Marine Biological Laboratory

Friday Evening Lecture Series

07/09/04 (Keith Porter Lecture)

Molecular Motor Proteins: A Story Home-Grown from the Marine Biology Laboratory
Ron Vale, University of California, San Francisco; Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Introduction by Robert Goldman, Northwestern University

Lecture Abstract:
The Marine Biological Laboratory is a magical place where great discoveries are made and new ideas are spawned. I was fortunate to have experienced this “magic” when I first came to the MBL in 1983 as a graduate student. At that time, I was amazed by movies of membrane organelles traveling inside of squid axons (much like cars traveling along a busy freeway), as revealed by the relatively new technique of “video microscopy” developed at the MBL independently by Shinya Inoué and Robert Allen. Surely, there had to be biological "motors" powering such motion. Tom Reese, Bruce Schnapp, Mike Sheetz and I (as well as with contributions from many other MBL scientists), uncovered a new type of molecular motor, which we christened “kinesin” (from the Greek “kinein,” to move). Since that time, our understanding of transport within cells has exploded. We now know that humans have 45 kinesin motors that perform distinct functions. We can visualize the motion of single kinesin molecules and have a detailed model of how this motor works. Regarding pragmatic outcomes for human health, anti-kinesin drugs that block cell division have been developed that block cell division and are currently in Phase II clinical trials for cancer. All of these advances were unimaginable in 1983. It is a special treat for me to come back to the MBL and share with you the birth and growth of kinesin, a marvelous molecular machine that generates much of the animated features associated with living organisms.

Ronald Vale is the William K. Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Anesthesia and Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Program at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Dr. Vale is also a Co-Founder of Cytokinetics, Inc., a biotechnology company located in South San Francisco. Dr. Vale received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Neurosciences from Stanford University in 1985. Here at the MBL, he was a Staff Fellow in the Laboratory of Neurobiology for the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders (NINCDS) from 1985 to 1986. He was also an MBL Physiology Course instructor from 1992 to 1993 and is currently the Course’s Co-Director. Dr. Vale has served as a Chair of an NIH study section and is the co-editor (with Thomas Kreis) of the first and second editions of the Guidebook to Cytoskeletal and Motor Proteins and the Guidebook to ECM, Anchor and Adhesion Proteins. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including UCSF’s 46th Annual Faculty Research Lecture Award, the Biophysical Society’s Young Investigator Award, and the American Chemical Society’s Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry. Dr. Vale is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Robert Goldman will introduce Dr. Vale. Dr. Goldman is the Stephen Walter Ranson Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University Medical School. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1967, and did postdoctoral work at Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London and the MRC Institute of Virology, Glasgow. His research has been focused on cytoskeletal and nucleoskeletal Intermediate Filaments. Dr. Goldman has served as the President of the American Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Neuroscience Chairpersons, the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Council of the American Society for Cell Biology. In 2000 he gave the keynote address to the International Conference on the Public Understanding of Science and Technology in Kuala Lumpur. He has served on numerous advisory boards and committees including the AAAS Committee on Science, Religion and Ethics; the AAAS Stem Cell Working Group; the Catholic Bishop's Conference on Human Stem Cells; the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Stem Cell Advisory Board; Member, NIH Reorganization of Study Sections in Cell Biology Committee. Recently he Chaired the Novartis Foundation Symposium on Nuclear Organization in Developmemnt and Disease, and an Open Meeting on Nuclear Architecture Diseases at the Royal College of Physicians in London (2004). Dr. Goldman has also served as an organizer of the Cold Spring Harbor Meetings on Nuclear Architecture and numerous other organizing committees. He has been an editor of several books published by the Cold Spring Harbor Press, the most recent of which, Live Cell Imaging, A Laboratory Manual, will be released in August. In 2000 he received the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Merit Award. Dr. Goldman spent his first summer at the MBL in 1963 , has been a summer investigator at the MBL since 1977, has served on the MBL's Board of Trustees, was a Physiology Course Instructor from 1981 to 1983, and served as the Instructor-in-Chief of Physiology until 1988. In 2003 he was appointed the first Director of the newly established Whitman Center for Visiting Research at the MBL. In addition, he currently co-directs the MBL's Science Journalism Program, which provides hands-on laboratory and field experiences for mid-career science writers, editors, and producers.

About the Keith Porter Lecture:
The annual Keith Porter Lecture is held in honor of Dr. Keth Roberts Porter, a former Director of the MBL considered by many to be the "Father" of the field of cell biology. It is sponsored by the Keith R. Porter Endowment whose goal is to support communication and education in cell biology.