Frances Brodsky

Last updated
Professor
Frances Brodsky
DPhil FMedSci
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Harvard University
University of Oxford
Known forStudies of clathrin and vesicle trafficking
Scientific career
Institutions University College, London
University of California, San Francisco
Doctoral advisor Walter Bodmer
Jack Strominger

Frances Brodsky is an American cell biologist. She is known for her work on clathrin and its role in the function of the immune system. [1] She is a professor of cell biology and the director of the Division of Biosciences (part of the Faculty of Life Sciences) at University College London. She is the author of three scientific mystery novels under the pseudonym B.B. Jordan. She was the founding editor of the journal Traffic. [2]

Contents

Education

Brodsky earned her B.Sc. in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1976. She received a Marshall Scholarship to study in the UK and performed research in the laboratory of Walter Bodmer at Oxford University, obtaining a D. Phil. (Oxford's term for a Ph.D.) in 1979.

Career

After postdoctoral work at Harvard University and Stanford University, Brodsky joined Becton Dickinson as a program manager in cell biology in 1982. In 1987, she returned to academia as an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

Brodsky's work straddles the interface of immunology and cell biology. She developed some of the first monoclonal antibodies to the major histocompatibility complex, a protein that is central to the immune system. [3] [4] She became interested in clathrin, a protein that is key to both inward and outward membrane trafficking in cells, shortly after its isolation by Barbara Pearse. She used monoclonal antibodies to map the structure of clathrin [5] [6] and to probe its assembly into its characteristic polyhedral structures. [7] [8] Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is involved in the uptake of antigens from outside the cell that are eventually presented on the surface of the cell by the major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC class II). Brodsky discovered that the pathway of MHC class II export meets the antigen import pathway in a specialized endocytic compartment where antigens can be processed into peptides and loaded onto the MHC class II molecule for presentation. [9] She also identified the site at which peptides are loaded onto MHC class I proteins. [10]

Brodsky has been a leader in analyzing the regulation of clathrin assembly [11] [12] [13] and the adaptor proteins that help capture specific cargoes in clathrin-coated vesicles. [14] [15] She has identified roles for clathrin isoforms in diseases such as diabetes [16] and myopathies, [17] and in controlling immunoglobulin class switching. [18]

In 2000, she founded Traffic: The International Journal of Intracellular Transport with Mark Marsh, Sandra Schmid, and Thomas Kreis, with the goal of creating "a central journal to gather together publications that are of most interest to those working on intracellular trafficking". [2] In 2007, she stepped aside from the role of co-Editor to become Reviews Editor of Traffic. [19]

In 2015, after 28 years at UCSF, Brodsky moved back to the UK to lead the Division of Biosciences at University College London. [20]

In 2019, she was elected to the council of the Academy of Medical Sciences [21]

Awards

Mystery novels

Brodsky is the author of three mystery novels starring virologist Dr. Celeste Braun, all published by Berkley Prime Crime, under the pseudonym B.B. Jordan. In Principal Investigation (1997), [24] Braun foils a criminal who is threatening to cause an outbreak of a deadly virus; in Secondary Immunization (1999) [25] she uncovers a conspiracy that uses the immune systems of patients to carry information for a drug cartel; and in Triplet Code (2001) [26] she solves the mystery of the deaths of three colleagues.

References

  1. Sedwick, Caitlin (2013-09-16). "Frances Brodsky: So you think you know all about clathrin?". The Journal of Cell Biology. 202 (6): 830–831. doi:10.1083/jcb.2026pi. ISSN   0021-9525. PMC   3776341 . PMID   24043697.
  2. 1 2 Jahn, Reinhard (2000). "Green and red lights at the cell". Nature. 407 (6802): 299. doi: 10.1038/35030250 . ISSN   0028-0836. S2CID   5245312.
  3. Parham, P.; Sehgal, P. K.; Brodsky, F. M. (1979-06-14). "Anti-HLA-A,B,C monoclonal antibodies with no alloantigenic specificity in humans define polymorphisms in other primate species". Nature. 279 (5714): 639–641. Bibcode:1979Natur.279..639P. doi:10.1038/279639a0. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   88017. S2CID   4255372.
  4. Brodsky, F. M.; Bodmer, W. F.; Parham, P. (1979). "Characterization of a monoclonal anti-beta 2-microglobulin antibody and its use in the genetic and biochemical analysis of major histocompatibility antigens". European Journal of Immunology. 9 (7): 536–545. doi:10.1002/eji.1830090709. ISSN   0014-2980. PMID   91522. S2CID   45088807.
  5. Brodsky, F. M. (1985). "Clathrin structure characterized with monoclonal antibodies. I. Analysis of multiple antigenic sites". The Journal of Cell Biology. 101 (6): 2047–2054. doi:10.1083/jcb.101.6.2047. ISSN   0021-9525. PMC   2114023 . PMID   2415533.
  6. Brodsky, F. M. (1985). "Clathrin structure characterized with monoclonal antibodies. II. Identification of in vivo forms of clathrin". The Journal of Cell Biology. 101 (6): 2055–2062. doi:10.1083/jcb.101.6.2055. ISSN   0021-9525. PMC   2114020 . PMID   4066749.
  7. Blank, G. S.; Brodsky, F. M. (1986). "Site-specific disruption of clathrin assembly produces novel structures". The EMBO Journal. 5 (9): 2087–2095. doi:10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04470.x. ISSN   0261-4189. PMC   1167086 . PMID   3096714.
  8. Brodsky, F. M.; Galloway, C. J.; Blank, G. S.; Jackson, A. P.; Seow, H. F.; Drickamer, K.; Parham, P. (1987). "Localization of clathrin light-chain sequences mediating heavy-chain binding and coated vesicle diversity". Nature. 326 (6109): 203–205. Bibcode:1987Natur.326..203B. doi:10.1038/326203a0. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   2434865. S2CID   4363913.
  9. Guagliardi, L. E.; Koppelman, B.; Blum, J. S.; Marks, M. S.; Cresswell, P.; Brodsky, F. M. (1990-01-11). "Co-localization of molecules involved in antigen processing and presentation in an early endocytic compartment". Nature. 343 (6254): 133–139. Bibcode:1990Natur.343..133G. doi:10.1038/343133a0. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   2404209. S2CID   4240003.
  10. Bresnahan, P. A.; Barber, L. D.; Brodsky, F. M. (1997-04-01). "Localization of class I histocompatibility molecule assembly by subfractionation of the early secretory pathway". Human Immunology. 53 (2): 129–139. doi:10.1016/S0198-8859(97)00001-3. ISSN   0198-8859. PMID   9129970.
  11. Liu, S. H.; Wong, M. L.; Craik, C. S.; Brodsky, F. M. (1995-10-20). "Regulation of clathrin assembly and trimerization defined using recombinant triskelion hubs". Cell. 83 (2): 257–267. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(95)90167-1 . ISSN   0092-8674. PMID   7585943.
  12. Stoddart, Angela; Dykstra, Michelle L.; Brown, Bruce K.; Song, Wenxia; Pierce, Susan K.; Brodsky, Frances M. (2002). "Lipid rafts unite signaling cascades with clathrin to regulate BCR internalization". Immunity. 17 (4): 451–462. doi: 10.1016/S1074-7613(02)00416-8 . ISSN   1074-7613. PMID   12387739.
  13. Wakeham, Diane E.; Chen, Chih-Ying; Greene, Barrie; Hwang, Peter K.; Brodsky, Frances M. (2003-10-01). "Clathrin self-assembly involves coordinated weak interactions favorable for cellular regulation". The EMBO Journal. 22 (19): 4980–4990. doi:10.1093/emboj/cdg511. ISSN   0261-4189. PMC   204494 . PMID   14517237.
  14. Greene, B.; Liu, S. H.; Wilde, A.; Brodsky, F. M. (2000). "Complete reconstitution of clathrin basket formation with recombinant protein fragments: adaptor control of clathrin self-assembly". Traffic. 1 (1): 69–75. doi: 10.1034/j.1600-0854.2000.010110.x . ISSN   1398-9219. PMID   11208061.
  15. Knuehl, Christine; Chen, Chih-Ying; Manalo, Venus; Hwang, Peter K.; Ota, Nobuyuki; Brodsky, Frances M. (2006). "Novel binding sites on clathrin and adaptors regulate distinct aspects of coat assembly". Traffic. 7 (12): 1688–1700. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0854.2006.00499.x . ISSN   1398-9219. PMID   17052248.
  16. Vassilopoulos, Stéphane; Esk, Christopher; Hoshino, Sachiko; Funke, Birgit H.; Chen, Chih-Ying; Plocik, Alex M.; Wright, Woodring E.; Kucherlapati, Raju; Brodsky, Frances M. (2009-05-29). "A role for the CHC22 clathrin heavy-chain isoform in human glucose metabolism". Science. 324 (5931): 1192–1196. Bibcode:2009Sci...324.1192V. doi:10.1126/science.1171529. ISSN   1095-9203. PMC   2975026 . PMID   19478182.
  17. Hoshino, Sachiko; Sakamoto, Kazuho; Vassilopoulos, Stéphane; Camus, Stéphane M.; Griffin, Christine A.; Esk, Christopher; Torres, Jorge A.; Ohkoshi, Norio; Ishii, Akiko (2013). "The CHC22 clathrin-GLUT4 transport pathway contributes to skeletal muscle regeneration". PLOS ONE. 8 (10) e77787. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...877787H. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077787 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   3813726 . PMID   24204966.
  18. Wu, Shuang; Majeed, Sophia R.; Evans, Timothy M.; Camus, Marine D.; Wong, Nicole M. L.; Schollmeier, Yvette; Park, Minjong; Muppidi, Jagan R.; Reboldi, Andrea (2016). "Clathrin light chains' role in selective endocytosis influences antibody isotype switching". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 113 (35): 9816–9821. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1611189113 . ISSN   1091-6490. PMC   5024586 . PMID   27540116.
  19. Brodsky, Frances M.; Marsh, Mark (2010). "Life History of the Journal TRAFFIC, Celebrating Ten Years of Publication". Traffic. 11 (1): 1–3. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0854.2009.01004.x .
  20. "Department Says Farewell to Frances Brodsky | School of Pharmacy | UCSF". pharmacy.ucsf.edu. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  21. "Academy of Medical Sciences Council Members 2019" . Retrieved 2019-07-27.
  22. "Frances Brodsky" . Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  23. "Women in Cell Biology Awards". ASCB. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  24. Jordan, B. B. (1997). Principal investigation. New York: Berkley Prime Crime. ISBN   978-0-425-16090-9. OCLC   37832200.
  25. Jordan, B. B. (1999). Secondary immunization . New York: Berkley Prime Crime. ISBN   978-0-425-17118-9. OCLC   42654221.
  26. Jordan, B. B. (2001). Triplet code. New York: Berkley Prime Crime. ISBN   978-0-425-17920-8. OCLC   46718397.