Amy Gladfelter

Amy S. Gladfelter (born April 27, 1974) is a quantitative cell biologist and Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she mainly investigates cell cycle control and the septin cytoskeleton.[4] She discovered that nuclei in multinucleated cells can undergo the cell cycle asynchronously despite sharing a common cytoplasm[5][6][7] and continues to investigate spatial organization of the cell and cellular components.[8][9][10][11] Additionally, she studies the assembly of the septin cytoskeleton and the how aberrant septin structure affects their function.[12][13][14][15][16][17] She has trained and mentored many undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows.[18] The American Society for Cell Biology named her the winner of the 2015 WICB Mid-Career Award for Excellence in Research for her contributions to the field. Gladfelter was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Scholar in 2016.[19][20]

Amy S. Gladfelter
Born (1974-04-27) April 27, 1974
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma mater
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsCell biology
Institutions
Websitegladfelterlab.web.unc.edu

Early life and education

Gladfelter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 27, 1974. She grew up in Windermere, Florida, and graduated from West Orange High School in 1992. It was during high school that Gladfelter became interested in biology, primarily due to exploring the natural world that the Florida countryside had to offer.[21] Gladfelter attended and graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in Molecular Biology in 1996. During her undergraduate summers, she spent extensive time doing research with Simon Lewis at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Toby Bradshaw at the University of Washington, and later Bonnie Bassler at Princeton.[22] She then attended Duke University where she worked in Danny Lew's lab, exploring how cells polarize and CDC42 signaling. In 2001 she graduated from Duke University with a Ph.D. in Genetics. Following her time at Duke, she conducted post-doctoral research on the control of nuclear division in multinucleate fungal cells with Peter Philippsen at the University of Basel Biozentrum in Basel, Switzerland.[23]

Cell biology research

Following her post doctorate work in Switzerland, Gladfelter returned to the United States and began work at Dartmouth College in 2006. She had her own lab which dealt with the arrangement of cells in time and space, and the organization of the septin cytoskeleton in cells. Her lab combined live cell microscopy and computational approaches with biochemistry and genetics analyses.[24] One of the most significant discoveries Gladfelter made was asynchronous nuclear division in multinucleated cells. This discovery came in Ashbya gossypii cells, where nuclei that occupied the same cytoplasm progress through the cell cycle independently of each other.[25] During her time at Dartmouth, Gladfelter also taught a full load of courses while she served as an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences. Additionally, she mentored undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post doctorates in her lab. Her leadership earned her the Graduate Student Mentoring Award from Dartmouth in 2014.[2]

A few years after starting at Dartmouth, Gladfelter began to collaborate with Rudolf Oldenbourg and Tomomi Tani during summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.[26] One of her main focuses at the MBL is investigating the septin cytoskeleton, and in particular the “orientation and dynamics of individual septin molecules with higher-order structures.”[27] In 2016, Gladfelter left Dartmouth and began working at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where she currently serves as an Professor of Biology.[4] As before at Dartmouth, her lab at UNC employs both students and post-doctoral trainees to further investigate how cells are organized in time and space. The two main concepts she covers are how the cytoplasm is spatially organized and how cells sense their own geometry. Her team uses “large multinucleate cells such as fungi, mammalian cancer lines, muscle, and placenta” to study the architecture of the cytoplasm. It is these cells that are of interest because of the challenges they face in cell division and growth due to their size.[28] Additionally, multinucleate cells are common in tumors, making her lab work extremely relevant to understanding mechanisms of cancer formation and persistence. Recent discoveries include the aggregation of proteins that form liquid-like droplets within the cytosol, an example of biological phase separation (liquid-liquid phase separation).

The second area Gladfelter's lab explores is how cells sense their shape.[8] Because septins localize to areas of the cell that change shape or are highly curved, they are the proteins Gladfelter and her team examine. Septins are involved in many processes that occur in eukaryotic cells, including cytokinesis, formation of diffusion barriers to compartmentalize the plasma membrane,[29][30][31] and regulation of cellular processes such as the release of neurotransmitters and microtubule dynamics.[32] Because the septin cytoskeleton has a fundamental role in various cellular processes, understanding more about it can lead to a better understanding of the cell itself. Gladfelter has “discovered how septins polymerize with [her] establishment of the first reconstitution system that can analyze septin dynamics on supported lipid bilayers.”[28] Aberrant septin function has been linked to many different types of tumors, making Gladfelter's research useful in understanding septin's impact on malignant cells.[33]

Awards and honors

Personal life

Gladfelter is married to Mark Borsuk, an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University.[38][39] They live in North Carolina with their two children. She returns to Woods Hole, MA every summer with her family to enjoy Cape Cod and continue her work at the MBL.[27] During her busy days, she still makes time to take walks and enjoy the natural world around her. She credits her accomplishments largely in part to the support and love received from her parents.[40]

References
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  3. Chapman, Keith (July 20, 2012). "Ten Professors Honored with Faculty Awards". Dartmouth. Dartmouth News. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  4. "The Gladfelter Lab". The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  5. Gladfelter, Amy S.; Hungerbuehler, A. Katrin; Philippsen, Peter (January 30, 2006). "Asynchronous nuclear division cycles in multinucleated cells". The Journal of Cell Biology. 172 (3): 347–362. doi:10.1083/jcb.200507003. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 2063645. PMID 16449188.
  6. Anderson, Cori A.; Eser, Umut; Korndorf, Therese; Borsuk, Mark E.; Skotheim, Jan M.; Gladfelter, Amy S. (October 21, 2013). "Nuclear repulsion enables division autonomy in a single cytoplasm". Current Biology. 23 (20): 1999–2010. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.076. ISSN 1879-0445. PMC 4085259. PMID 24094857.
  7. Dundon, Samantha E. R.; Chang, Shyr-Shea; Kumar, Abhishek; Occhipinti, Patricia; Shroff, Hari; Roper, Marcus; Gladfelter, Amy S. (July 1, 2016). "Clustered nuclei maintain autonomy and nucleocytoplasmic ratio control in a syncytium". Molecular Biology of the Cell. 27 (13): 2000–2007. doi:10.1091/mbc.E16-02-0129. ISSN 1939-4586. PMC 4927274. PMID 27193301.
  8. "Research Questions". The Gladfelter Lab. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  9. Lee, Changhwan; Zhang, Huaiying; Baker, Amy E.; Occhipinti, Patricia; Borsuk, Mark E.; Gladfelter, Amy S. (June 24, 2013). "Protein aggregation behavior regulates cyclin transcript localization and cell-cycle control". Developmental Cell. 25 (6): 572–584. doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2013.05.007. ISSN 1878-1551. PMC 4113091. PMID 23769973.
  10. Zhang, Huaiying; Elbaum-Garfinkle, Shana; Langdon, Erin M.; Taylor, Nicole; Occhipinti, Patricia; Bridges, Andrew A.; Brangwynne, Clifford P.; Gladfelter, Amy S. (October 15, 2015). "RNA Controls PolyQ Protein Phase Transitions". Molecular Cell. 60 (2): 220–230. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2015.09.017. ISSN 1097-4164. PMC 5221516. PMID 26474065.
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  13. DeMay, Bradley S.; Meseroll, Rebecca A.; Occhipinti, Patricia; Gladfelter, Amy S. (April 2009). "Regulation of distinct septin rings in a single cell by Elm1p and Gin4p kinases". Molecular Biology of the Cell. 20 (8): 2311–2326. doi:10.1091/mbc.e08-12-1169. ISSN 1939-4586. PMC 2669037. PMID 19225152.
  14. DeMay, Bradley S.; Bai, Xiaobo; Howard, Louisa; Occhipinti, Patricia; Meseroll, Rebecca A.; Spiliotis, Elias T.; Oldenbourg, Rudolf; Gladfelter, Amy S. (June 13, 2011). "Septin filaments exhibit a dynamic, paired organization that is conserved from yeast to mammals". The Journal of Cell Biology. 193 (6): 1065–1081. doi:10.1083/jcb.201012143. ISSN 1540-8140. PMC 3115802. PMID 21670216.
  15. Meseroll, Rebecca A.; Occhipinti, Patricia; Gladfelter, Amy S. (February 2013). "Septin phosphorylation and coiled-coil domains function in cell and septin ring morphology in the filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii". Eukaryotic Cell. 12 (2): 182–193. doi:10.1128/EC.00251-12. ISSN 1535-9786. PMC 3571309. PMID 23204191.
  16. Bridges, Andrew A.; Zhang, Huaiying; Mehta, Shalin B.; Occhipinti, Patricia; Tani, Tomomi; Gladfelter, Amy S. (February 11, 2014). "Septin assemblies form by diffusion-driven annealing on membranes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 111 (6): 2146–2151. Bibcode:2014PNAS..111.2146B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1314138111. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 3926015. PMID 24469790.
  17. McQuilken, Molly; Jentzsch, Maximilian S.; Verma, Amitabh; Mehta, Shalin B.; Oldenbourg, Rudolf; Gladfelter, Amy S. (2017). "Analysis of Septin Reorganization at Cytokinesis Using Polarized Fluorescence Microscopy". Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. 5: 42. doi:10.3389/fcell.2017.00042. ISSN 2296-634X. PMC 5413497. PMID 28516085.
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