Iain Mattaj
| Iain Mattaj FRS FRSE | |
|---|---|
| Born |
5 October 1952[1] St Andrews, Scotland |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | Studies on cloned GDH genes (1980) |
| Doctoral advisor | John Wooton[2] |
| Influences | Lennart Philipson[3] |
|
Website www | |
Iain William Mattaj (born 5 October 1952 in St Andrews, Scotland)[1] FRS[4] FRSE[2] is a British scientist and Honorary Professor at Heidelberg University in Germany. As of 2016 he the Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), a position he has held since 2005.[5]
Education
Mattaj was educated at the University of Edinburgh (BSc) and the University of Leeds[1] where he was awarded a PhD in 1990 for research on cloned Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) genes supervised by John Wooton.[2]
Research
Mattaj has made a number of important contributions to our knowledge concerning how RNA and proteins are transported between the cell nucleus and cytoplasm. These findings stemmed from his early work on the import and export of ribonucleoproteins particles — RNA–protein complexes — at the cell nucleus.[4]
Iain subsequently uncovered the role of enzymes known as GTPases in the regulation of mitosis — the division of the cell nucleus into two daughter nuclei. Under the influence of Ran, a GTPase signalling protein, the cell cytoskeleton remodels to form the mitotic spindle — a crucial structure in mitosis. By dissecting Ran’s role in facilitating mitosis, Iain is enabling researchers to create improved cell-regeneration therapies.[4][6][7]
He serves on the Advisory Editorial Board of The EMBO Journal.[4]
Awards and honours
Mattaj was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1999[4] and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
References
- 1 2 3 MATTAJ, Iain William. Who's Who. 2016 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
- 1 2 3 "Curriculum Vitae Professor Dr. Iain W. Mattaj" (PDF). leopoldina.org. Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-18.
- ↑ Simons, K.; Mattaj, I. W. (2011). "Lennart Philipson (1929-2011)". Science. 333 (6043): 711–711. doi:10.1126/science.1210990.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Anon (1999). "Professor Iain Mattaj FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2015-11-17. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
“All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived September 25, 2015)
- ↑ "EMBL Leadership: Director General". embl.de. Heidelberg: European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Archived from the original on 2016-06-15.
- ↑ Fornerod, Maarten; Ohno, Mutsuhito; Yoshida, Minoru; Mattaj, Iain W. (1997). "CRM1 Is an Export Receptor for Leucine-Rich Nuclear Export Signals". Cell. 90 (6): 1051–1060. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80371-2.
- ↑ Mattaj, Iain W.; Englmeier, Ludwig (1998). "NUCLEOCYTOPLASMIC TRANSPORT: The Soluble Phase". Annual Review of Biochemistry. 67 (1): 265–306. doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.67.1.265.