The Porter Fellows Program was set up in 1999 as a way of extending Keith Porter's substantial encouragement of young scientists. Two Fellows are appointed each year for a period of three years. Fellows are selected near the middle of their careers and for showing unusual potential for an outstanding career in cell biology. Fellows are provided with funds and encouraged to use them in several kinds of activities designed to help them in their career development and to promote the field of cell biology among other young potential scientists. These activities include participation in the organization of small, focussed meetings in a field of interest to the Fellow, and visits to smaller colleges and other undergraduate institutions that may not have large, active graduate programs. In the latter cases, the Fellows are encouraged to combine informal interaction with the students, where personal experiences, career plans, and other topics can be discussed, with a more formal scientific presentation.

Former Fellows, 1999-2001

The first two Fellows of the Porter Endowment were appointed at the 1998 A.S.C.B. Annual Meeting, and served as Fellows for three years, 1999-2001. These are Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and Dr. Mark A. McNiven from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Both of these Fellows are cell biologists in the Porter tradition, linking cell structure with cell function. They share a common interest in the cytoskeleton and in cytoplasmic protein trafficing. As their major project, they co-organized a Keith R. Porter Symposium on Cytoplasmic Organization and Membrane Traffic, which was held at the Airlie Conference Center in Airlie, Virginia March 22-25, 2001.

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz is Head of the Section on Organelle Biology in the Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at NIH in Bethesda, MD. Her group investigates the global principles underlying secretory membrane trafficking, sorting, and compartmentalization within eukaryotic cells. Live cell imaging of GFP fusion proteins in combination with photobleaching and photoactivation techniques are being used to investigate the subcellular localization, mobility, transport routes and binding interactions of a variety of proteins with important roles in the organization and regulation of membrane traffic and compartmentalization. Quantitative measurements of these protein characteristics are used in kinetic modeling and simulation experiments in order to test mechanistic hypotheses related to protein and organelle dynamics. Among the topics currently under study include: protein turnover and mobility in the ER; the mechanism(s) of secretory protein transport into and out of the Golgi apparatus; membrane binding and dissociation kinetics of trafficking machinery and its regulation; the generation and maintenance of cell polarity; and, organelle breakdown and reassembly during mitosis.

Mark McNiven is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Mayo Medical School of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His laboratory focuses on the mechanisms by which cells internalize toxins, growth factors and receptors. Understanding the machinery that supports these endocytic processes provides important insights into cell growth and neoplasia. Specifically McNiven's laboratory has focused its efforts on a large GTPase, dynamin, which appears to mediate vesicle formation during endocytosis and secretion. The dynamins comprise a large super-family of multiple proteins that interact with a variety of cytoskeletal and signaling molecules to support a multiple cell functions including cell migration and metastasis, cellular resistance to viral infection, mitochondrial dynamics and division, morphogenesis of neuritis and synapses, as well as vesicle trafficking.

Former Fellows, 2000-2002

Dr. Carolyn A. Larabell from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Dr. Jan H. Hoh from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine were appointed Fellows of the Keith R. Porter Endowment for Cell Biology, for the period from 2000 to 2002. With a focus on imaging in their research, these new Fellows, like the first two Fellows, follow in the tradition of Keith Porter.

Carolyn Larabell was appointed in 2002 to an Advanced Light Source Professorship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Larabell received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology at Arizona State University in 19xx. She is an expert in the use of confocal microscopy in studying the role of the cytoskeleton in early development and is developing methods for biological x-ray microscopy that reveal novel features of cell organization. Since 1997, she has been Group Leader in Innovative Microscopies at the Life Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Jan Hoh presently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Hoh received his Ph.D. in Cellular Biology and Biophysics in 19xx at the California Institute of Technology with Jean Paul Revel. He is an acknowledged leader in the application of atomic force microscopy to biological problems and in the emerging field of biological nanotechnology. He has served as a member of Feynman Prize Committee of the Foresight Institute.

Former Fellows, 2001-2003

Dr. Gregg Gundersen, from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Dr. Erika Holzbaur from the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania have been appointed fellows to the Keith R. Porter Endowment for Cell Biology, for the period from 2001 to 2003. With interest in the structure and function of cytoskeletal proteins, these new Fellows, represent the new generation of cell biologists who combine imaging with molecular biological approaches in the study of cell function. A major accomplishment of these two Fellows was the organization of a Biomedical Sciences Symposium on "Cytoskeletal Integration: Dynamics and Crosstalk" held July 25-27, 2003 at Columbia University's Arden House Conference Center in Harriman, NY ('senior' cell biologists will remember an Arden House Conference organized by Keith Porter and his colleagues in 1956). Funds supplied by the Porter Endowment were used for students and post-doctoral fellows, so their registration, housing, and meal costs could be minimal. An outstanding list of U.S. and foreign speakers was invited, including a total of four Porter Fellows (Green and Waterman-Storer, in addition to the two organizers). In addition, Dr. Peter Satir, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Director of the Porter Endowment Fellows Program, presented a lecture on Keith Porter and his scientific research. By all accounts, the meeting was a huge success scientifically and provided a highly favorable environment for contact among senior and younger scientists.

Greg Gundersen's laboratory is conducting research to understand the role of cytoskeletal elements, especially microtubules, in cell functions such as division, migration and polarity. They use cellular and molecular approaches to study the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating microtubule dynamics and stabilization. Their work is aimed at understanding how microtubules respond to external signals (growth factors, extracellular matrix components and other cells) in order to organize cellular organelles for specific cell functions. As microtubules are key elements of basic cellular activities, these studies may contribute to understanding neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and processes such as wound healing.

Dr. Erika Holzbaur, from the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvnaia,...

Fellows for 2002-2004

Drs. Kathleen J. Green of the Northwestern University Medical School and Ching-Hwa Sung of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University are the Porter Endowment Fellows for the years 2002 to 2004.

As part part of her activities as a Porter Fellow, Dr. Green organized a Chicago Cytoskeleton Symposium, at which Trustee Robert Goldman presented a talk about Keith Porter.

While attending a scientific meeting in Argentina, Dr. Sung visited a school in the area, where she discussed cell biology and possibilities for careers in cell biology with a group of interested and keen young students, extending this form of outreach of the Fellows Program into the international scene.

Fellows for 2003-2005

The two Fellows selected for the years 2003-2005 are Dr. Tom Misteli of NIH and Dr. Katherine L. Wilson of Johns Hopkins University. Drs. Misteli and Wilson are the first Poster Fellows whose research focus is the nucleus. They currently are planning to organize a major conference in this area of research, using funds from the Porter Endowment.

Tom Misteli received his Ph.D. in 1995 at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, where he worked in the laboratory of Graham Warren and studied protein trafficing through the Golgi. From 1995 to 1999 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Spector at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he investigated the intranuclear organization and dynamics of mRNA splicing factors. Since his appointment in 1999 as an Investigator in the Cell Biology of Gene Expression Group at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Misteli has become a leader in the study of protein traffic in the nucleus.

Katherine Wilson received her Ph.D. in 1985 at UCSF, working in the laboratory of Ira Herskowitz on the regulation of the mating type locus in budding yeast. From 1985 to 1988 she was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of John Newport at UCSD, where she investigated nuclear envelope assembly. In 1989 she was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1994. Dr. Wilson is one of the world's foremost authorities on nuclear envelope dynamics.

Fellows for 2004-2006

Dr. Clare Waterman-Storer of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and Dr. Greg Pazour of the University of Massachusetts Medical School will be the Porter Fellows for the years 2004 to 2006.

Clare Waterman-Storer...

Greg Pazour...

Future Fellows

Suggestions for young cell biologists who could be considered for appointment as Fellows of the Porter Endowment in the future are welcomed: send us an email or drop us a note at one of the addresses at the end of our homepage. Thank you.