Samara Reck-Peterson

Samara Reck-Peterson
Born1971 (age 52–53)
Known forStudies of the motor protein dynein
Scientific career
InstitutionsHarvard Medical School
University of California, San Diego
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Thesis Functional, Biochemical and Biophysical Characterization of Myo2p, a Class V Myosin of the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Doctoral advisorMark Mooseker and Peter Novick
Other academic advisorsRonald Vale

Samara Reck-Peterson is an American cell biologist and biophysicist. She is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, San Diego and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is known for her contributions to our understanding of how dynein, an exceptionally large motor protein that moves many intracellular cargos,[1] works and is regulated. She developed one of the first systems to produce recombinant dynein[2] and discovered that, unlike other cytoskeletal motors, dynein can take a wide variety of step sizes, forward and back and even sideways.[2][3] She lives in San Diego, California.

Early life and education

Reck-Peterson was educated at Litchfield High School in Litchfield, Minnesota, where she served as senior class president and graduated as salutatorian in 1989. She was an all-state track and cross-country runner and team captain.[4] She was inducted into the Litchfield High School Hall of Fame in 2017.[4]

Career

Reck-Peterson became interested in molecular motors when she took the Physiology Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She chose the motor protein myosin as the topic of her Ph.D. work in the laboratories of Mark Mooseker and Peter Novick at Yale University. Her work focused on the class V myosins, which have multiple functions in the cell ranging from mRNA transport to cell polarity and membrane trafficking.[5] She developed a modified in vitro motility assay to show that both Myo2p and Myo4p class V myosins in yeast appear to be non-processive motors in the absence of additional regulation, unlike their vertebrate counterparts.[6]

In 2001, Reck-Peterson moved to UCSF to pursue post-doctoral studies with Ronald Vale. She began to work on dynein, a molecular motor that transports cargoes such as proteins, organelles and messenger RNAs to locations where they are needed in the cell. Dynein uses the energy stored in ATP to move towards the "minus end" of microtubules. Defects in dyneins and their regulatory proteins lead to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, showing the importance of microtubule-based transport in long cells such as neurons.[7] Reck-Peterson used single-molecule techniques to examine the stepping behavior of dynein, finding that isolated dynein can step forwards, backwards and even sideways.[2]

In 2007, Reck-Peterson joined the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School as an assistant professor. She continued to study the mechanism of dynein-mediated transport.[8] Using DNA origami, she created artificial cargos that could be programmed to load onto multiple types of motors, and used these to create competition, or a "tug of war", between motors.[9] She used an assay for long-distance microtubule-based transport in the long, highly polarized hyphae of Aspergillus nidulans[10] to show that Lis-1 is an initiation factor for dynein-mediated transport,[11] and to show that some cargos of microtubule-based motors hitchhike on others.[12] Mutants in the gene encoding Lis-1 are one cause of lissencephaly, a severe brain disorder. In collaboration with Andres Leschziner, she showed that Lis-1 regulates the interaction between dynein and the microtubule in two different ways,[13][14] and determined the structural basis for the switch between microtubule binding and microtubule release.[15]

In 2015 Reck-Peterson moved to the University of California, San Diego,[16] and in 2018 she became an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.[17]

Awards

  • HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar[18]
  • Bjorkman-Strominger-Wiley Prize for Collaboration[19]
  • American Society for Cell Biology WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research[20]       
  • Young Mentor Award, Harvard Medical School[21]   
  • Armenise-Harvard Foundation Junior Faculty Grant[22]       
  • Rita Allen Milton Cassel Scholar[23]
  • NIH Director's New Innovator Award[24]

References

  1. ^ Reck-Peterson, Samara L.; Redwine, William B.; Vale, Ronald D.; Carter, Andrew P. (2018). "The cytoplasmic dynein transport machinery and its many cargoes" (PDF). Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 19 (6): 382–398. doi:10.1038/s41580-018-0004-3. ISSN 1471-0080. PMC 6457270. PMID 29662141.
  2. ^ a b c Reck-Peterson, Samara L.; Yildiz, Ahmet; Carter, Andrew P.; Gennerich, Arne; Zhang, Nan; Vale, Ronald D. (2006). "Single-Molecule Analysis of Dynein Processivity and Stepping Behavior". Cell. 126 (2): 335–348. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2006.05.046. PMC 2851639. PMID 16873064.
  3. ^ Qiu, Weihong; Derr, Nathan D.; Goodman, Brian S.; Villa, Elizabeth; Wu, David; Shih, William; Reck-Peterson, Samara L. (2012-01-08). "Dynein achieves processive motion using both stochastic and coordinated stepping". Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. 19 (2): 193–200. doi:10.1038/nsmb.2205. ISSN 1545-9985. PMC 3272163. PMID 22231401.
  4. ^ a b O'Connor, Molly. "LHS Hall of Fame inducts three". Crow River Media. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  5. ^ Reck-Peterson, S. L.; Provance, D. W.; Mooseker, M. S.; Mercer, J. A. (2000-03-17). "Class V myosins". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Cell Research. 1496 (1): 36–51. doi:10.1016/s0167-4889(00)00007-0. ISSN 0006-3002. PMID 10722875.
  6. ^ Reck-Peterson, S. L.; Tyska, M. J.; Novick, P. J.; Mooseker, M. S. (2001-05-28). "The yeast class V myosins, Myo2p and Myo4p, are nonprocessive actin-based motors". The Journal of Cell Biology. 153 (5): 1121–1126. doi:10.1083/jcb.153.5.1121. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 2174330. PMID 11381095.
  7. ^ Hirokawa, Nobutaka; Niwa, Shinsuke; Tanaka, Yosuke (2010). "Molecular Motors in Neurons: Transport Mechanisms and Roles in Brain Function, Development, and Disease". Neuron. 68 (4): 610–638. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.09.039. PMID 21092854.
  8. ^ Qiu, Weihong; Derr, Nathan D; Goodman, Brian S; Villa, Elizabeth; Wu, David; Shih, William; Reck-Peterson, Samara L (2012). "Dynein achieves processive motion using both stochastic and coordinated stepping". Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. 19 (2): 193–200. doi:10.1038/nsmb.2205. ISSN 1545-9993. PMC 3272163. PMID 22231401.
  9. ^ Derr, N. D.; Goodman, B. S.; Jungmann, R.; Leschziner, A. E.; Shih, W. M.; Reck-Peterson, S. L. (2012-11-02). "Tug-of-war in motor protein ensembles revealed with a programmable DNA origami scaffold". Science. 338 (6107): 662–665. Bibcode:2012Sci...338..662D. doi:10.1126/science.1226734. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 3840815. PMID 23065903.
  10. ^ Egan, Martin J.; McClintock, Mark A.; Reck-Peterson, Samara L. (2012). "Microtubule-based transport in filamentous fungi". Current Opinion in Microbiology. 15 (6): 637–645. doi:10.1016/j.mib.2012.10.003. ISSN 1879-0364. PMC 3518651. PMID 23127389.
  11. ^ Egan, Martin J.; Tan, Kaeling; Reck-Peterson, Samara L. (2012-06-25). "Lis1 is an initiation factor for dynein-driven organelle transport". The Journal of Cell Biology. 197 (7): 971–982. doi:10.1083/jcb.201112101. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 3384415. PMID 22711696.
  12. ^ Salogiannis, John; Egan, Martin J.; Reck-Peterson, Samara L. (2016-02-01). "Peroxisomes move by hitchhiking on early endosomes using the novel linker protein PxdA". The Journal of Cell Biology. 212 (3): 289–296. doi:10.1083/jcb.201512020. ISSN 1540-8140. PMC 4748578. PMID 26811422.
  13. ^ Huang, Julie; Roberts, Anthony J.; Leschziner, Andres E.; Reck-Peterson, Samara L. (2012-08-31). "Lis1 acts as a "clutch" between the ATPase and microtubule-binding domains of the dynein motor". Cell. 150 (5): 975–986. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2012.07.022. ISSN 1097-4172. PMC 3438448. PMID 22939623.
  14. ^ DeSantis, Morgan E.; Cianfrocco, Michael A.; Htet, Zaw Min; Tran, Phuoc Tien; Reck-Peterson, Samara L.; Leschziner, Andres E. (2017-09-07). "Lis1 Has Two Opposing Modes of Regulating Cytoplasmic Dynein". Cell. 170 (6): 1197–1208.e12. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.037. ISSN 1097-4172. PMC 5625841. PMID 28886386.
  15. ^ Redwine, W. B.; Hernandez-Lopez, R.; Zou, S.; Huang, J.; Reck-Peterson, S. L.; Leschziner, A. E. (2012-09-21). "Structural basis for microtubule binding and release by dynein". Science. 337 (6101): 1532–1536. Bibcode:2012Sci...337.1532R. doi:10.1126/science.1224151. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 3919166. PMID 22997337.
  16. ^ "Samara Reck-Peterson". biology.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  17. ^ "HHMI Bets Big On 19 New Investigators". HHMI.org. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  18. ^ "2016 Faculty Scholars". 2016 Faculty Scholars. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  19. ^ "Molecular & Cellular Biology - Harvard University". mcbpublic.unix.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  20. ^ "Women in Cell Biology Awards". ASCB. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  21. ^ "Excellence in Mentoring Awards Past Recipients". The Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  22. ^ "Armenise Grants Advance Junior Faculty Studies | Harvard Medical School". hms.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  23. ^ "Years 2009 - Rita Allen Foundation". Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  24. ^ "NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program - 2008 Award Recipients | NIH Common Fund". commonfund.nih.gov. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-10.