People you should know

Question 1

Japanese stem cell researcher, winner of the Nobel Prize for discovery of iPSCs(2012)

Field: Stem cell biology

Affiliations: serves as the director of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application and a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University; senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California; professor of anatomy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Also a past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).

Answer 1

Shinya Yamanaka

Question 2

Field: Stem cell Biology/ Regenerative Medicine

Achievements: first isolation and culturing of human embryonic stem cells in 1998(H9 line), then development of human pluripotent stem cells from adult skin cells in 2007

Research Interests: deriving induced pluripotent stem cells from animals on the extreme ends of the body size spectrum to pinpoint the mechanisms behind cell timing(i.e. differences in cell timing during gestation).

Affiliation:

• Director of Regenerative Biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisconsin
• Professor in the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
• Professor in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
• Founder of Cellular Dynamics International, a Madison-based company producing derivatives of human induced pluripotent stem cells for drug discovery and toxicity testing

Answer 2

James Thompson

Question 3

Filed: Synthetic Biology

_Achievements:_considered one of the foremost authorities in synthetic biology, especially in the field of metabolic engineering. Engineerind microorganisms(E.Coli and yeast) with ten-enzyme biosynthetic pathway using genes from ‘‘Artemisia annua’‘, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Escherichia coli (twelve genes in all) to transform a simple and renewable sugar, like glucose, into the complicated chemical structure of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin. The engineered microorganism is capable of secreting the final product from the cell, thereby purifying it from all other intracellular chemicals and reducing the purification costs and therefore the cost of the final drug.

_Research Interests:_engineering chemistry inside microorganisms, an area known as metabolic engineering, for production of useful chemicals or for environmental cleanup.

Affiliations: Professor of Chemical engineering and Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and chief executive officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute

Answer 3

Jay Keasling

Question 4

Field(s): Genetics, synthetic biology

Achievments: in 1984, developed the first direct genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori). Helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984 and the Personal Genome Project in 2005. George invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and array DNA synthesizer

Answer 4

George Church

Question 5

Field: Mechanobiology, bioengineering

Achievements:

• best known for discovery of the role mechanical forces play in developmental control(i.e. tensegrity) and in cancer formation, and application of these principles to develop bioinspired medical devices, nanotechnologies, and therapeutics.

Affiliations:

• founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
• Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital,
• Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Answer 5

Don Inger

Question 6

Field(s): Synthetic Biology

Achievements:

• best known as an innovator in developing the physical theory, computational tools and experimental approaches used in synthetic biology, as well as for his work in uncovering the evolutionary design principals behind cellular networks and populations.

Research Interests:

• develop experimental and computational technologies for discovery, prediction, control and design of microbial and viral functions and behaviors in environmental contexts

Affiliations

• Director of Bioinformatics, The Joint Bioenergy Institute
• Head, Synthetic Biology, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Answer 6

Adam Arkin

Question 7

Field(s): Synthetic Biology; Systems Biology

Research Interests:

• using network biology approaches to study antibiotic action, bacterial defense mechanisms, and the emergence of resistance

Affiliations:

• Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard
• The Wyss Institute

Answer 7

James J. Collins

Question 8

Field(s): Mechanobiology, stem cell biology

Research Interests:

• understand how cells interact with their environment, and to use this knowledge to control cell function
• studying the cooperation between adhesive, mechanical and biochemical signaling in the regulation of angiogenesis and stem cell biology.

Affiliations:

• Professor of Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory, Boston University
• Founding director of the Center for Engineering Cells and Regeneration at the University of Pennsylvania
• Wyss Institute

Answer 8

Chris Chen

Question 9

Field(s): Kidney biology, stem cell engineering

Achievments:

• internationally recognised for her work on the systems biology of kidney development.
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Answer 9

Melissa Little