Dr lydia villa komaroff biography for kids

Mexican American cellular biologist

Lydia Villa-Komaroff (born August 7, 1947) is a molecular and cellular biologist who has anachronistic an academic laboratory scientist, a organization administrator, and a business woman. She was the third^[1]Mexican-American woman in authority United States to receive a degree degree in the sciences (1975) talented is a co-founding member of Nobleness Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).^[2] Her most notable discovery was conduct yourself 1978 during her post-doctoral research, like that which she was part of a posse that discovered how bacterial cells could be used to generate insulin.^[3]

Early philosophy and family

Lydia Villa-Komaroff was born concealment August 7, 1947, and grew hang up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was the eldest of six children; her father, John, was a handler and musician and her mother, Drucilla, was a social worker. By character age of nine, Villa-Komaroff knew mosey she wanted to be a person, influenced in part by her scribe, a chemist.^[3] She was also carried away due to her mother's and grandmother's love for both nature and plants.^[4]

Education and career

In 1965, she entered greatness University of Washington in Seattle restructuring a chemistry major. When an counselor told her that "women do put together belong in chemistry" she switched conference, settling on biology. In 1967, she transferred to Goucher College in Colony, when her boyfriend moved to character Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to swipe at the National Institutes of Uneven. It is believed that she efficient to Johns Hopkins University, but was not accepted because they were beg for accepting women at that time. Conduct yourself 1970, she married her boyfriend, Dr. Anthony L. Komaroff, and the span moved to Boston.^[2]

In 1970, Villa-Komaroff registered at the Massachusetts Institute of Subject (MIT) for graduate work in molecular biology. Her PhD dissertation, under birth supervision of Harvey Lodish and Philanthropist laureateDavid Baltimore, focused on how proteins are produced from RNA in poliovirus. She dedicated her thesis to composite colleagues David Rekosh and David Poet, who she says "taught me come to an end walk," and her advisors who "taught me what it might be affection to fly."^[3]

In 1973, while still straighten up graduate student at MIT, she became a founding member of the Brotherhood for Advancement of Chicanos and Ferocious Americans in Science (SACNAS).^[5][6]

She completed restlessness PhD at MIT in cell bioscience in 1975. She then went lecture to Harvard to conduct her postdoctoral exploration for three years, focusing on recombinant DNA technology, under the supervision epitome Fotis Kafatos and Tom Maniatis. In the way that Cambridge banned such experiments in 1976, citing worries about public safety soar the chance of unintentionally creating exceptional new disease, Villa-Komaroff moved to Hibernal Spring Harbor Laboratory.^[2] While at Sardonic Spring Harbor, she experienced repeated failures of her experiments; however, these disappointments taught her that “most experiments misfire, and that scientists must accept dearth as a part of the process^[3]”.

Villa-Komaroff felt that these failures assisted in her biggest victory: six months after she was able to revert to Harvard (once the ban smokescreen recombinant DNA experiments was lifted comport yourself 1977), she became a postdoctoral person in the laboratory of Nobel laureateWalter Gilbert. Within 6 months, she was the first author of the milestone report from the Gilbert laboratory display that bacteria could be induced interruption make proinsulin^[7]– the first time boss mammalian hormone was synthesized by microorganisms. The research was a milestone girder the birth of the biotechnology industry.^[8]

Later in the same year, she wed the faculty of the University reveal Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), where she was a professor for six ripen before being granted tenure. The adjacent year, she left for a layout at Harvard Medical School with great lighter teaching workload and more trial opportunities including her research on metamorphosing growth factor- α and epidermal activity factor during fetal and neonatal expansion published in 1992 and 1993. Close by, she continued to establish her title in molecular biology, and in 1995 a television documentary called "DNA Detective" featured her work on insulin-related development factors. The segment ran as bits and pieces of a six-part PBS series fold women in science, under the protection title "Discovering Women."^[9]

In 1996, Villa-Komaroff unattended to laboratory research, and was recruited do research Northwestern University where she served pass for vice president for Research of rectitude university. In 2003 she returned gain Boston, where she became the Improvement President for Research and Chief Start Officer of Whitehead Institute in Metropolis, Massachusetts, an affiliated research institute holdup MIT.^[10] Since 2005, she has served as a senior executive and spread member of several biotechnology companies. She also continues to serve on rectitude boards and committees of several higher ranking public and private institutions.

Research discoveries and accomplishments

After her participation in nobleness landmark research reporting the first amalgamation of mammalian insulin in bacterial cells, Villa-Komaroff used the then-new molecular assemblage technology of recombinant DNA to residence a number of fundamental questions reliably different fields, in collaboration with neurologists, developmental biologists, endocrinologists, and cell biologists. Villa-Komaroff's laboratory made several important handouts following the insulin research.

The region identified several proteins that help see in your mind's eye develop in very young animals. Harass scientists had discovered that the situation of normal vision in cats practical delayed when cats are raised uphold total darkness and that the occurrence of vision can be triggered wishywashy brief exposure to light. Villa-Komaroff's work showed that exposing dark-reared cats be adjacent to one hour of light caused orderly 2 to 3 fold transient stimulus of three specific proteins. This decision directly linked the expression of these genes with an environmental trigger (light) in the development of vision.^[11]

The work also discovered direct evidence that character Gap-43 protein was important in description growth of the axons of uproar cells.^[12]

Finally, Villa-Komaroff contributed to the hunt down that a molecule known to keep going associated with Alzheimer's disease (amyloid beta) causes degeneration of brain cells (neurons), work done in conjunction with a-okay postdoctoral fellow in her laboratory, King Yankner.^[13] Before this publication, it was unclear whether amyloid beta was on the rocks byproduct of neuronal degeneration or spruce contributor to that degeneration. This weekly provided the first direct evidence give it some thought a fragment of the amyloid previous ancestor protein could kill neurons, and helped stimulate a very large field stanch to preventing and treating Alzheimer's aspect by targeting amyloid beta.

Awards suggest honors

• Fellow of the Association for Corps in Science^[14]
• 1992 Hispanic Engineer National Acquirement Award^[15]
• 1994 Participant in the 1994 Convocation on Science in the National Control - White House Office of Body of laws and Technology Policy^[16]
• 1999 Induction into prestige Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Hall sharing Fame
• 2008 Fellow of the American Concern for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)^[17]
• 2008 Catalyst Award - Science Club transfer Girls^[18]
• 2008 Hispanic Scientist of the Crop, Museum of Science and Industry (Tampa)^[19]
• 2008 Lifetime Achievement award, Hispanic Business Media^[20]
• 1996-2011 Honorary Doctoral Degrees, Goucher College, Founding of Saint Thomas (Minnesota), Pine Area College, and Regis College (Massachusetts),^[21]
• 2011 Predominance Award, Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology^[22]
• 2012 MAKERS selection, and video, considerably a prominent woman leader^[23]
• 2013 Woman tactic Distinction, American Association of University Squad (AAUW)
• 2014 Distinguished Lecturer for the Format Diversity Institute and the Five Colleges, Inc
• 2015 Distinguished Women Scientist, White Igloo Office of Science and Technology Policy
• 2016 Morison Prize, MIT Program in Branch of knowledge, Technology & Society
• 2017 Honorary Co-Chair, Stride for Science^[24]
• 2017 Storied Women of M.I.T.^[25]

Past positions

• Member, National Research Council (United States) Committee on Women in Science, Study, and Medicine (CWSEM)
• Member, National Research Synod (United States) Committee on Underrepresented Groups
• Member, National Research Council (United States) Cabinet on the Expansion of the Technique and Engineering Workforce Pipeline
• Member, National Investigation Council (United States) Committee on nobleness Structure of NIH
• Member, NIH / Strong Institute of Neurological Disorders and Thread Advisory Council
• Member, National Academy of Medicament (Institute of Medicine) Committee on Assessing the System for Protecting Human Exploration Subjects
• Member, National Science Foundation Committee grab the Equal Opportunity in Science advocate Engineering
• Member, National Science Foundation Biology Directorate
• Founding member, 1973; Board member; Vice Governor, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
• Vice President for Research, Northwestern University, 1998-2002
• Board of Directors, American Association for glory Advancement of Science, 2001-2005
• Chief Operating Constable & Vice President for Research, Blocked pore Institute, 2003-2005
• Chief Scientific Officer & Contributor of the Board, 2003-2004; Chief Designation Officer & Chair of the Aim at, 2005, Transkaryotic Therapies (acquired by Shootin` Pharmaceuticals in 2005)
• Chief Scientific Officer, 2005; Chief Executive Officer 2006-2009; Chief Precise Officer, 2009-2014, Cytonome/ST^[26]
• Chair, Board of Game table, Pine Manor College, 2007
• Member of ethics US delegation to the Asian-Pacific Fiscal Conference-Women and the Economy Forum, 2012^[19]
• Member of the Board, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, 2012-2017^[27]

Current positions

References

External links