Tim Mitchison Explained

Tim Mitchison
Birth Name:Timothy John Mitchison
Birth Date:[1]
Birth Place:Edinburgh
Fields:Systems biology
Workplaces:Harvard Medical School
National Institute for Medical Research
Marine Biological Laboratory[2]
Education:Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School
Alma Mater:University of Oxford (BA)
University of California, San Francisco (PhD)
Thesis Title:Structure and Dynamics of Organized Microtubule Arrays
Thesis Url:https://search.proquest.com/docview/303337748
Thesis Year:1984
Doctoral Advisor:Marc Kirschner[3] [4]
Notable Students:Tony Hyman
Julie Theriot
Jason Swedlow
Inke Nathke
Katharina Ribbeck
Awards:Haldane Lecture (2002)
Keith R. Porter Lecture (2013)
Spouse:Christine M. Field[5]

Timothy John Mitchison is a cell biologist and systems biologist and Hasib Sabbagh Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School in the United States.[6] [7] [8] He is known for his discovery, with Marc Kirschner, of dynamic instability in microtubules,[9] [10] for studies of the mechanism of cell division, and for contributions to chemical biology.[11]

Education and early life

Mitchison was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford where he was an undergraduate student of Merton College, Oxford, from 1976 to 1979. He moved to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1979 for his PhD which was supervised by Marc Kirschner[12] and investigated the dynamic instability of microtubules.[12] [13]

Career and research

Mitchison returned to the UK for postdoctoral research at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in London. In 1988 he returned to San Francisco where he was appointed assistant professor at UCSF. In 1994 he wrote an opinion piece for the journal Chemistry & Biology titled "Towards a pharmacological genetics" which helped to launch the field of chemical genetics. In 1997 he moved to Harvard University to become co-director of the Institute for Chemistry and Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, where he pioneered phenotype-based screening,[14] discovering the small molecule monastrol – the first small-molecule inhibitor of mitosis that does not target tubulin. Monastrol was shown to inhibit kinesin-5, a motor protein. In 2003 he became Deputy Chair of the newly formed Department of Systems Biology, chaired by Marc Kirschner.[15] [16] He works on aspects of mesoscale biology[17] including the self-organization of the cytoskeleton[18] [19] and of cytoplasm.[20] [21] He collaborates extensively with Christine Field on the mechanism of cytokinesis.[22] [23] [24]

Awards and honors

Mitchison was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1997 for “substantial contributions to the improvement of natural knowledge”[25] and served as president of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) in 2010.[26] He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 2014[27] and delivered the Keith R. Porter Lecture in 2013.

Personal life

Mitchison is married to scientist Christine M. Field with whom he has two children. Mitchison comes from a family of distinguished biologists; his father is Avrion Mitchison,[6] his uncles are Denis Mitchison and Murdoch Mitchison,[6] his great uncle was J.B.S. Haldane[6] and his great-grandfather John Scott Haldane. His grandparents were the politician Dick Mitchison[28] and the writer Naomi Mitchison (née Haldane). His younger sister Hannah M. Mitchison is also a biologist.[29]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Profile . ascb.org .
  2. Web site: Tim Mitchison (Harvard) Part 1: Self-organization of microtubule assemblies. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/AsPYlJEWMdo . 2021-12-13 . live. YouTube.
  3. Web site: Cell Biology Tree - Timothy J. Mitchison. academictree.org.
  4. Mitchison. T. J.. A question of taste. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 24. 21. 2013. 3278–3280. 1059-1524. 10.1091/mbc.e13-07-0410. 24174461 . 3814136 .
  5. Web site: Timothy Mitchison. 2003-11-01. Harvard Magazine. 2019-02-09.
  6. Wells . William. Tim Mitchison: Dynamic productivity. Current Biology. 7. 11. R666–R667. 1997. 9382812. 10.1016/S0960-9822(06)00346-0. free.
  7. Web site: Timothy Mitchison. November 2003.
  8. Ishihara. K.. Nguyen. P. A.. Wuhr. M.. Groen. A. C.. Field. C. M.. Mitchison. T. J.. Organization of early frog embryos by chemical waves emanating from centrosomes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 369. 1650. 2014. 20130454. 0962-8436. 10.1098/rstb.2013.0454. 25047608 . 4113098.
  9. Web site: Great Experiments: Dynamic Instability of Microtubules - Marc Kirschner and Tim Mitchison. Lewin. Ben. 2007. 9 February 2019. 17 October 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131017121343/http://bioscience.jbpub.com/cells/EXP93.aspx. dead.
  10. Web site: Milestone 14 : Nature Milestones in Cytoskeleton. Nature. 2019-02-09.
  11. Mitchison. T. J.. 1994. Towards a pharmacological genetics. Chemistry & Biology. 1. 1. 3–6. 1074-5521. 9383364. 10.1016/1074-5521(94)90034-5.
  12. Timothy John. Mitchison. 1984. PhD. University of California, San Francisco. Structure and Dynamics of Organized Microtubule Arrays. 1020493513. .
  13. Mitchison. Tim. Kirschner. Marc. Dynamic instability of microtubule growth. Nature. 6504138. 312. 5991. 1984. 237–242. 0028-0836. 10.1038/312237a0. 1984Natur.312..237M. 30079133.
  14. Mayer. T. U.. Kapoor. T. M.. Haggarty. S. J.. King. R. W.. Schreiber. S. L.. Mitchison. T. J.. 1999-10-29. Small molecule inhibitor of mitotic spindle bipolarity identified in a phenotype-based screen. Science. 286. 5441. 971–974. 0036-8075. 10542155. 10.1126/science.286.5441.971.
  15. Web site: HMS launches new department to study systems biology. 2003-09-25. Harvard Gazette. 2019-02-09.
  16. Check. Erika. 2003-10-02. Harvard heralds fresh take on systems biology. Nature. 425. 6957. 439. 10.1038/425439a. 14523408. 1476-4687. 2003Natur.425..439C. free.
  17. Sear. Richard P.. Pagonabarraga. Ignacio. Flaus. Andrew. 2015-02-25. Life at the mesoscale: the self-organised cytoplasm and nucleoplasm. BMC Biophysics. 8. 1. 4. 10.1186/s13628-015-0018-6. 2046-1682. 4374369. 25815164 . free .
  18. Mitchison. T. J.. 1992-04-29. Self-organization of polymer-motor systems in the cytoskeleton. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 336. 1276. 99–106. 10.1098/rstb.1992.0049. 0962-8436. 1351302. 1992RSPTB.336...99M.
  19. Ishihara. Keisuke. Nguyen. Phuong A.. Wühr. Martin. Groen. Aaron C.. Field. Christine M.. Mitchison. Timothy J.. 2014-09-05. Organization of early frog embryos by chemical waves emanating from centrosomes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 369. 1650. 20130454. 10.1098/rstb.2013.0454. 1471-2970. 4113098. 25047608.
  20. Mitchison. Timothy J.. 2010-11-15. Remaining mysteries of the cytoplasm. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 21. 22. 3811–3812. 10.1091/mbc.E10-02-0084. 1939-4586. 2982103. 21079024.
  21. Boke. Elvan. Ruer. Martine. Wühr. Martin. Coughlin. Margaret. Lemaitre. Regis. Gygi. Steven P.. Alberti. Simon. Drechsel. David. Hyman. Anthony A.. Mitchison. Timothy J.. 2016-07-28. Amyloid-like Self-Assembly of a Cellular Compartment. Cell. 166. 3. 637–650. 10.1016/j.cell.2016.06.051. 1097-4172. 5082712. 27471966.
  22. Eggert. Ulrike S.. Mitchison. Timothy J.. Field. Christine M.. 2006. Animal Cytokinesis: From Parts List to Mechanisms. Annual Review of Biochemistry. 75. 1. 543–566. 10.1146/annurev.biochem.74.082803.133425. 16756502.
  23. Eggert. Ulrike S.. Kiger. Amy A.. Richter. Constance. Perlman. Zachary E.. Perrimon. Norbert. Mitchison. Timothy J.. Field. Christine M.. 2004. Parallel chemical genetic and genome-wide RNAi screens identify cytokinesis inhibitors and targets. PLOS Biology. 2. 12. e379. 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020379. 1545-7885. 528723. 15547975 . free .
  24. Nguyen. Phuong A.. Groen. Aaron C.. Loose. Martin. Ishihara. Keisuke. Wühr. Martin. Field. Christine M.. Mitchison. Timothy J.. 2014-10-10. Spatial organization of cytokinesis signaling reconstituted in a cell-free system. Science. 346. 6206. 244–247. 10.1126/science.1256773. 1095-9203. 4281018. 25301629. 2014Sci...346..244N.
  25. Web site: Professor Timothy Mitchison FRS. royalsociety. Royal Society. London. Anon. 1997. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
  26. Web site: ASCB Presidents. ASCB. 2019-02-09.
  27. Web site: Timothy Mitchison. nasonline.org.
  28. Web site: Obituary: Naomi Mitchison. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-naomi-mitchison-1046691.html . 7 May 2022 . subscription . live. 1999-01-13. The Independent. 2019-02-09.
  29. Gene mutation identified in PCD, rare disease. Nature Middle East. 10.1038/nmiddleeast.2018.62. 2018. Elmeshad. Sarah. 90633419 .

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