Samara Reck-Peterson is an American

cell biologist 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 ...

and

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study Biology, biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from Molecule, molecular to organismic ...

. She is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

and an Investigator of the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

. She is known for her contributions to our understanding of how

dynein Dyneins are a family of cytoskeletal motor proteins that move along microtubules in cells. They convert the chemical energy stored in ATP to mechanical work. Dynein transports various cellular cargos, provides forces and displacements importa ...

, an exceptionally large

motor protein Motor proteins are a class of molecular motors that can move along the cytoplasm of cells. They convert chemical energy into mechanical work by the hydrolysis of ATP. Flagellar rotation, however, is powered by a proton pump. Cellular functions ...

that moves many intracellular cargos, works and is regulated. She developed one of the first systems to produce recombinant dynein and discovered that, unlike other cytoskeletal motors, dynein can take a wide variety of step sizes, forward and back and even sideways. She lives in

San Diego, California 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 eighth most populous city in the United States ...

Early life and education

Reck-Peterson was educated at Litchfield High School in

Litchfield, Minnesota Litchfield is a city in and the county seat of Meeker County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 6,624 at the 2020 census. History Immigration to the county was slow until the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad, later the ca ...

, where she served as senior class president and graduated as salutatorian in 1989. She was an all-state track and cross-country runner and team captain. She was inducted into the Litchfield High School Hall of Fame in 2017.

Career

Reck-Peterson became interested in molecular motors when she took the Physiology Course at the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

Woods Hole, Massachusetts Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 at ...

. She chose the motor protein

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 ...

as the topic of her Ph.D. work in the laboratories of Mark Mooseker and Peter Novick at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. Her work focused on the class V myosins, which have multiple functions in the cell ranging from

mRNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of Protein biosynthesis, synthesizing a protein. mRNA is ...

transport to

cell polarity Cell polarity refers to spatial differences in shape, structure, and function within a cell. Almost all cell types exhibit some form of polarity, which enables them to carry out specialized functions. Classical examples of polarized cells are desc ...

and

membrane trafficking Membrane vesicle trafficking in eukaryotic animal cells involves movement of biochemical signal molecules from synthesis-and-packaging locations in the Golgi body to specific release locations on the inside of the plasma membrane of the secretory c ...

. She developed a modified

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...

motility Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy. Definitions Motility, the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy, can be contrasted with sessility, the state of organisms th ...

assay to show that both Myo2p and Myo4p class V myosins in yeast appear to be non- processive motors in the absence of additional regulation, unlike their vertebrate counterparts. In 2001, Reck-Peterson moved to

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

to pursue post-doctoral studies with

Ronald Vale Ronald David Vale (born 1959) is a biochemist and cell biologist. He is a professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco. His research is focused on motor proteins, particularly kinesi ...

. She began to work on

, a

molecular motor Molecular motors are natural (biological) or artificial molecular machines that are the essential agents of movement in living organisms. In general terms, a motor is a device that consumes energy in one form and converts it into motion or mecha ...

that transports cargoes such as

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

organelle In cell biology, an organelle is a specialized subunit, usually within a cell, that has a specific function. The name ''organelle'' comes from the idea that these structures are parts of cells, as organs are to the body, hence ''organelle,'' the ...

s and

messenger RNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. mRNA is created during the p ...

s to locations where they are needed in the cell. Dynein uses the energy stored in ATP to move towards the "minus end" of

microtubule 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 ...

s. Defects in dyneins and their regulatory proteins lead to

neurodevelopmental The development of the nervous system, or neural development (neurodevelopment), refers to the processes that generate, shape, and reshape the nervous system of animals, from the earliest stages of embryonic development to adulthood. The fie ...

and

neurodegenerative A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

diseases, showing the importance of microtubule-based transport in long cells such as

neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. N ...

s. Reck-Peterson used

single-molecule A single-molecule experiment is an experiment that investigates the properties of individual molecules. Single-molecule studies may be contrasted with measurements on an ensemble or bulk collection of molecules, where the individual behavior of mo ...

techniques to examine the stepping behavior of dynein, finding that isolated dynein can step forwards, backwards and even sideways. In 2007, Reck-Peterson joined the Department of Cell Biology at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

as an assistant professor. She continued to study the mechanism of dynein-mediated transport. Using

DNA origami DNA origami is the nanoscale folding of DNA to create arbitrary two- and three-dimensional shapes at the nanoscale. The specificity of the interactions between complementary base pairs make DNA a useful construction material, through design of ...

, she created artificial cargos that could be programmed to load onto multiple types of motors, and used these to create competition, or a "tug of war", between motors. She used an assay for long-distance microtubule-based transport in the long, highly polarized

hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...

e of

Aspergillus nidulans ''Aspergillus nidulans'' (also called ''Emericella nidulans'' when referring to its sexual form, or teleomorph) is one of many species of filamentous fungi in the phylum Ascomycota. It has been an important research organism for studying eukaryot ...

to show that Lis-1 is an initiation factor for dynein-mediated transport, and to show that some cargos of microtubule-based motors hitchhike on others. Mutants in the gene encoding Lis-1 are one cause of

lissencephaly Lissencephaly (, meaning "smooth brain") is a set of rare brain disorders whereby the whole or parts of the surface of the brain appear smooth. It is caused by defective neuronal migration during the 12th to 24th weeks of gestation resulting in ...

, a severe brain disorder. In collaboration with Andres Leschziner, she showed that Lis-1 regulates the interaction between dynein and the microtubule in two different ways, and determined the structural basis for the switch between microtubule binding and microtubule release. In 2015 Reck-Peterson moved to the

, and in 2018 she became an Investigator of the

Awards

* HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar * Bjorkman-Strominger-Wiley Prize for Collaboration * American Society for Cell Biology WICB Junior Award for Excellence in Research * Young Mentor Award, Harvard Medical School * Armenise-Harvard Foundation Junior Faculty Grant * Rita Allen Milton Cassel Scholar * NIH Director's New Innovator Award

External links

* http://reck-peterson.ucsd.edu/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reck-Peterson, Samara American cell biologists Biophysicists Women biophysicists American women biologists Yale University alumni University of California, San Diego faculty 1971 births Living people 21st-century American women scientists Biologists from Minnesota