Julie Forman-Kay

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Julie Forman-Kay

Julie Forman-Kay by Lewis Kay.jpg
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Yale University
Known for Intrinsically disordered proteins
Scientific career
Institutions University of Toronto
Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)

Julie Forman-Kay FRSC FRS is a scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and professor at University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the dynamics, interactions, structures, and functions of intrinsically disordered proteins.

Contents

Early life and career

Forman-Kay obtained a degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. [1] She carried out her graduate studies at Yale University in the laboratory of Fred M. Richards. [2] She also worked at the National Institutes of Health in the lab of Angela Gronenborn and Marius Clore.

Forman-Kay joined the Hospital for Sick Children in 1992, where she is currently a Program Head and Senior Scientist and Senior Scientist in the Molecular Medicine program. Furthermore she is also the Co-Director of the Structural & Biophysical Core Facility. [3] Forman-Kay is also currently a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, at University of Toronto. [4]

Research

Forman-Kay's research focuses on structural, functional, and bioinformatic studies of intrinsically disordered proteins using a combination of computational and experimental approaches. [2] [5] Her research has characterised the dynamic complexes of many disordered proteins and their ability to undergo liquid-liquid phase separation. [3] Forman-Kay has developed a software tool called ENSEMBLE which uses experimental data from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy and Small-angle X-ray scattering to predict the conformations that represent the structural ensembles of disordered proteins. [1]

Awards

In 2016, Forman-Kay was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2016. [6] [7]

In 2021, Forman-Kay was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. [8]

Personal life

Forman-Kay is married to biochemist Lewis Kay [1] and has two children. [2] Forman-Kay is also a violinist and plays classical chamber music. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)</span> Hospital in Toronto, Ontario

The Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), corporately branded as SickKids, is a major pediatric teaching hospital located on University Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toronto, the hospital was ranked the top pediatric hospital in the world by Newsweek in 2021.

The Centre for Applied Genomics is a genome centre in the Research Institute of The Hospital for Sick Children, and is affiliated with the University of Toronto. TCAG also operates as a Science and Technology Innovation Centre of Genome Canada, with an emphasis on next-generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics support. Research at TCAG focuses on the genetic and genomic basis of human variability, health and disease, including research on the genetics of autism spectrum disorder and structural variation of the human genome. The centre is located in the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning in downtown Toronto, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen W. Scherer</span> Canadian scientist (born 1964)

Stephen Wayne "Steve" Scherer is a Canadian scientist who currently serves as the Chief of Research at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and distinguished University Professor at the University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD at the University of Toronto under Professor Lap-chee Tsui. Together they founded Canada's first human genome centre, the Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG). He is a Senior Fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto. In 2014, he was named an esteemed Clarivate Citation laureate in Physiology or Medicine for the “Discovery of large-scale gene copy number variation and its association with specific diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conformational ensembles</span> Computational models of intrinsically-disordered proteins

In computational chemistry, conformational ensembles, also known as structural ensembles, are experimentally constrained computational models describing the structure of intrinsically unstructured proteins. Such proteins are flexible in nature, lacking a stable tertiary structure, and therefore cannot be described with a single structural representation. The techniques of ensemble calculation are relatively new on the field of structural biology, and are still facing certain limitations that need to be addressed before it will become comparable to classical structural description methods such as biological macromolecular crystallography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rutka</span> Canadian neurosurgeon

James Rutka is a Canadian neurosurgeon from Toronto, Canada. Rutka served as RS McLaughlin Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto from 2011 – 2022. He subspecializes in pediatric neurosurgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and is a Senior Scientist in the Research Institute at SickKids. His main clinical interests include the neurosurgical treatment of children with brain tumours and epilepsy. His research interests lie in the molecular biology of human brain tumours – specifically in the determination of the mechanisms by which brain tumours grow and invade. He is the Director of the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at SickKids, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. Marius Clore</span> Molecular biophysicist, structural biologist

G. Marius Clore MAE, FRSC, FRS is a British-born, Anglo-American molecular biophysicist and structural biologist. He was born in London, U.K. and is a dual U.S./U.K. Citizen. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a NIH Distinguished Investigator, and the Chief of the Molecular and Structural Biophysics Section in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is known for his foundational work in three-dimensional protein and nucleic acid structure determination by biomolecular NMR spectroscopy, for advancing experimental approaches to the study of large macromolecules and their complexes by NMR, and for developing NMR-based methods to study rare conformational states in protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein recognition. Clore's discovery of previously undetectable, functionally significant, rare transient states of macromolecules has yielded fundamental new insights into the mechanisms of important biological processes, and in particular the significance of weak interactions and the mechanisms whereby the opposing constraints of speed and specificity are optimized. Further, Clore's work opens up a new era of pharmacology and drug design as it is now possible to target structures and conformations that have been heretofore unseen.

Brenda Jean Andrews is a Canadian academic, researcher and biologist specializing in systems biology and molecular genetics.

Lewis Edward Kay, is a Canadian academic and biochemist known for his research in biochemistry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the studies of the structure and behaviour of proteins. He is a professor of molecular genetics, biochemistry and chemistry at the University of Toronto and Senior Scientist in Molecular Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Lisa Robinson is a clinician-scientist. She is a University of Toronto professor in the Department of Paediatrics and the Dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, former Head of the Division of Nephrology at The Hospital for Sick Children, a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute, President American Pediatric Society 2022-2023, and the first-ever Chief Diversity officer for the Faculty of Medicine at University of Toronto.

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta trained as a physician in Pakistan in the early stages of his career. He holds titles across various organizations in diverse geographies. Professor Bhutta is the Founding Director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health & Institute for Global Child Health & Development, at the Aga Khan University South-Central Asia, East Africa & United Kingdom.

Anna Goldenberg is a Russian-born computer scientist and a full professor at University of Toronto's Department of Computer Science and the Department of Statistics, a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children's Research Institute and the Associate Research Director for health at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. She is the first chair in biomedical informatics and artificial intelligence at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Evdokia Anagnostou is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto, and is cross-appointed as pediatric neurologist and a senior clinician scientist at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Canada. She is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Translational Therapeutics in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Dyson</span> British-born biophysicist

Helen Jane Dyson is a British-born biophysicist and a professor of integrative structural and computational biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. She was the 15th editor-in-chief of the Biophysical Journal. She was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.

Johanna Rommens is a Canadian geneticist who was on the research team which identified and cloned the CFTR gene, which when mutated, is responsible for causing cystic fibrosis (CF). She later discovered the gene responsible for Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes pancreatic and hematologic problems. She is a Senior Scientist Emeritus at SickKids Research Institute and a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. Madan Babu</span> Indian-American computational biologist

M. Madan Babu is an Indian-American computational biologist and bioinformatician. He is the endowed chair in biological data science and director of the center of excellence for data-driven discovery at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Previously, he served as a programme leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).

Rulan S. Parekh is an American-Canadian clinician-scientist and nephrologist. She is the vice president of research, education and innovation at Women's College Hospital and former senior scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences and Associate Chief of Clinical Research at SickKids.

Monica J. Justice is an American–Canadian developmental geneticist. She is the Canada Research Chair in Mammalian Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto and Program Head of Genetics and Genome Biology at SickKids Hospital.

Isaac Odame is a Ghanaian academic and physician who specialises in sickle cell disease. He is a professor of Hematology and Oncology at the Paediatrics department of the University of Toronto. He holds the Alexandra Yeo Chair in Hematology at the University of Toronto. He is the Director of the Hematology Division of the university's Department of Medicine. He is a staff physician of The Hospital for Sick Children, where he serves as the medical director of the Global Sickle Cell Disease Network located at the Centre for Global Child Health. He is a founder of the Global Sickle Cell Disease Network.

Lori L. Burrows is a Canadian microbiologist. She is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Microbe-Surface Interactions at McMaster University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibudhendra Sarkar</span>

Bibudhendra (Amu) Sarkar is a Canadian biochemist best known for his research on copper-histidine in human blood, leading to the first treatments for Menkes disease. He served as head of the Division of Biochemistry Research at the Sick Kids Research Institute in Toronto from 1990-2002, where he established the Department of Structural Biology Research in 1990.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "SBGrid Consortium - Member Tale - Julie Forman-Kay - The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto". sbgrid.org. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Casadio, Melina; Jordan, Shawn (2016-09-12). "Julie Forman-Kay: Dynamic views on protein structure". Journal of Cell Biology. 214 (6): 638–639. doi: 10.1083/jcb.2146pi . ISSN   0021-9525. PMC   5021103 .
  3. 1 2 "SickKids scientist Julie Forman-Kay named Fellow of the Royal Society for disordered protein research". SickKids. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  4. "Twelve new U of T fellows join Royal Society of Canada". University of Toronto News. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  5. Arnaud, Celia Henry (December 23, 2014). "Phosphorylation Pushes Floppy Protein To Fold". Chemical and Engineering News .
  6. Government of Canada, Industry Canada (2012-11-29). "Canada Research Chairs". www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  7. "Eight U of T science faculty join Royal Society of Canada as fellows". The Varsity. 2016-09-26. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  8. "Royal Society elects outstanding new Fellows and Foreign Members | Royal Society". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 2021-05-07.