviors, like circadian rhythms (Kaye) and learning and memory (Mayford), in diseases of protein folding, like cystic fibrosis (Balch), in the regulation of cytoskeletal dynamics in migrating cells (Waterman-Storer, Danuser, Fowler) and in the mechanisms of intracellular protein transport and sorting (Gerace, Schmid). Work in these and other areas continues.