Biography:Edwin Taylor (biologist)
Edwin W. Taylor is an American specialist in cytoskeleton and biochemical events of muscle contraction. An adjunct professor in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at Northwestern University, Taylor was elected to Membership of the National Academy of Sciences in 2001.[1]
Education
In 1952, Taylor earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Chemistry at the University of Toronto. and in 1955, a Master of Science degree from McMaster University in physical chemistry.[2] In 1957, he acquired his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Chicago.[2] His Ph.D. dissertation focused on measuring the rates of mitotic processes by examining the growth rate of spindles through polarized light microscopy.[3]
As a postdoctoral fellow, he spent two years in the laboratory of Francis Schmitt at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, investigating the properties of neurofilament proteins with Peter Davison. He returned to the University of Chicago and established his own laboratory, and then, by the early 1970s, moved to the Medical Research Council Muscle Biophysics Unit at King's College, London. Here, he collaborated with Jean Hanson on a simple model of the muscle contraction cycle.[3]
In 1999, Taylor joined Gary Borisy's laboratory at Northwestern University's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. He also maintained a half-time position as Louis Block Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago.[4]
Research interests
Edwin Taylor works on the molecular mechanisms regulating the movement of cells,[5] particularly the chemical events involved in muscle contraction cycles.[4] He investigates molecular motors, myosin with actin and kinesin with microtubules, to discover the kinetic mechanism that dictates the structural changes responsible for force and motion.[2] This led to his discovery of tubulin, the protein subunit of microtubules, and to the first kinetic model explaining how these molecular motors convert chemical energy into mechanical force in striated muscle.[4] In the actomyosin ATPase cycle, the hydrolysis of ATP by enzymes leads to the generation of force and motion. Taylor also has studied the very different reaction pathways that myosin and kinesin follow, showing that these two motors shared important structural features.[5]
Awards
Taylor was honored at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, with a symposium "Myosin, Microtubules and Motion".[6] On May 1, 2001, he was elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to the biochemistry of muscle contraction.[4]
References
- ↑ "National Academy of Sciences" (in en). https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/about/notable/nas-members.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Edwin W. Taylor, PhD | Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology | The University of Chicago" (in en). https://mgcb.uchicago.edu/admin/person/edwin-w-taylor-phd.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Taylor, EW (February 2001). "999 E.B. Wilson Lecture: The cell as molecular machine.". Molecular Biology of the Cell 12: 251–4.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Three University of Chicago faculty named Members of the National Academy of Sciences" (in en). https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/news/three-university-of-chicago-faculty-named-members-of-the-national-academy-of-sciences.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Edwin Taylor". http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/3012597.html.
- ↑ "Accolades". The University of Chicago Chronicle 18 (11). March 4, 1999. http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/990304/accolades.shtml.
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