Clare M. Waterman is a cell biologist who has worked on understanding the role of the

cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including those of bacteria and archaea. In eukaryotes, it extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is compos ...

cell migration Cell migration is a central process in the development and maintenance of multicellular organisms. Tissue formation during embryonic development, wound healing and immune responses all require the orchestrated movement of cells in particular dire ...

. Waterman is a Distinguished Investigator, Chief of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Morphodynamics, and Director of the Cell and Developmental Biology Center at the

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3.6 billion in FY 2020 in tax revenue to ...

(NHLBI), in the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(NIH) in Bethesda MD, USA. Waterman has received several awards and honors, including the Sackler International prize in Biophysics, the

NIH Director’s Pioneer Award National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award is a research initiative first announced in 2004 designed to support individual scientists' biomedical research. The focus is specifically on "pioneering" research that is highly innovative ...

, and the Arthur S. Flemming Award for Public Service. In 2018, she was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. She currently serves on the editorial boards of '' eLife'', ''

Current Biology ''Current Biology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers all areas of biology, especially molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, neurobiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. The journal includes research articles, var ...

'' and ''

Journal of Microscopy The ''Journal of Microscopy'' is the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Microscopical Society which covers all aspects of microscopy including spatially resolved spectroscopy, compositional mapping, and image analysis. This ...

''.

Early life and education

Waterman was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and raised in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. Waterman received her Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry in 1989 from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

. She received her M.S. in Exercise Science from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

prior to obtaining her Ph.D. in

Cell Biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1995. After completing post-doctoral training at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada * Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

in 1999, she joined the Department of Cell Biology at the

Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

. Once Waterman obtained tenure at Scripps as an Associate Professor, she then joined the

(NHLBI) in 2007 where her main interests are Cellular & Developmental Biology and Biophysics & Computational Biology.

Research Interests

Waterman has made fundamental advances in the understanding of the molecular and biophysical basis of cellular motility and migration. Such events are of critical importance in development (mainly in the vascular and nervous systems), the immune response and wound healing, embryogenesis, as well as in metastatic cancer. Dr. Waterman’s past work consists of novel findings related to the development of experimental approaches, and the cytoskeletal elements of a cell, including

microtubules Microtubules are polymers of tubulin that form part of the cytoskeleton and provide structure and shape to eukaryotic cells. Microtubules can be as long as 50 micrometres, as wide as 23 to 27 nm and have an inner diameter between 11 an ...

and

actin Actin is a family of globular multi-functional proteins that form microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and the thin filaments in muscle fibrils. It is found in essentially all eukaryotic cells, where it may be present at a concentration of over ...

, integrin adhesion molecules, and the

extracellular matrix In biology, the extracellular matrix (ECM), also called intercellular matrix, is a three-dimensional network consisting of extracellular macromolecules and minerals, such as collagen, enzymes, glycoproteins and hydroxyapatite that provide stru ...

. Waterman invented Fluorescent Speckle Microscopy (FSM) which is used to understand the self-organization of proteins at the cellular level. This invention has helped researchers develop an idea of how the self-organization of

macromolecule A macromolecule is a very large molecule important to biophysical processes, such as a protein or nucleic acid. It is composed of thousands of covalently bonded atoms. Many macromolecules are polymers of smaller molecules called monomers. The ...

proteins can drive cell shape and mobility. At the NHLBI, Waterman leads the Cell and Tissue Morphodynamics laboratory, where she works alongside cell biologists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, and mouse geneticists Waterman has also authored and coauthored more than 90 papers.

Honors and awards

2002 – Women in Cell Biology Career Recognition Award ( American Society for Cell Biology) 2005 – NIH Director’s Pioneer Award 2006 – R.R. Bensley Award in Cell Biology (

American Association of Anatomists The American Association for Anatomy (AAA), based in Rockville, MD, was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1888 as the Association of American Anatomists for the "advancement of anatomical science." AAA later changed its name to the American Associa ...

) 2007 – Sackler International prize in Biophysics 2012 –

Arthur S. Flemming Award The Arthur S. Flemming Award is an award given annually to employees of the United States federal government. More than 500 individuals have received the award since it was created in 1948. The Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Admini ...

for Public Service (George Washington University) 2014 – Lillie Award for Collaborative Research (UChicago-MBL) 2015 – Council member of the Gordon Research Conferences Organization 2018 – Inducted to the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterman, Clare Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Cell biologists Mount Holyoke College alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni 21st-century American biologists Women biophysicists American women biologists American biophysicists Scientists from Pittsburgh 21st-century American women scientists Biologists from Pennsylvania Biologists from Maryland