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The Hayashi Lectureship
6/26/06 - 4:00 PM - Lillie Auditorium
“Mechanics of Chromosome Movement”
Dr. J. Richard McIntosh, University of Colorado, Boulder
Dr. J. Richard McIntosh is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received an A.B. in Physics (1961) and a Ph.D. in Biophysics (1968) from Harvard University. He has worked in the Department of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado since 1970. Dr. McIntosh served briefly as department chair and has been the director of The Boulder Laboratory for 3-D Electron Microscopy of Cells for about 20 years. In 1994 he served as President of the American Society for Cell Biology and was appointed a Research Professor of the American Cancer Society. In 1999 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. McIntosh’s research has gone from electron microscopy to light microscopy of living cells, including efforts to chart microtubule dynamics in vivo by photobleaching. He has developed several systems for the study of mitosis-like motions in vitro and has made several efforts to identify proteins associated with mitotic microtubules, ending up with a focus on motor enzymes.
Some years ago Dr. McIntosh elected to work on fission yeast as a way to couple genetics with microscopy of living and fixed cells. Work from his and other labs have shown that kinetochore-associated motor enzymes are dispensable for chromosome motion in both fission and budding yeast, rekindling his interest in microtubule dynamics as a source of energy for chromosome movement. He and his colleagues are now in hand-to-hand combat with shrinking microtubules, using laser tweezers to manipulate and measure the forces they can develop. Their goal is to couple this approach with a study of chromosome-microtubule interactions, using the mutants available in fission yeast to learn about the mechanical functions of specific kinetochore proteins.
About the Hayashi Lectureship
The Tay Hayashi Lectureship in Cell Physiology was established to pay tribute to a scientist who holds a special place in the hearts and minds of his friends, colleagues, and students.
Teru Hayashi, known by all with affection as “Tay,” needs little introduction here at the MBL. As research mentor, professor, and chairman at Columbia University and the Illinois Institute of Technology, Tay had a profound influence on his field and on budding researchers for more than 50 years. His work on actin remains fundamental to current research, and includes the first quantitative demonstration of the contribution of actin to myosin-based tension development in vitro, and the discovery of “barbed end” actin assembly.
Tay first conducted summer research at the MBL as a graduate student in 1938. He later joined the world-renowned MBL muscle motility group, ultimately playing a vital role in the Laboratory’s institutional growth and development. Moreover, as noted by a dear friend, “his tremendous contributions to tennis, poker, naughty songs, and fishing are legendary.” In short, Tay was the embodiment of the spirit of the Woods Hole community, and of the scientific achievement and intellectual freedom synonymous with the MBL. Today we celebrate and remember that lifelong achievement, precious freedom, and indomitable spirit with the third Tay Hayashi Lecture in Cell Physiology.
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