|
|
 At their meeting in June this year, the LICR Board of Directors unanimously selected Dr. Ira Mellman, Sterling Professor of Cell Biology at Yale University, School of Medicine, as the new Scientific Director and CEO of the LICR. The appointment will be effective upon the retirement of the incumbent Director, Dr. Lloyd J. Old, which is scheduled to take place before January 1st, 2005. Dr. Old said of Dr. Mellman’s selection. “The remarkable progress in identifying key molecules and signaling pathways in cancer represents a triumph of the reductionist approach to biological sciences. The time is now ripe to begin the grand synthesis of this wealth of information, and the discipline of cell biology will undoubtedly be at the center of this new endeavor. We are indeed most fortunate that a cell biologist of Dr. Ira Mellman's distinction and accomplishments will be leading the Institute during this next exciting era of cancer research.” Dr. Mellman’s association with the LICR began when he was made an Affiliate of the LICR in 1999, and he was subsequently invited to join the Institute’s Scientific Committee in 2002. Currently Dr. Mellman is the Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the USA. He was made a Professor of Cell Biology in the School of Medicine there in 1991, and a Professor of Immunobiology in 1997. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Mellman has received numerous awards for his scientific work, including his appointment as a “Sterling Professor” in 2002, one of the highest tributes that Yale University bestows on faculty members. Dr. Mellman is also the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Cell Biology, and sits on several other editorial (Cell, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and International Journal of Cancer) and advisory boards. “The future of cell biology lies at the interface that exists between all other problems in the biomedical sciences,” Dr. Mellman said after his appointment was announced. “The challenge is now to adapt the strategies that have been so successfully developed over the past two decades to understanding individual cells to understanding how individual cells interact and coordinate their functions. Nowhere is this challenge more relevant, or more important, than in the study of cancer. Over the past generation, the Ludwig Institute, under Lloyd Old’s leadership, has plotted a course that has enabled a real, not just hoped for, integration between investigation in the laboratory and in the clinic. It is now time for the Institute to again lead the way by demonstrating the power of this integration, not just for basic discovery but also for therapeutic discovery.” Dr. Mellman will continue his research (see below) at Yale for the foreseeable future. His scientific team, which is already active in the LICR’s Research Programs, will be progressively reviewed by the LICR’s Office of Academic Review, with a few key individuals incorporated into the LICR’s Member and/or Investigator Tracks as appropriate. These include: Dr. Derek Toomre, an expert in light microscopy and live cell imaging, and who is already well known to many throughout the Institute; Dr. Marc Pypaert, an expert in EM immunocytochemistry; and Dr. Sergio Trombetta, who is an expert in understanding how dendritic cells handle antigen. Like our incumbent Director, Dr. Mellman started out wishing to be a professional musician and indeed pursued this as a career before succumbing to the lure of scientific study. He describes his current relationship to music as that of “an occasionally dedicated amateur’. Dr. Mellman’s other hobbies include sailing, road biking, and tennis, and spending time with his wife, three children, one rabbit, two dogs, two cats, and a horse.
Dr. Mellman’s Research Dr. Mellman is not only one of the world’s best known and influential cell biologists, but has built his research career in two distinct but complimentary areas. In his early work with Dr. Ari Helenius (now at the ETH in Zürich), Dr. Mellman identified, named, and characterized “endosomes”, a ubiquitous organelle that soon emerged as playing the central role in controlling receptor-mediated endocytosis in virtually all cell types. In subsequent years, Dr. Mellman focused on two key features of endosomes, their role in allowing antigen presenting cells to efficiently process protein antigens, and their role in generating and maintaining the asymmetric distribution of membrane components in polarized cells (e.g. epithelial cells, neurons and lymphocytes). His group’s work on antigen processing led to the first isolation and cloning of immunoglobulin receptors, important carriers of antigen in cells such as macrophages, B cells, and dendritic cells. Most recently, their efforts have been devoted more broadly to dendritic cells in an effort to unravel the cell biological mechanisms that allow them to serve as the immune system’s most potent antigen presenting cell. Indeed, much of what we understand concerning how dendritic cells work has been elucidated by Dr. Mellman’s team and his collaborators, notably Dr. Ralph Steinman at Rockefeller University. It is already apparent that understanding DCs in this way will guide the development of new cancer vaccine strategies currently underway in the LICR. The second component of Dr. Mellman’s work has involved investigating the problems related to the generation and maintenance of cell polarity. Dr. Mellman’s team is characterizing the endosomes involved in polarized sorting, seeking novel genes involved in polarity, identifying the mechanisms that prevent inter-domain mixing of membrane proteins and lipids, understanding the signals that induce and maintain cell asymmetry and directed migration, and identifying the cytosolic adaptor complexes that are responsible for polarized targeting of membrane components. More information on Dr. Mellman’s research can be found at: http://info.med.yale.edu/cellbio/Mellman.html. |
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research ©2003