Kathryn Virginia Anderson was an American

developmental biologist Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and differentiation of stem c ...

researching about the various gene and protein interactions that guide the process of

embryogenesis An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm ...

and especially

neurulation Neurulation refers to the folding process in vertebrate embryos, which includes the transformation of the neural plate into the neural tube. The embryo at this stage is termed the neurula. The process begins when the notochord induces the formati ...

Early life and education

Anderson was born in

La Jolla 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 ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

in 1952. She was schooled at

Point Loma High School Point Loma High School is a public high school in the San Diego Unified School District in San Diego, California, United States. It is located in the Loma Portal neighborhood of Point Loma. The school serves the neighborhoods of Point Loma and ...

and she has ascribed her interest in biological sciences to its biology teacher and parents. She graduated from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

. In 1973, she began her post-graduate studies in

neurodevelopment The development of the nervous system in humans, or neural development or neurodevelopment involves the studies of embryology, developmental biology, and neuroscience to describe the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the complex nervous ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and left after 2 years. She then enrolled at the

UCSF School of Medicine The UCSF School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of California, San Francisco and is located at the base of Mount Sutro on the Parnassus Heights campus in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1864 by Hugh Toland, it is the o ...

, from what she terms as a "desire to do something for the humanity". However, she disliked the shift from basic sciences and left the course. In 1977, she opted for doctoral studies in the field of genetics with Judith Lengyel at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, which spanned upon the biochemistry of ''Drosophila'' development, specifically examining the co-relation of DNA replication with histone mRNA synthesis. She received her Ph.D. degree in 1980.

Career and research

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

and

developmental biology Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...

were becoming intrinsically linked, she moved to the Friedrich Miescher laboratory, Germany in 1981 (which had been launched one month before) to work with Christiane Nüsslein Volhard on the genetic control of embryonic development in ''Drosophila''. Combining embryological manipulation with developmental genetics, they identified the molecules that controlled various embryological processes and in particular, the dorsal-ventral signaling. In 1985, Anderson became an assistant professor at the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology over

. She continued her work, identifying several genes involved in dorsal-ventral patterning and cloning them, especially the ''Toll'' gene. She also delineated the genetic pathway that de-differentiates the various cell types. From 1993 to 1994, she carried out research in mouse embryonics at the

National Institute for Medical Research The National Institute for Medical Research (commonly abbreviated to NIMR), was a medical research institute based in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of north London, England. It was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC); In 2016, the NIMR b ...

, United Kingdom under the guidance of Rosa Beddington. In 1996, she joined the Molecular Biology Program at the

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

, New York.

Personal life

She married Timothy Bestor, a fellow geneticist at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 2004. She died on November 30, 2020.

Honors

She was elected to the

National Academy of Science 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 Natio ...

in 2002. She has been awarded with the

Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal The Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal is awarded by the Genetics Society of America (GSA) for lifetime contributions to the field of genetics. The medal is named after Thomas Hunt Morgan, the 1933 Nobel Prize winner, who received this award for his work wi ...

in 2012 by

Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the American Soc ...

for her lifetime contributions to genetics. She was also awarded the

Edwin Grant Conklin Medal The Edwin Grant Conklin Medal was inaugurated in 1995 by the Society for Developmental Biology in honor of the biologist Edwin Conklin. It is awarded annually to recognise a member of the society who has carried out distinguished and sustained resea ...

by the

Society for Developmental Biology The Society for Developmental Biology (SDB), originally the Society for the Study of Development and Growth, is a professional society for scientists and professionals around the world whose research is focused on the study of the developmental b ...

in 2016. In 2013,

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is a non-profit organization that is the principal umbrella organization of U.S. societies in the field of biological and medical research. This organization organizes academi ...

honored her with the ''Excellence in Science'' Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Kathryn Virginia 1952 births 2020 deaths American women geneticists American geneticists University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty People from La Jolla, San Diego Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the National Academy of Medicine Developmental biologists 20th-century American biologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century American biologists Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center faculty