Stuart Newman

Last updated
Stuart Newman
Born
Stuart Alan Newman

(1945-04-04) April 4, 1945 (age 79)
New York City, New York
Alma mater Columbia University
University of Chicago
Scientific career
Fields Developmental Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Institutions State University of New York at Albany
New York Medical College
Doctoral advisor Stuart A. Rice

Stuart Alan Newman (born April 4, 1945 in New York City) is a professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, United States. His research centers around three program areas: cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate limb development, physical mechanisms of morphogenesis, and mechanisms of morphological evolution. He also writes about social and cultural aspects of biological research and technology. [1]

Contents

Career

Stuart Newman graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens, New York. He received an A.B. from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1965, and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago in 1970, where he worked with the theoretical chemist, Stuart A. Rice. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Chicago and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, UK, and before joining New York Medical College was an instructor in anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania and an assistant professor of biological sciences at the State University of New York at Albany.

He has been a visiting professor at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique -Saclay, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the University of Tokyo, Komaba, and was a Fogarty Senior International Fellow at Monash University, Australia. He is a member of the External Faculty of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria and in 2015 was appointed editor-in-chief of the institute's journal Biological Theory . He is a director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, Nixon, NV and was a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics, Cambridge, MA, and of the editorial board of the Journal of Biosciences (Bangalore).

Newman's work in developmental biology includes a proposed mechanism for patterning of the vertebrate limb skeleton based on the self-organization of embryonic tissues. [2] [3] [4] He has also characterized a biophysical effect in extracellular matrices populated with cells or nonliving particles, "matrix-driven translocation," that provides a physical model for morphogenesis of mesenchymal tissues. [5] He is co-author, with the physicist Gabor Forgacs, of the textbook Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

His work in evolutionary biology includes a theory for the origination of the animal phyla. This is proposed to have been driven by new physical morphogenetic and patterning effects set into motion when the products of the ancient developmental toolkit genes first came to operate on the multicellular scale in the late Precambrian-early Cambrian. The resulting forms were then "locked in" by stabilizing selection. [6] [7] [8]

Newman has proposed a theory for the evolution of cell differentiation in animals. Based on a detailed consideration of gene regulatory components and processes that distinguish this group from all other forms of life, including their nearest holozoan relatives, he has suggested that the topologically associating domains found in the nuclei of metazoan cells had a unique propensity to amplify and exaggerate inherent physiological and structural functionalities of unicellular ancestors. [9]

With the evolutionary biologist Gerd B. Müller, Newman edited Origination of Organismal Form (MIT Press, 2003). This book on evolutionary developmental biology is a collection of papers by various researchers on generative mechanisms that were plausibly involved in the origination of disparate body forms during the Ediacaran and early Cambrian periods. Particular attention is given to epigenetic factors, such as physical determinants and environmental parameters, that may have led to the rapid emergence of body plans and organ forms during a period when multicellular organisms had relatively plastic morphologies. [10]

Newman has advanced a novel scenario for the origin of birds, the Thermogenic Muscle Hypothesis. Characteristic anatomical specializations of birds, e.g., bipedality, the capacity for flight, are proposed to be secondary to the hyperplasia of thigh and breast skeletal muscles that arose in compensation for the loss of several genes in saurian ancestors. [11] [12]

He has long warned of dangers associated with lax regulations of genetic engineering of microorganisms and the potential of laboratory manipulation to create new bacterial and viral pathogens. [13] In May of 2020 he was among the earliest scientists to speak publicly about the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic virus SARS-CoV-2 was constructed in a laboratory. [14]

Newman has also been an outspoken critic of proposed uses of developmental biology to modify human species identity, including cloning and germline genetic manipulation. [15] In 1997, in order to encourage public discussion of these emerging technologies, he applied for a U.S. patent on a human-nonhuman chimera, a composite organism (like the "geep") arising from a mixture of embryonic cells of two or more species. [16] [17] Although the patent was ultimately denied, [18] it raised Constitutional and moral questions and was the subject of numerous articles in the legal and philosophical literature. Newman's patent application has been credited with inspiring the provision in the Leahy–Smith America Invents Act of 2011 that "no patent may issue on a claim directed to or encompassing a human organism." [19] His book, Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial Bioscience (Routledge, 2019), written with the historian M.L. Tina Stevens, describes the rise of the field of human-oriented biotechnology and presents the scientific case against engineering human embryos.

See also

Related Research Articles

Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and differentiation of stem cells in the adult organism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary developmental biology</span> Comparison of organism developmental processes

Evolutionary developmental biology is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer how developmental processes evolved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cellular differentiation</span> Transformation of a stem cell to a more specialized cell

Cellular differentiation is the process in which a stem cell changes from one type to a differentiated one. Usually, the cell changes to a more specialized type. Differentiation happens multiple times during the development of a multicellular organism as it changes from a simple zygote to a complex system of tissues and cell types. Differentiation continues in adulthood as adult stem cells divide and create fully differentiated daughter cells during tissue repair and during normal cell turnover. Some differentiation occurs in response to antigen exposure. Differentiation dramatically changes a cell's size, shape, membrane potential, metabolic activity, and responsiveness to signals. These changes are largely due to highly controlled modifications in gene expression and are the study of epigenetics. With a few exceptions, cellular differentiation almost never involves a change in the DNA sequence itself. Metabolic composition, however, gets dramatically altered where stem cells are characterized by abundant metabolites with highly unsaturated structures whose levels decrease upon differentiation. Thus, different cells can have very different physical characteristics despite having the same genome.

In cellular biology, a somatic cell, or vegetal cell, is any biological cell forming the body of a multicellular organism other than a gamete, germ cell, gametocyte or undifferentiated stem cell. Somatic cells compose the body of an organism and divide through mitosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multicellular organism</span> Organism that consists of more than one cell

A multicellular organism is an organism that consists of more than one cell, unlike unicellular organisms. All species of animals, land plants and most fungi are multicellular, as are many algae, whereas a few organisms are partially uni- and partially multicellular, like slime molds and social amoebae such as the genus Dictyostelium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Endosperm</span> Tissue inside seeds that is starchy in cereals and liquid in coconuts

The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain oils and protein. This can make endosperm a source of nutrition in animal diet. For example, wheat endosperm is ground into flour for bread, while barley endosperm is the main source of sugars for beer production. Other examples of endosperm that forms the bulk of the edible portion are coconut "meat" and coconut "water", and corn. Some plants, such as certain orchids, lack endosperm in their seeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symmetry in biology</span> Geometric symmetry in living beings

Symmetry in biology refers to the symmetry observed in organisms, including plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. External symmetry can be easily seen by just looking at an organism. For example, the face of a human being has a plane of symmetry down its centre, or a pine cone displays a clear symmetrical spiral pattern. Internal features can also show symmetry, for example the tubes in the human body which are cylindrical and have several planes of symmetry.

In embryology, cleavage is the division of cells in the early development of the embryo, following fertilization. The zygotes of many species undergo rapid cell cycles with no significant overall growth, producing a cluster of cells the same size as the original zygote. The different cells derived from cleavage are called blastomeres and form a compact mass called the morula. Cleavage ends with the formation of the blastula, or of the blastocyst in mammals.

Hox genes, a subset of homeobox genes, are a group of related genes that specify regions of the body plan of an embryo along the head-tail axis of animals. Hox proteins encode and specify the characteristics of 'position', ensuring that the correct structures form in the correct places of the body. For example, Hox genes in insects specify which appendages form on a segment, and Hox genes in vertebrates specify the types and shape of vertebrae that will form. In segmented animals, Hox proteins thus confer segmental or positional identity, but do not form the actual segments themselves.

<i>Origination of Organismal Form</i> 2003 biology anthology edited by Gerd Müller and Stuart A. Newman

Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology is an anthology published in 2003 edited by Gerd B. Müller and Stuart A. Newman. The book is the outcome of the 4th Altenberg Workshop in Theoretical Biology on "Origins of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene Paradigm", hosted in 1999 at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research. It has been cited over 200 times and has a major influence on extended evolutionary synthesis research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pattern formation</span> Study of how patterns form by self-organization in nature

The science of pattern formation deals with the visible, (statistically) orderly outcomes of self-organization and the common principles behind similar patterns in nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Structuralism (biology)</span> Attempt to explain evolution by forces other than natural selection

Biological or process structuralism is a school of biological thought that objects to an exclusively Darwinian or adaptationist explanation of natural selection such as is described in the 20th century's modern synthesis. It proposes instead that evolution is guided differently, by physical forces which shape the development of an animal's body, and sometimes implies that these forces supersede selection altogether.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limb development</span>

Limb development in vertebrates is an area of active research in both developmental and evolutionary biology, with much of the latter work focused on the transition from fin to limb.

Within the field of developmental biology, one goal is to understand how a particular cell develops into a final cell type, known as fate determination. Within an embryo, several processes play out at the cellular and tissue level to create an organism. These processes include cell proliferation, differentiation, cellular movement and programmed cell death. Each cell in an embryo receives molecular signals from neighboring cells in the form of proteins, RNAs and even surface interactions. Almost all animals undergo a similar sequence of events during very early development, a conserved process known as embryogenesis. During embryogenesis, cells exist in three germ layers, and undergo gastrulation. While embryogenesis has been studied for more than a century, it was only recently that scientists discovered that a basic set of the same proteins and mRNAs are involved in embryogenesis. Evolutionary conservation is one of the reasons that model systems such as the fly, the mouse, and other organisms are used as models to study embryogenesis and developmental biology. Studying model organisms provides information relevant to other animals, including humans. While studying the different model systems, cells fate was discovered to be determined via multiple ways, two of which are by the combination of transcription factors the cells have and by the cell-cell interaction. Cells' fate determination mechanisms were categorized into three different types, autonomously specified cells, conditionally specified cells, or syncytial specified cells. Furthermore, the cells' fate was determined mainly using two types of experiments, cell ablation and transplantation. The results obtained from these experiments, helped in identifying the fate of the examined cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Marthe Le Douarin</span> French biologist

Nicole Marthe Le Douarin is a developmental biologist known for her studies of chimeras, which have led to critical insights regarding higher animal nervous and immune systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segmentation gene</span> Gene involve in early stages of segmentation

A segmentation gene is a gene involved in the early developmental stages of pattern formation. It regulates how cells are organized and defines repeated units in the embryo. Segmentation genes have been documented in three taxa: arthropods, chordates, and annelids. In Drosophila melanogaster, a common fruit fly, segmentation genes divide the embryo into 14 parasegments which are among the first compartments to form within the embryo. Rare variants in segmentation genes can cause changes in appearance of differing severity depending on its type. The genes can be classified into 3 groups: Gap genes, Pair-rule genes and Segment polarity genes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morphogenetic field</span> Developmental biology concept

In the developmental biology of the early twentieth century, a morphogenetic field is a research hypothesis and a discrete region of cells in an embryo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerd B. Müller</span> Austrian biologist (born 1953)

Gerd B. Müller is an Austrian biologist who is emeritus professor at the University of Vienna where he was the head of the Department of Theoretical Biology in the Center for Organismal Systems Biology. His research interests focus on vertebrate limb development, evolutionary novelties, evo-devo theory, and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. He is also concerned with the development of 3D based imaging tools in developmental biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turing pattern</span> Concept from evolutionary biology

The Turing pattern is a concept introduced by English mathematician Alan Turing in a 1952 paper titled "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" which describes how patterns in nature, such as stripes and spots, can arise naturally and autonomously from a homogeneous, uniform state. The pattern arises due to Turing instability which in turn arises due to the interplay between differential diffusion of chemical species and chemical reaction. The instability mechanism is unforeseen because a pure diffusion process would be anticipated to have a stabilizing influence on the system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evo-devo gene toolkit</span>

The evo-devo gene toolkit is the small subset of genes in an organism's genome whose products control the organism's embryonic development. Toolkit genes are central to the synthesis of molecular genetics, palaeontology, evolution and developmental biology in the science of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). Many of them are ancient and highly conserved among animal phyla.

References

  1. ↑ Chuong C-M (2009). "Limb pattern, physical mechanisms and morphological evolution – an interview with Stuart A. Newman". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 53 (5–6): 663–671. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.072553cc . PMID   19557675.
  2. ↑ Newman SA, Frisch HL (1979). "Dynamics of skeletal pattern formation in developing chick limb". Science. 205 (4407): 662–668. Bibcode:1979Sci...205..662N. doi:10.1126/science.462174. PMID   462174. S2CID   44653825.
  3. ↑ Zhu J, Zhang YT, Alber MS, Newman SA (2010). "Bare bones pattern formation: a core regulatory network in varying geometries reproduces major features of vertebrate limb development and evolution". PLOS ONE. 5 (5): e:10892. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...510892Z. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010892 . PMC   2878345 . PMID   20531940.
  4. ↑ Sheth R, Marcon L, Bastida MF, Junco M, Quintana L, Dahn R, Kmita M, Sharpe J, Ros MA (2012). "Hox genes regulate digit patterning by controlling the wavelength of a Turing-type mechanism". Science. 338 (6113): 1476–1480. Bibcode:2012Sci...338.1476S. doi:10.1126/science.1226804. PMC   4486416 . PMID   23239739.
  5. ↑ Newman SA, Frenz DA, Tomasek JJ, Rabuzzi DD (1985). "Matrix-driven translocation of cells and nonliving particles". Science. 228 (4701): 885–889. Bibcode:1985Sci...228..885N. doi:10.1126/science.4001925. PMID   4001925.
  6. ↑ Newman SA, Forgacs G, Müller GB (2006). "Before programs: the physical origination of multicellular forms". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 50 (2–3): 289–299. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.052049sn . PMID   16479496.
  7. ↑ Newman SA, Bhat R (2009). "Dynamical patterning modules: a 'pattern language' for development and evolution of multicellular form". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 53 (5–6): 693–705. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.072481sn . PMID   19378259.
  8. ↑ Newman SA (2012). "Physico-genetic determinants in the evolution of development". Science. 338 (6104): 217–219. Bibcode:2012Sci...338..217N. doi:10.1126/science.1222003. PMID   23066074. S2CID   206541349.
  9. ↑ Newman, SA (2020). "Cell differentiation: what have we learned in 50 years?". Journal of Theoretical Biology. 485: 110031. arXiv: 1907.09551 . Bibcode:2020JThBi.48510031N. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.110031 . PMID   31568790.
  10. ↑ Newman SA, Müller GB (2000). "Epigenetic mechanisms of character origination". Journal of Experimental Zoology. 288 (4): 304–317. doi:10.1002/1097-010X(20001215)288:4<304::AID-JEZ3>3.0.CO;2-G. PMID   11144279.
  11. ↑ Newman SA (2011). "Thermogenesis, muscle hyperplasia, and the origin of birds". BioEssays. 33 (9): 653–656. doi:10.1002/bies.201100061. PMID   21695679. S2CID   42012034.
  12. ↑ Newman SA, Mezentseva NV, Badyaev AV (2013). "Gene loss, thermogenesis, and the origin of birds". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1289 (1): 36–47. Bibcode:2013NYASA1289...36N. doi:10.1111/nyas.12090. PMID   23550607. S2CID   12240405.
  13. ↑ Newman, SA (1982). "The "Scientific" Selling of rDNA". Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. 24: 21–57.
  14. ↑ "Did the COVID-19 pandemic begin in a lab? Part 1 - Stuart Newman (republished)" (video). youtube.com. Organic Consumers Association. May 7, 2020.
  15. ↑ Newman, Stuart A. (2003). "Averting the clone age: prospects and perils of human developmental manipulation". Journal of Contemporary Health Law & Policy. 19 (2): 431–463. PMID   14748253 . Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  16. ↑ U.S. patent application no. 08/933,564: "Chimeric Embryos and Animals Containing Human Cells."
  17. ↑ Dowie, Mark (January–February 2004). "Gods and monsters". Mother Jones. Retrieved July 4, 2011.
  18. ↑ Weiss, Rick (February 13, 2005). "U.S. denies patent for a too-human hybrid". Washington Post. Retrieved July 4, 2011.
  19. ↑ Heled, Yaniv (2014). "On patenting human organisms or how the abortion wars feed into the ownership fallacy". Cardozo Law Review. 36: 241–298.
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