 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
The John J. Cebra Lectureship
7/24/06 - 4:00 PM - Lillie Auditorium
“Understanding cell division: A journey from dynamics in living cells to the dynamics of molecules in a test tube”
Dr. Shinya Inoue, MBL and Dr. Ed Taylor, Northwestern University
Shinya Inoué is the director of the MBL’s Architectural Dynamics in Living Cells Program and one of only two Distinguished Scientists at the MBL. As a graduate student during one of his first summers at the MBL, he made history when he documented the existence of spindle fibers, which are needed to move chromosomes during mitosis.
His laboratory group studies the molecular mechanism and control of mitosis, cell division, and cell morphogenesis. They focus on biophysical studies made directly on single living cells, especially developing eggs in marine invertebrates. To facilitate this research, Dr. Inoué and his colleagues have designed many of their own instruments and methods. He recently developed the centrifuge polarizing microscope, which uses extremely high gravitational fields to study minute changes in cellular structure. His methods include high-extinction polarization optical and video microscopy, as well as digital image processing techniques, including dynamic stereoscopic imaging.
Dr. Inoué is a long-time MBL corporation member. He holds an M.A. (1950) and Ph.D. (1951) in biology from Princeton University. He received the International Prize for Biology from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 2003, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1993.
Edwin Taylor is a research professor in cell and molecular biology at Northwestern University, where his main interest is modeling the behavior of actin networks in cell movements. His fascination with cell motility began while pursuing a Ph.D. in biophysics at the University of Chicago (1957), where he quantitatively analyzed spindle formation and chromosome movement during mitosis.
Because of his contributions to the field of cell motility, Dr. Taylor is known as the “father of cytoskeletal research.” He has also studied the biophysics of how molecular motors convert chemical energy into mechanical force, which has applications to intracellular material movement as well as muscle contraction.
He holds a B.A. in physics and chemistry from the University of Toronto (1952) and a M.Sc. in physical chemistry from McMaster University in Ontario (1955). After his post-doctoral studies of neurofilaments at MIT, he returned to the University of Chicago, where he served as assistant professor from 1959 to 1962 before moving his program to Northwestern to collaborate with Gary Borisy.
Dr. Taylor is an MBL corporation member, a member of the Royal Society of London, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The American Society for Cell Biology awarded Dr. Taylor their highest honor, the E.B. Wilson Medal, in 1999. In 2001, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
About the Cebra Lectureship:
Professor John J. Cebra was trained as an immunochemist and protein chemist during the mid 1950s through the 1960s at The Rockefeller University, St. Mary’s Hospital, London, and the Weizmann Institute, Israel. In 1961 he established his own lab in the department of microbiology, University of Florida. During the 1960s he became interested in secretory IgA, and his group established its prevalence as a product of gut plasmablasts and its valid quaternary structure. In the 1970s he and others developed many novel principles concerning the IgA system and its Ab product.
Until his death, in 2005, he was a professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania where the Cebra group sought to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that led to the development of specific humoral and cellular mucosal immune responses, and the influence of commensal bacteria on mucosal immunity.
Professor Cebra directed the MBL Physiology course from 1972 to 1976. He and his wife Ethel traveled abroad extensively to engage students of experimental biology in joint research projects. These visits stimulated continuing collaborative scientific interactions between the Cebra lab and various host laboratories worldwide.
Professor Cebra considered his major accomplishment to be assisting in the training of 32 graduate students and many postdoctoral fellows.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
