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Course Directors
 Dyche Mullins
I took the Woods Hole Physiology Course in 1993 and fell madly in love with the cytoskeleton. At the time I was an engineering student contemplating a career in biomedical research. I took the Physiology Course to learn more cell biology and ended up learning from and working with some of the best researchers in the field. Now my laboratory studies the regulation and dynamics of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. In particular, we work to understand how motile cells establish polarity and use actin polymerization to propel themselves forward. This process, called amoeboid motility, is an exquisitely choreographed ballet of macromolecular self-assembly. It is responsible for correct development of multicellular organisms; for wound healing; for proper function of the immune system; and for remodeling and regeneration in the nervous system. Loss of regulation of this process can contribute to invasion and metastasis of cancerous cells so understanding the mechanics and regulation of amoeboid motility is fundamental to understanding many basic biological processes.
Website:
http://mullinslab.ucsf.edu
 Clare Waterman
Dr. Waterman received a B.A. in biochemistry at Mount Holyoke College in 1989, an M.S. in exercise science from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995. After completing her postdoctoral training in biology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, under Ted Salmon, Dr. Waterman joined the faculty of The Scripps Research Institute in 1999. Since 2007, she has been chief of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Morphodynamics at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Waterman's research focuses understanding the molecular mechanism of cell migration. To achieve this she utilizes and develops fluorescence imaging techniques and analytical methods to study protein dynamics in living cells. With Ted Salmon, she discovered the method of fluorescent speckle microscopy - a powerful tool for investigation dynamics of intracellular proteins and their assemblies. She applied this revolutionary method for quantitative biophysical analysis of the major aspects of cell motility, namely, formation of lamellipodia and lamella, dynamics of proteins forming cell adhesions to extracellular matrices, coordinated motion of actin filaments, and microtubules.
In 2005, Dr. Waterman received the Director’s Pioneer award from the National Institutes of Health, followed in 2006 by the R.R. Bensley Award in Cell Biology from the American Association of Anatomists, and in 2007 The Raymond & Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics. She is a member of several professional societies, including the Biophysical Society, the Royal Microscopical Society, and the American Society for Cell Biology. She has had a longstanding association with the Physiology course at MBL, being a student alum (’93), TA (’96), and faculty (’04-’07). She has also participated in AQLM (’97-’98) and OMIBS (07-present) MBL microscopy courses, is an MBL Corporation and Whitman Society member and has served on various MBL committees.
Website:
http://dir.nhlbi.nih.gov/labs/lctm/
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