Ewa Paluch is a French-Polish biophysicist and cell biologist. She is the 17th Professor of Anatomy in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Fellow of

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Education

Paluch received her Bachelor of Science degree from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France, and her PhD degree in biophysics from Institut Curie and Paris Diderot University, France.

Career and research

After completing her PhD, Paluch was appointed Group Leader at the

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics __NOTOC__ The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) is a biology research institute located in Dresden, Germany. It was founded in 1998 and was fully operational in 2001. More than twenty research groups work in m ...

, Dresden, Germany. Between 2013 and 2019 she worked at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, as Professor of Cell Biophysics, and in 2019 became Professor of Anatomy, and fellow of

, Cambridge. Paluch is the first woman to hold the chair of Professor of Anatomy in its 300-year history. Her work focuses on the cell cortex, a thin network of

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 ...

and

myosin Myosins () are a superfamily of motor proteins best known for their roles in muscle contraction and in a wide range of other motility processes in eukaryotes. They are ATP-dependent and responsible for actin-based motility. The first myosin ...

that lies under the

cell membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane (PM) or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of all cells from the outside environment ( ...

and determines the shape of most animal cells. The cortex enables the cell to resist externally applied forces and to exert mechanical work. As such, it plays a role in normal physiology during events involving cell deformation such as cell division and migration, and in diseases such as cancer where cell shape is often deregulated.

Awards and honours

* Laureate in the Life Sciences of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK, 2019. * Elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), 2018. * Hooke Medal, British Society for Cell Biology, 2017. * Chair, Mechanobiology Subgroup,

Biophysical Society The Biophysical Society is an international scientific society whose purpose is to lead the development and dissemination of knowledge in biophysics. Founded in 1958, the Society currently consists of over 7,500 members in academia, government, an ...

, 2017. *

Philip Leverhulme Prize The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize schem ...

in Biological Sciences, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paluch, Ewa Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Cell biologists Biophysicists Women biophysicists Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Professors of Anatomy (Cambridge)