Clifford Tabin

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Cliff Tabin
Professor Clifford Tabin ForMemRS.jpg
Cliff Tabin in 2014, portrait via the Royal Society
Born
Clifford James Tabin

(1954-01-19) January 19, 1954 (age 69)
Glencoe, Illinois
Education
Known for Sonic hedgehog [1]
ParentJulius Tabin
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis Activation of the c-Ha-ras Oncogene  (1984)
Doctoral advisor Robert Weinberg
Website

Clifford James Tabin (born 1954) [8] is chairman of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. [9] [10]

Contents

Education

Tabin was educated at the University of Chicago where he was awarded a BS in physics in 1976. [9] He went on to graduate school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was awarded a PhD in 1984 for work on the regulation of gene expression in the Ras subfamily of oncogenes supervised by Robert Weinberg based in the MIT Department of Biology. [11] In Weinberg's lab, Tabin constructed murine leukemia virus, [12] the first recombinant retrovirus that could be used as a eukaryotic vector. [10]

Career

Following his PhD, Tabin did postdoctoral research with Douglas A. Melton at Harvard University, then moved to Massachusetts General Hospital where he worked on the molecular biology of limb development. He was appointed to the faculty in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School in 1989, and promoted to full professor in 1997 and chairman of the department in January 2007. [13] [14]

Research

As of 2014 Tabin's research [15] [16] [17] investigates the genetic regulation of vertebrate development, [18] [19] [20] combining classical methods of experimental embryology with modern molecular and genetic techniques for regulating gene expression during embryogenesis. [21] [22] [23]

Previously Tabin has worked on retroviruses, homeobox genes, oncogenes, developmental biology and evolution. Early in his research he investigated limb regeneration in the salamander, and described the expression of retinoic acid receptor and Hox genes in the blastema. Comparative studies by Ann Burke [24] [25] in his lab showed that differences in boundaries of Hox gene expression correlated with differences in skeletal morphology. [6] [26] [27] [28] The Tabin laboratory adjoins the laboratory of Connie Cepko. [29]

Awards and honors

Tabin was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2014. His nomination reads:

Tabin has made fundamental discoveries on embryonic development and evolution. A critical turning point in the history of developmental biology was the identification of the first known secreted morphogen, Sonic hedgehog. He clarified how morphogens like Shh orchestrate formation of the embryo, elucidating why the heart is located on the left and not the right side of the body and explaining why the thumb is different from the little finger. This provided critical insight into the origins of human congenital malformations. He has also solved important evolutionary riddles including the causes of variations in beak shape in Darwin's finches. [2]

Tabin has also been awarded the Edwin Conklin Medal in 2012, [3] the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology jointly with Philip A. Beachy in 2008 [4] and the NAS Award in Molecular Biology in 1999. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 [5] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000. He was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.

Personal life

Tabin is the son of Julius Tabin, [9] [10] [30] a nuclear physicist who worked with Enrico Fermi on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico during World War II. He has a brother, Geoff Tabin, and two children. Tabin appears as himself in a BBC Horizon programme titled Hopeful Monsters. [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeobox</span> DNA pattern affecting anatomy development

A homeobox is a DNA sequence, around 180 base pairs long, that regulates large-scale anatomical features in the early stages of embryonic development. Mutations in a homeobox may change large-scale anatomical features of the full-grown organism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonic hedgehog protein</span> Signaling molecule in animals

Sonic hedgehog protein(SHH) is encoded for by the SHH gene. The protein is named after the character Sonic the Hedgehog.

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.

Robert Allan Weinberg is a biologist, Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), director of the Ludwig Center of the MIT, and American Cancer Society Research Professor. His research is in the area of oncogenes and the genetic basis of human cancer.

The Hedgehog signaling pathway is a signaling pathway that transmits information to embryonic cells required for proper cell differentiation. Different parts of the embryo have different concentrations of hedgehog signaling proteins. The pathway also has roles in the adult. Diseases associated with the malfunction of this pathway include cancer.

<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.

The limb bud is a structure formed early in vertebrate limb development. As a result of interactions between the ectoderm and underlying mesoderm, formation occurs roughly around the fourth week of development. In the development of the human embryo the upper limb bud appears in the third week and the lower limb bud appears four days later.

Philip Arden Beachy is Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California and an Associate at Stanford's Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HOXA9</span> Protein-coding gene in humans

Homeobox protein Hox-A9 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HOXA9 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HOXD10</span> Protein-coding gene in humans

Homeobox D10, also known as HOXD10, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the HOXD10 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HOXD13</span> Protein

Homeobox protein Hox-D13 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HOXD13 gene. This gene belongs to the homeobox family of genes. The homeobox genes encode a highly conserved family of transcription factors that play an important role in morphogenesis in all multicellular organisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HOXD11</span> Protein-coding gene in humans

Homeobox protein Hox-D11 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HOXD11 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HOXD12</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Homeobox protein Hox-D12 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HOXD12 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep homology</span> Control of growth and differentiation by deeply conserved genetic mechanisms

In evolutionary developmental biology, the concept of deep homology is used to describe cases where growth and differentiation processes are governed by genetic mechanisms that are homologous and deeply conserved across a wide range of species.

Cheryll Anne Tickle is a distinguished British scientist, known for her work in developmental biology and specifically for her research into the process by which vertebrate limbs develop ab ovo. She is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zone of polarizing activity</span>

The zone of polarizing activity (ZPA) is an area of mesenchyme that contains signals which instruct the developing limb bud to form along the anterior/posterior axis. Limb bud is undifferentiated mesenchyme enclosed by an ectoderm covering. Eventually, the limb bud develops into bones, tendons, muscles and joints. Limb bud development relies not only on the ZPA, but also many different genes, signals, and a unique region of ectoderm called the apical ectodermal ridge (AER). Research by Saunders and Gasseling in 1948 identified the AER and its subsequent involvement in proximal distal outgrowth. Twenty years later, the same group did transplantation studies in chick limb bud and identified the ZPA. It wasn't until 1993 that Todt and Fallon showed that the AER and ZPA are dependent on each other.

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

Cytonemes are thin, cellular projections that are specialized for exchange of signaling proteins between cells. Cytonemes emanate from cells that make signaling proteins, extending directly to cells that receive signaling proteins. Cytonemes also extend directly from cells that receive signaling proteins to cells that make them.

Philip William Ingham FRS, FMedSci, Hon. FRCP is a British geneticist, currently the Toh Kian Chui Distinguished Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, a partnership between Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Imperial College, London. Previously, he was the inaugural Director of the Living Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, UK and prior to that was Vice Dean, Research at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hox genes in amphibians and reptiles</span>

Hox genes play a massive role in some amphibians and reptiles in their ability to regenerate lost limbs, especially HoxA and HoxD genes.

Robb Krumlauf is an American developmental biologist. He is best known for researching the Hox family of transcription factors. He is most interested in understanding the role of the Hox genes in the hindbrain and their role in areas of animal development, such as craniofacial development. Krumlauf worked with a variety of renowned scientists in the field of developmental biology throughout his time researching Hox genes.

References

  1. ↑ Riddle, R. D.; Johnson, R. L.; Laufer, E.; Tabin, C. (1993). "Sonic hedgehog mediates the polarizing activity of the ZPA". Cell. 75 (7): 1401–16. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(93)90626-2. PMID   8269518. S2CID   4973500.
  2. 1 2 "Professor Clifford Tabin ForMemRS". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Clifford Tabin Awarded Conklin Medal, Society for Developmental Biology
  4. 1 2 Anon (2008). "An Interview With... Cliff Tabin". Nature Reviews Genetics. 9 (6): 420. doi:10.1038/nrg2863. PMID   18504824. S2CID   45619315.
  5. 1 2 "Clifford J. Tabin, Harvard University". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on October 14, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Patrick Goymer (April 2006). "Milestone 17: (1979) First human oncogene: An important difference". Nature Reviews Cancer. Nature. 6: S18. doi:10.1038/nrc1859.
  7. ↑ Marigo, V.; Davey, R. A.; Zuo, Y.; Cunningham, J. M.; Tabin, C. J. (1996). "Biochemical evidence that Patched is the Hedgehog receptor". Nature. 384 (6605): 176–9. Bibcode:1996Natur.384..176M. doi:10.1038/384176a0. PMID   8906794. S2CID   4325188.
  8. ↑ Cliff Tabin Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine , Harvard Medical School
  9. 1 2 3 Mossman, K. (2009). "Profile of Clifford Tabin". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (21): 8407–8409. Bibcode:2009PNAS..106.8407M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0903946106 . PMC   2688980 . PMID   19458049.
  10. 1 2 3 Tabin, C (2009). "Molecular tools, classic questions - an interview with Clifford Tabin. Interviewed by Richardson, Michael K". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 53 (5–6): 725–31. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.072575mr . PMID   19557679.
  11. ↑ Tabin, Clifford James (1984). Activation of the c-Ha-ras Oncogene (PhD thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. OCLC   13089293.
  12. ↑ Goff, S. P.; Tabin, C. J.; Wang, J. Y.; Weinberg, R; Baltimore, D (1982). "Transfection of fibroblasts by cloned Abelson murine leukemia virus DNA and recovery of transmissible virus by recombination with helper virus". Journal of Virology. 41 (1): 271–85. doi:10.1128/JVI.41.1.271-285.1982. PMC   256749 . PMID   6283119.
  13. ↑ Cliff Tabin molbio seminar, Princeton University
  14. ↑ Harfe, B. D.; McManus, M. T.; Mansfield, J. H.; Hornstein, E.; Tabin, C. J. (2005). "The RNaseIII enzyme Dicer is required for morphogenesis but not patterning of the vertebrate limb". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (31): 10898–903. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10210898H. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0504834102 . PMC   1182454 . PMID   16040801.
  15. ↑ Clifford Tabin's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  16. ↑ Clifford Tabin publications indexed by Microsoft Academic
  17. ↑ Clifford Tabin publications, Google Scholar
  18. ↑ Parada, L. F.; Tabin, C. J.; Shih, C.; Weinberg, R. A. (1982). "Human EJ bladder carcinoma oncogene is homologue of Harvey sarcoma virus ras gene". Nature. 297 (5866): 474–8. Bibcode:1982Natur.297..474P. doi:10.1038/297474a0. PMID   6283357. S2CID   4338225.
  19. ↑ Marigo, V.; Davey, R. A.; Zuo, Y.; Cunningham, J. M.; Tabin, C. J. (1996). "Biochemical evidence that Patched is the Hedgehog receptor". Nature. 384 (6605): 176–9. Bibcode:1996Natur.384..176M. doi:10.1038/384176a0. PMID   8906794. S2CID   4325188.
  20. ↑ McMahon, A. P.; Ingham, P. W.; Tabin, C. J. (2003). "1 Developmental roles and clinical significance of Hedgehog signaling". Current Topics in Developmental Biology. 53: 1–114. doi:10.1016/S0070-2153(03)53002-2. ISBN   9780121531539. PMID   12509125.
  21. ↑ Tabin, C. J. (1991). "Retinoids, homeoboxes, and growth factors: Toward molecular models for limb development". Cell. 66 (2): 199–217. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(91)90612-3. PMID   1677315. S2CID   5269260.
  22. ↑ Johnson, R. L.; Tabin, C. J. (1997). "Molecular models for vertebrate limb development". Cell. 90 (6): 979–90. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(00)80364-5 . PMID   9323126. S2CID   16213729.
  23. ↑ Vortkamp, A.; Lee, K.; Lanske, B.; Segre, G. V.; Kronenberg, H. M.; Tabin, C. J. (1996). "Regulation of Rate of Cartilage Differentiation by Indian Hedgehog and PTH-Related Protein". Science. 273 (5275): 613–22. Bibcode:1996Sci...273..613V. doi:10.1126/science.273.5275.613. PMID   8662546. S2CID   27737023.
  24. ↑ Burke, A. C.; Nelson, C. E.; Morgan, B. A.; Tabin, C (1995). "Hox genes and the evolution of vertebrate axial morphology". Development. 121 (2): 333–46. doi:10.1242/dev.121.2.333. PMID   7768176.
  25. ↑ Burke, A. C.; Tabin, C. J. (1996). "Virally mediated misexpression of Hoxc-6 in the cervical mesoderm results in spinal nerve truncations". Developmental Biology. 178 (1): 192–7. doi: 10.1006/dbio.1996.0210 . PMID   8812121.
  26. ↑ Morgan, B. A.; Tabin, C. J. (1993). "The role of homeobox genes in limb development". Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 3 (4): 668–74. doi:10.1016/0959-437x(93)90105-x. PMID   7902151.
  27. ↑ Tabin, C. J. (2006). "The Key to Left-Right Asymmetry". Cell. 127 (1): 27–32. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2006.09.018 . PMID   17018270. S2CID   1775936.
  28. ↑ Logan, M; Pagán-Westphal, S. M.; Smith, D. M.; Paganessi, L; Tabin, C. J. (1998). "The transcription factor Pitx2 mediates situs-specific morphogenesis in response to left-right asymmetric signals". Cell. 94 (3): 307–17. doi: 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81474-9 . PMID   9708733. S2CID   14375165.
  29. ↑ Profile of Constance L. Cepko, Ph.D, BioTechniques Vol. 36, No. 5, 2004-05-05, p. 737
  30. ↑ Julius Tabin Obituary (1919-2012) Physicist helped develop atom bomb, Chicago Tribune, 2012-09-02
  31. ↑ Clifford Tabin at IMDb
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