Molecular Cell Biology

HARVEY LODISH is Professor of Biology and Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Dr. Lodish is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was President (2004) of the American Society for Cell Biology. He is well known for his work on cell-membrane physiology, particularly the biosynthesis of many cell-surface proteins, and on the cloning and functional analysis of several cell-surface receptor proteins, such as the erythropoietin and TGF–β receptors. His laboratory also studies long noncoding RNAs and microRNAs that regulate the development and function of hematopoietic cells and adipocytes. Dr. Lodish teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in cell biology and biotechnology.

ARNOLD BERK holds the UCLA Presidential Chair in Molecular Cell Biology in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and is a member of the Molecular Biology Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Berk is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is one of the discoverers of RNA splicing and of mechanisms for gene control in viruses. His laboratory studies the molecular interactions that regulate transcription initiation in mammalian cells, focusing in particular on adenovirus regulatory proteins. He teaches an advanced undergraduate course in cell biology of the nucleus and a graduate course in the biochemistry of gene expression.

CHRIS A. KAISER is the Amgen Inc. Professor in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a former Department Head and former Provost at MIT. His laboratory uses genetic and cell biological methods to understand how newly synthesized membrane and secretory proteins are folded and stored in the compartments of the secretory pathway. Dr. Kaiser is recognized as a top educator at MIT, where he has taught genetics to undergraduate and graduate students for many years.

MONTY KRIEGER is the Whitehead Professor in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Krieger is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. For his innovative teaching of undergraduate biology and human physiology as well as graduate cell biology courses, he has received numerous awards. His laboratory has made contributions to our understanding of membrane trafficking through the Golgi apparatus and has cloned and characterized receptor proteins important for pathogen recognition and the movement of cholesterol into and out of cells, including the HDL receptor.

ANTHONY BRETSCHER is Professor of Cell Biology at Cornell University and a member of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology. His laboratory is well known for identifying and characterizing new components of the actin cytoskeleton and elucidating their biological functions in relation to cell polarity and membrane traffic. For this work, his laboratory exploits biochemical, genetic, and cell biological approaches in two model systems, vertebrate epithelial cells and the budding yeast. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Bretscher teaches cell biology to undergraduates at Cornell University.

HIDDE PLOEGH is a senior investigator in the Program of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he studies the biochemistry of the immune system. A Member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is one of the world’s leading researchers in the molecular understanding of immune system cells and the mechanisms by which viruses evade detection by the immune system. Prior to his current position he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School, where he taught immunology and cell biology.

KELSEY C. MARTIN is Professor of Biological Chemistry and Psychiatry and Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the former Chair of the Biological Chemistry Department. Her laboratory studies the ways in which experience changes connections between neurons in the brain to store long-term memories—a process known as synaptic plasticity. She has made important contributions to elucidating the molecular and cell biological mechanisms that underlie this process. Dr. Martin teaches basic principles of neuroscience to undergraduates, graduate students, dental students, and medical students.

MICHAEL B. YAFFE is the David H. Koch Professor of Science in the Departments of Biology and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is also the Academic Editor-in-Chief of the journal Science Signaling. His laboratory studies the cellular response to stress and injury, and is well known for the discovery and characterization of modular protein domains and protein kinases that form molecular signaling circuits. Dr. Yaffe teaches undergraduate biochemistry and graduate cell biology courses, for which he has received numerous awards. He also instructs medical students and residents in the intensive care unit at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he is an attending physician.

ANGELIKA AMON is Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms that govern chromosome segregation during mitosis and meiosis and the consequences—aneuploidy—when these mechanisms fail during normal cell proliferation and cancer development. Dr. Amon teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in cell biology and genetics.