Early life
Clara Franzini was born in Florence, Italy, on October 3, 1938. She lived with her mother, father, and three brothers: Paolo, Carlo, and Marco. [4] Franzini-Armstrong became interested in science during her schooling. [4] Her father was an atomic physicist and her mother was one of the few women to earn a physics degree in Italy. [4] Though her mother did not pursue a career in science, Franzini-Armstrong has said that she strongly encouraged her to do so, noting that "she gave [me] total equality with [my] brothers in all academic questions." [4]
Career
The first major breakthrough in Franzini-Armstrong's career was discovering that that T-tubules open at the cell surface, which helped explain how a muscle is activated to contract. [4]
Franzini-Armstrong's research focuses on the organization of membranes and macromolecular complexes responsible for excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac and skeletal muscles. [6] Her structural work has been divided into four main phases:
The first phase focused on calcium cycling, particularly defining the distribution and nature of the two membrane systems involved in this specific type of cycling. [7]
Franzini-Armstrong's second phase involved discovering the location of channels that release calcium during muscle activation. She also demonstrated that in muscles with high activity rates, a limiting factor is the density of the pump protein and not the density of calcium release channels. [5]
The third phase identified the relationship between the L-type calcium channels of the plasmalemma and T-tubules in cardiac and skeletal muscles. Specifically, she worked with CaV channels or dihydropyridine receptors (DHPRs) and the calcium release channels of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (RyRs). [5]
Her fourth phase concerns the supramolecular complex that enables several molecules in the sarcoplasmic reticulum that regulate calcium release to interact with one another. Franzini-Armstrong continues to utilize structural approaches to better comprehend the various interactions between molecules. [6] [8]
From 1960–1961, she worked as an assistant professor of pathology at the University of Pisa. From 1963–1964, she worked at the National Institutes of Health with Dr. R. J. Podolsky and earned a Master of Research degree in muscle physiology. [9] From 1964–1966, she worked as a research assistant at the University College, London, with Prof. A. F. Huxley, studying contractile machinery and optics in Sir Andrew Huxley's lab. She also earned another Master of Research degree in muscle structure during this time. From 1967–1969, she worked as a research associate in physiology at Duke University.
From 1969–1972, she worked as an associate in physiology at the University of Rochester. [9] She then became an assistant professor in physiology at the University of Rochester from 1972–1975, before becoming an associate professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania from 1975–1981. She was a professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania from 1981–1992, and then a professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1992–2007.
Franzini-Armstrong has been a professor emerita of cell and developmental biology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania since 2007. [8] She and her husband, Clay Armstrong, are members of the National Academy of Sciences; they are the only married couple to both be members in the National Academy of Sciences. [10]
Honors and awards
Franzini-Armstrong's honors include a Fellowship from Scuola Normale Superiore from 1956–1960 in Pisa, Italy, and a "Perfezionamento" (postdoctoral fellowship) from Scuola Normale Superiore from 1990–1961, also in Pisa. [8] From 1983–1987, she was a member of the Molecular Cytology Study Section. In 1988, she was the director of the Gordon Research Conference on Excitation-Contraction Coupling. From 1988–1990, she was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and a council member of the Biophysical Society. [8] In 1989, she was the co-recipient with Dr. Knox Chandler of the K.C. Cole Award of the Biophysical Society. In 1990, she was the co-chairman of the Biophysical Society Symposium on Excitation-Contraction Coupling. In 1995, she was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1997, she was awarded an honorary MD from the University of Pisa, Italy. In 2001, she was inducted into the Royal Society London as a foreign member. She was inducted into the European Academy of Sciences in 2005, followed by the 2007 Founder's Award from the Biophysical Society. [5]
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