Laureate Lecture Series

Susan Ferro-Novick, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular medicine, University of California, San Diego, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, will be the next speaker in the 2013 Laureate Lecture Series, a yearlong program highlighting some of the top biomedical researchers in their fields. Dr. Ferro-Novick’s lecture, “Coats, Tethers, Rabs, and SNAREs Work Together to Mediate the Specificity of Vesicle Traffic,” will take place at noon on Thursday, September 26, in Lecture Room 6, Scaife Hall.

Dr. Ferro-Novick began studying vesicle traffic as a graduate student in the laboratory of Randy Schekman, PhD, at the University of California, Berkeley. Vesicles are intracellular sacs of membrane that contain cargo bound for specific destinations in the cell. They bud from a donor membrane and fuse with an acceptor membrane to release their contents. Her laboratory’s current objective is to understand how the directionality and specificity of vesicle traffic between the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi is achieved.

Dr. Ferro-Novick is credited with the identification of a protein complex called transport protein particle 1 (TRAPPI) that is needed for trafficking vesicles between the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi in yeast. Previously, scientists hypothesized that arm-like proteins called SNAREs targeted appropriate acceptor compartments, thus enabling the movement of cargo within vesicle sacs from one site to another. Dr. Ferro-Novick discovered that the subunit of a unique coat protein binds to TRAPPI and recruits cargo into vesicles before the coat is polymerized, thus labeling a vesicle by its contents. Vesicles then dock to Golgi membranes by interacting with TRAPPI.

Dr. Ferro-Novick earned her undergraduate degree in biology from New York University. She completed her PhD in genetics at Berkeley in 1982. After postdoctoral research on protein translocation in the laboratory of Jon Beckwith, PhD, at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Ferro-Novick joined the faculty of Yale School of Medicine in 1985.

Dr. Ferro-Novick has been an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1994. In 2008, she was appointed professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

		Susan Ferro-Novick, PhD Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine University of California, San Diego Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Coats, Tethers, Rabs, and Snares Work Together To Mediate the Specificity of Vesicle Traffic Thursday, September 26, 12 Noon Scaife Hall, Lecture Room 6 Susan Ferro-Novick, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular medicine, University of California, San Diego, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, will be the next speaker in the 2013 Laureate Lecture Series, a yearlong program highlighting some of the top biomedical researchers in their fields. Dr. Ferro-Novick’s lecture, “Coats, Tethers, Rabs, and SNAREs Work Together to Mediate the Specificity of Vesicle Traffic,” will take place at noon on Thursday, September 26, in Lecture Room 6, Scaife Hall. Dr. Ferro-Novick began studying vesicle traffic as a graduate student in the laboratory of Randy Schekman, PhD, at the University of California, Berkeley. Vesicles are intracellular sacs of membrane that contain cargo bound for specific destinations in the cell. They bud from a donor membrane and fuse with an acceptor membrane to release their contents. Her laboratory’s current objective is to understand how the directionality and specificity of vesicle traffic between the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi is achieved. Dr. Ferro-Novick is credited with the identification of a protein complex called transport protein particle 1 (TRAPPI) that is needed for trafficking vesicles between the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi in yeast. Previously, scientists hypothesized that arm-like proteins called SNAREs targeted appropriate acceptor compartments, thus enabling the movement of cargo within vesicle sacs from one site to another. Dr. Ferro-Novick discovered that the subunit of a unique coat protein binds to TRAPPI and recruits cargo into vesicles before the coat is polymerized, thus labeling a vesicle by its contents. Vesicles then dock to Golgi membranes by interacting with TRAPPI. Dr. Ferro-Novick earned her undergraduate degree in biology from New York University. She completed her PhD in genetics at Berkeley in 1982. After postdoctoral research on protein translocation in the laboratory of Jon Beckwith, PhD, at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Ferro-Novick joined the faculty of Yale School of Medicine in 1985. Dr. Ferro-Novick has been an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1994. In 2008, she was appointed professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.