Richard G.W. Anderson (1940-2011) and the birth of receptor-mediated endocytosis

On March 19, 2011, the discipline of cell biology lost a creative force with the passing of Richard G.W. Anderson, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. An unabashed chauvinist for cell biology, Dick served for many years on the editorial board of The Journal of Cell Biology and the Council of the American Society for Cell Biology. He died of glioblastoma multiforme six days before his 71st birthday.     

Chemistry comes to the cell: ASCB 2005

Chemical biology continues to find its way into biomedical research in new and exciting ways. The recent American Society of Cell Biology meeting showed how this discipline is making an impact in areas such as cell biology.     

Meeting report: membrane proteins in health and disease.

This article summarizes the scientific presentations made at a Canadian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology Symposium on "Membrane Proteins in Health and Diseases" and two satellite meetings on "Bicarbonate Transporters" and "Nucleoside Transporters" held in Banff, Alberta, 20-24 March 2002. Membrane proteins are encoded by about 1/3 of genes and are involved in a wide range of essential functions, including the transport of nutrients, ions, and waste products across biological membranes. Mutations or changes in the expression of these genes cause an equally wide range of diseases. Membrane proteins are also common drug targets or provide drug entry mechanisms. The importance of membrane proteins in biology and medicine was highlighted by the presentations made at this exciting meeting by an international group of experts.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: Gap junctions

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: Tau protein in neurodegenerative disease

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: Nuclear dynamics at mitosis

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: Proteoglycans and cell adhesion

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: Are there multiple roles for the Ran GTPase?

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Special-interest subgroups at the ASCB: gamma-Tubulin: questions outstanding

The annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a large and diverse gathering. At last year's meeting**The American Society for Cell Biology 38th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, USA; 12-16 December, 1998. Program chair: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz., there were over 8000 attendees, and the topics discussed covered many areas of cell biology. It would be impossible to cover the entire meeting within a trends in CELL BIOLOGY report, so instead we are focusing on an aspect of it that provided some of the most interesting and fruitful discussions. On Saturday afternoon, before the main symposia began, there were 11 special-interest subgroup meetings. The atmosphere at these meetings was informal, and they encouraged open and frank discussion of data and issues. This report provides a brief summary of the discussions at seven of the special-interest subgroup meetings.     

Understanding Plant Development and Stress Responses through Integrative Approaches

As the name reflects, integrative plant biology is the core topic of JIPB. In the past few years JIPB has been pursuing the development of this area, to assist the scientific community to bring together all possible research tools to understand plant growth, development and stress responses in micro- and macro-scales. As part of these efforts, JIPB and Yantai University organized the 1st International Symposium on Integrative Plant Biology in the seaside town of Yantai during August 10-12,2009 (Figure 1). The symposium was co-sponsored by Botanical Society of China, Chinese Society for Cell Biology, Genetics Society of China, and Chinese Society for Plant Physiology.     

The classification of disciplines in biology: A plea for pluralism

Pluralism is a sound strategy in classifying disciplines of biology. The relevance of a particular classification depends on various methodological issues, on the way in which the scientist's problems are specified, and on factual matters.Lecture presented before the Netherlands Society for Theoretical Biology, Leiden, 14 March 1975.     

Support for a career in science

I am so very honored to receive the Women in Cell Biology Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), particularly because many of the previous awardees have served as mentors and sources of inspiration throughout my own career. I also thank the ASCB for always striving to be maximally inclusive, in terms of both the scientists it supports and its broad vision of what constitutes cell biology. As a graduate student I gave one of my first talks at an ASCB meeting, and I am proud to have been an ASCB member for almost 30 years. In this essay, I describe my own career to illustrate the support that I believe is needed to achieve a career in science.

S. L. Wolin     

The manzanar project: Towards a solution to poverty, hunger, environmental pollution, and global warming through sea water aquaculture and silviculture in deserts

Summary Dr. Gordon Sato is a former Editor-in-Chief of In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology, President of the Tissue Culture Association (now Society for In Vitro Biology), and Director of the W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center (now Adirondack Biomedical Center). He began pilot experiments on the Manzanar Project at test sites in the Salton Sea while a Professor of Biology at the University of California, San Diego and continued the project in the laboratory at the Cell Center in Lake Placid, NY and at Eritrean test sites during their war of independence. Since 1994, he spends up to 10 mo. per yr in Eritrea where he directs the Manzanar Project and trains young Eritrean scientists in the field in the area of what he refers to as “low-tech biotech.” The name of the Manzanar Project was inspired by the camp in California where Dr. Sato and his family were interned during World War II.—The Editor     

Communication,Cooperation, and Social Interactions: a Report from the Third Young Microbiologists Symposium on Microbe Signalling,Organisation, and Pathogenesis

The third Young Microbiologists Symposium took place on the vibrant campus of the University of Dundee, Scotland, from the 2nd to 3rd of June 2014. The symposium attracted over 150 microbiologists from 17 different countries. The significant characteristic of this meeting was that it was specifically aimed at providing a forum for junior scientists to present their work. The meeting was supported by the Society for General Microbiology and the American Society for Microbiology, with further sponsorship from the European Molecular Biology Organization, the Federation of European Microbiological Societies, and The Royal Society of Edinburgh. In this report, we highlight some themes that emerged from the many exciting talks and poster presentations given by the young and talented microbiologists in the area of microbial gene expression, regulation, biogenesis, pathogenicity, and host interaction.     

50 Years of Women in Cell Biology: Where have we been? Where are we going?

It’s been 50 years since Women in Cell Biology (WICB) was founded by junior women cell biologists who found themselves neither represented at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) presentations nor receiving the information, mentoring, and sponsorship they needed to advance their careers. Since then, gender parity at ASCB has made significant strides: WICB has become a standing ASCB committee, women are regularly elected president of the ASCB, and half the symposia speakers are women. Many of WICB’s pioneering initiatives for professional development, including career panels, workshops, awards for accomplishments in science and mentoring, and career mentoring roundtables, have been incorporated and adapted into broader “professional development” that benefits all members of ASCB. The time has passed when we can assume that all women benefit equally from progress. By strategically, thoughtfully, and honestly recognizing the challenges to women of the past and today, we may anticipate those new challenges that will arise in the next 50 years. WICB, in collaboration with the ASCB, can lead in data collection and access and can promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. This work will be a fitting homage to the women who, half a century ago, posted bathroom stall invitations to the first Women in Cell Biology meetup.     

History of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine, 1813-2010

The Department of Cell Biology at the Yale University School of Medicine was established in 1983. It was preceded by the Section of Cell Biology, which was formed in 1973 when George E. Palade and collaborators came to Yale from the Rockefeller University. Cell Biology at Yale had its origins in the Department of Anatomy that existed from the beginning of classes at the Medical Institution of Yale College in 1813. This article reviews the history of the Department of Anatomy at Yale and its evolution into Cell Biology that began with the introduction of histology into the curriculum in the 1860s. The formation and development of the Section and Department of Cell Biology in the second half of the 20th century to the present time are described. Biographies and research activities of the chairs and key faculty in anatomy and cell biology are provided.     

Osmotic volume change of cytoplasmic drops isolated in vitro from internodal cells of Characeae

Osmotic volume change was measured for drops of protoplasm isolatedfrom internodal cells of Chara australis in inorganic salt solutionsof various osmolalities. A drop was found to maintain a definitevolume in medium of a definite concentration in such a way thatVAN'T HOFF'S law practically holds. This indicates (1) thatthe surface membrane surrounding the isolated drop is semipermeable,and (2) that practically all the space of the protoplasmic dropis osmotically active. ¹Visiting Research Associate of the Japan Society for the Promotionof Science. Permanent address: Department of Biology, OchanomizuUniversity, Otsuka, Tokyo, Japan. (Received June 24, 1969; )     

A call for more physiology at conservation conferences

Scientific conferences are more impactful when they foster novel ideas, create new networks, and promote inter-disciplinary collaboration. The field of conservation physiology is inherently cross-disciplinary, representing the application of physiological techniques and knowledge to address conservation issues. Ideally, knowledge transfer comes from both directions: conservation biologists seek input on physiological techniques that can contribute to the success of their programs, and physiologists collaborate with conservation biologists to plan relevant applications for their work. To assess whether the level of integration between conservation and physiology has been increasing since the formal naming of the discipline of conservation physiology in 2006, we reviewed abstracts from conferences of three societies: Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), and Society for Experimental Biology (SEB). Specifically, we searched for physiology-related keywords in abstracts from SCB meetings, and for conservation-related keywords in abstracts from SICB and SEB. Our results indicate that the percentage of presentations incorporating physiology at conservation meetings has remained relatively steady (2–3%). In contrast, the percentage of presentations citing conservation applications has been rising at both of the integrative biology societies’ meetings and has reached 4.4 and 7.9% at SICB and SEB, respectively. We provide suggestions for why there may be discrepancies between conference types and ways to encourage the presence of physiological topics at future conservation meetings.     

Dividing biology into disciplines: Chaos or multiformity?

A good division of biology is important for clarity of thought, presentation of the problems and nowadays also for science policy. Various classifications are in use, depending upon different parameters. A division can be based on objects and on aspects. A modern classification on objects is based on the levels of organisation. Methodological principles play a role in the background.Lecture presented before the Netherlands Society for Theoretical Biology, Leiden, 14 March 1975.     

Recognizing scientific excellence in the biology of cell adhesion

The prestigious 2005 Japan Prize for Cell Biology has been awarded to Dr. Masatoshi Takeichi, Director of RIKEN Developmental Biology, Kobe, Japan, and Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti, Distinguished Professor, The Burnham Institute, La Jolla, USA for their "Fundamental contribution in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of cell adhesion". The award is scheduled to be presented to the scientists in ceremonies in Tokyo on April 20, 2005 as part of a week-long celebration of "Japan Prize Week".