Neuroscience Seminar Series - Cell Biology and Biophysics Section

Monday, March 04, 2024 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM

Join your colleagues for coffee & treats starting at 11:30 am

NIH NEUROSCIENCE SEMINAR SERIES
When: March 4, 2024, 12:00 – 1:00 pm  
 
Presentation: From atoms to neurons, a microtubule journey
 
Speaker: Antonina Roll-Mecak
 
Where: Porter Neuroscience Bldg., Room 620/630.
 
NIH Host: Claire Le Pichon, NICHD
Please contact Dr. Le Pichon if you wish to meet with the speaker.
 
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Antonina Roll-Mecak, PhD

Antonina Roll-Mecak, PhD
Senior Investigator
Cell Biology and Biophysics Section
National Institutes of Health
 
BIO
Dr. Roll-Mecak is the Senior Investigator and Chief of the Unit of Cell Biology and Biophysics at the National Institutes of Health, U.S.A.  She holds appointments in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Biophysics Center of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.  She is a native of Transylvania, Romania and received her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union in New York City.  She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from the Rockefeller University where she worked on the structure and mechanism of the two translation initiation GTPases essential for assembling an 80S ribosome primed for protein synthesis.  As a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellow with Ron Vale at the University of California, San Francisco she identified a new microtubule-severing enzyme and shed light on its mechanism of action.  She joined the National Institutes of Health in 2010 as head of the Unit of Cell Biology and Biophysics.  Her aim is to uncover the molecular basis for cytoskeleton function. Two main thrusts are to elucidate how cells encode, through the tubulin code, temporal and spatial information in their microtubules and regulate complex cytoarchitecture, and to understand how enzymes catalyze microtubule polymer repair and rejuvenation. Dr. Roll-Mecak is the recipient of several awards, including a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award, a Pathway to Independence Award from the NIH, a Searle Scholar Award, the 2015 Margaret Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society, the 2016 Emerging Leader Prize from the American Society for Cell Biology, was selected to be the 2017 Keith R. Porter fellow by the American Society of Cell Biology, and was recognized by the NIH director for her commitment to equity and service on the NIH equity committee. In 2022 she received an NIH Director’s Innovation grant and in 2023 was the recipient of the International Prize from the Biochemical Society and the NINDS award for mentoring junior faculty.
 
Selected Publications
  1. Szczesna, E., Zehr, E.A., Cummings, S.W., Szyk, A., Mahalingan, K.K. Li, Y and Roll-Mecak, A. Combinatorial and antagonistic effects of tubulin glutamylation and glycylation on katanin microtubule severing. 2022. Dev. Cell.57(21):2497-2513.
  2. Zheng, P. Obara, C.J., Szczesna, E., Nixon-Abell, J., Mahalingan, K.K., Roll-Mecak, A., Lippincott-Schwartz, J., Blackstone, C. ER Proteins Decipher the Tubulin Code to Regulate Organelle Distribution. Nature 601(7891):132-138.
  3. Chen J, Kholina E, Szyk A, Fedorov VA, Kovalenko I, Gudimchuk N, Roll-Mecak A. α-tubulin tail modifications regulate microtubule stability through selective effector recruitment, not changes in intrinsic polymer dynamics.(external link) Dev Cell. 2021;56(14):2016-2028.e4.
  4. Zehr EA, Szyk A, Szczesna E, Roll-Mecak A. Katanin Grips the β-Tubulin Tail through an Electropositive Double Spiral to Sever Microtubules.(external link) Dev Cell. 2020;52(1):118-131.e6.
  5. Vemu A, Szczesna E, Zehr EA, Spector JO, Grigorieff N, Deaconescu AM, Roll-Mecak A. Severing enzymes amplify microtubule arrays through lattice GTP-tubulin incorporation.(external link) Science. 2018;361(6404).
  6. Vemu A, Atherton J, Spector JO, Moores CA, Roll-Mecak A. Tubulin isoform composition tunes microtubule dynamics.(external link) Mol Biol Cell. 2017;28(25):3564-3572.
  7. Valenstein ML, Roll-Mecak A. Graded Control of Microtubule Severing by Tubulin Glutamylation.(external link) Cell. 2016;164(5):911-21.
 
UPCOMING SEMINARS
DATE
SPEAKER
HOST
SEMINAR TITLE
Mar. 11
Gyorgy Buzsaki
Mark Histed
Credit Assignment: How does the brain select what is worth remembering
Mar. 18
Sheena Josselyn
Lorna Role
Engrams and memory in mice
Mar. 25
Staci Bilbo
Ashley Frakes
Neural-glial interactions in neurodevelopment: implications for lifelong health
 
NIH Neuroscience Seminar Series Webpage:  
https://research.ninds.nih.gov/seminars-events/neuroscience-seminar-series
Series Supported by the NIH Neuroscience Scientific Directors