Sandra Louise Schmid (born March 7, 1958, in Vancouver, British Columbia) is the first Chief Scientific Officer of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. She is a Canadian cell biologist by training; prior to her move to CZ Biohub, she was Professor and Chair of the Cell Biology Department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. [1] Throughout her academic career, she has authored over 105 publications on the molecular mechanism and regulation of clathrin-mediated endocytosis and the structure and function of the GTPase dynamin and mechanisms governing membrane fission. [1] She was the first to identify dynamin's key role in endocytosis. [2] She is a co-founder of the journal Traffic and has been the Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Biology of the Cell , and the President of the American Society for Cell Biology. [3]
Schmid was born March 7, 1958, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [1] She credits her father, a high school science teacher, and her unique schooling experience for her interest in science. [2] In her early education, Schmid was enrolled in a gifted student program in which teachers rejected textbooks and students were challenged to think critically. [2]
Schmid graduated high school as the valedictorian of her class. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in cell biology from the University of British Columbia in 1980 and received an undergraduate medical research grant while there. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford University in 1985 under the mentorship of James E. Rothman. In 2009, Schmid earned a Master of Science in Executive Leadership from the University of San Diego School of Business. [1]
After earning her Ph.D at Stanford, Schmid worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University from 1985 to 1988, working in the lab of Ira Mellman. [1] There, she helped develop techniques for isolating endosomes, which Mellman and colleagues had recently discovered and named. [4] From 1988 to 1994, she was an assistant member of the Department of Cell Biology at Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute and in 1994 she was promoted to associate member. [1] In 1996, Schmid became an associate professor with tenure at Scripps Research, and in 2000 she earned the title of professor. In 2000 she became the Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Scripps Research and in 2012 she was named the chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. [1]
In April 2020, Sandra Schmid was named as the first Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. [5]
In 1976, Schmid was awarded the British Columbia Provincial Scholarship and the Vancouver Student Civic Citizenship Award. She was the Helen Hay Whitney Post-doctoral Fellow at Yale University from 1985 to 1987. In 1990, she received a Junior Career Recognition Award from the American Society of Cell Biology, and in 1994 she received the American Heart Established Investigator Award. From 2000 until 2010 she received an NIH MERIT Award. In 2002, she earned the University of California San Diego Athena Pinnacle Award in Biotechnology. In 2006 she was the Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2009 she received the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology William C. Rose Award, and she was also elected as the President of the American Society of Cell Biology. In 2020, Schmid was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. [6]
Schmid married Bill Balch in 1984. In 1986, they both took jobs in the cell biology department at Scripps Research. She has two children and credits her supportive husband for her ability to balance work and family. [4]
Ira Mellman is an American cell biologist who discovered endosomes. He serves as Vice President of Research Oncology at Genentech in South San Francisco, California.
Dynamin is a GTPase responsible for endocytosis in the eukaryotic cell. Dynamin is part of the "dynamin superfamily", which includes classical dynamins, dynamin-like proteins, Mx proteins, OPA1, mitofusins, and GBPs. Members of the dynamin family are principally involved in the scission of newly formed vesicles from the membrane of one cellular compartment and their targeting to, and fusion with, another compartment, both at the cell surface as well as at the Golgi apparatus. Dynamin family members also play a role in many processes including division of organelles, cytokinesis and microbial pathogen resistance.
Elaine V. Fuchs is an American cell biologist famous for her work on the biology and molecular mechanisms of mammalian skin and skin diseases, who helped lead the modernization of dermatology. Fuchs pioneered reverse genetics approaches, which assess protein function first and then assess its role in development and disease. In particular, Fuchs researches skin stem cells and their production of hair and skin. She is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at The Rockefeller University.
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Shana O. Kelley is a scientist and Neena B. Schwartz Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. She is affiliated with Northwestern's International Institute for Nanotechnology and was previously part of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine. Kelley's research includes the development of new technologies for clinical diagnostics and drug delivery. In 2023, she was chosen as president of Chicago's new Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.
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Volker Haucke is a biochemist and cell biologist. He is Director of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie Berlin (FMP) Berlin and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the Institute for Pharmacy of the Free University of Berlin.
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, or simply Biohub, is a nonprofit research organization. In addition to supporting and conducting original research, CZ Biohub acts as a hub and fosters science collaboration between UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco (UCSF) and Stanford. The Biohub is funded by a $600 million contribution from Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. It was co-led by Stephen Quake and Joseph DeRisi from its inception in 2016 until 2022, when Quake left to become president of the Biohub Network. Sandra Schmid joined as Chief Scientific Officer in 2020.
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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.
Erica Ollmann Saphire is an American structural biologist and immunologist and a professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Her research investigates the structural biology of viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever such as Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, Bundibugyo, and Lassa. She was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2008.
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