Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Cell biologist Sandra L. Schmid has compared some of her skills to that of a watchmaker. “I like to take things apart, put them back together, and understand exactly how they work,” she explained in an essay commemorating the American Society for Cell Biology’s 50th anniversary (1). For much of the past 40 years, she has uncovered the molecular mechanisms and regulation of clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME), the major pathway for uptake of materials into cells. Her laboratory pioneered studies of the large protein dynamin, revealing its role in CME and linking certain of its functions to cancer. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, Schmid led a rigorous analysis of endocytic accessory proteins, resulting in a new model for the complex CME process reported in her Inaugural Article (2). The article is Schmid’s last from her own laboratory, which she is closing at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to focus on her new position as the first Chief Scientific Officer at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (CZ Biohub) in San Francisco.
Sandra L. Schmid. Image credit: David Gresham (UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX).
Decision to Become a Scientist
Schmid was born in Vancouver, Canada. Her father was a high school teacher who coauthored the textbooks she used in science classes in grades 8 to 10. She says, “By the third grade, I knew I wanted to be a scientist.” Her mother was also an important influence. While raising Schmid and her three siblings, her mother served as a respected community leader who led a nonprofit cooperative housing organization that placed thousands of low-income and middle-income families into safe homes.
Schmid’s decision to focus on cell biology was made while she was a student at the University of British Columbia and during a class taught by biologist Beverly Green. “She revealed the …
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