James A. Spudich () is an American scientist and professor. He is the Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of Biochemistry and of Cardiovascular Disease at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and works on the molecular basis of muscle contraction. He was awarded the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2012 with Michael Sheetz and Ronald Vale. He is a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

and a Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

Biography

He was born in Benld,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

of Croatian ancestry. He earned his B.S. in chemistry from

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, where he worked in John Woodland Hastings's lab on the topic of

bioluminescence Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorgani ...

, and helped Hastings teach in the physiology course at the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

Woods Hole Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwestern corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 78 ...

. He earned his Ph.D. in

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

from Stanford University under the guidance from

Arthur Kornberg Arthur Kornberg (March 3, 1918 – October 26, 2007) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959 for the discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic a ...

. He later did his

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

at Stanford University with

Charles Yanofsky Charles Yanofsky (April 17, 1925 – March 16, 2018) was an American geneticist on the faculty of Stanford University who contributed to the establishment of the one gene-one enzyme hypothesis and discovered attenuation, a riboswitch mechanis ...

and at MRC in the

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

with

Hugh Huxley Hugh Esmor Huxley (25 February 1924 – 25 July 2013) was a British molecular biologist who made important discoveries in the physiology of muscle. He was a graduate in physics from Christ's College, Cambridge. However, his education was inter ...

. His research is focused on studying

molecular motors Molecular motors are natural (biological) or artificial molecular machines that are the essential agents of movement in living organisms. In general terms, a motor is a device that consumes energy in one form and converts it into motion or mech ...

particularly

myosin Myosins () are a Protein family, family of motor proteins (though most often protein complexes) best known for their roles in muscle contraction and in a wide range of other motility processes in eukaryotes. They are adenosine triphosphate, ATP- ...

. With Huxley, he started working on an actin/myosin/ ATP model for molecular motors, proposing that myosin would ratchet

actin Actin is a family of globular multi-functional proteins that form microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and the thin filaments in muscle fibrils. It is found in essentially all eukaryotic cells, where it may be present at a concentration of ...

and exert a stroke. Spudich first attempted to create an

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning ''in glass'', or ''in the glass'') Research, studies are performed with Cell (biology), cells or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in ...

setup with actin and myosin. However, he faced great difficulty aligning actin filaments. In 1982 he and Michael Sheetz started to work on the alga

Nitella ''Nitella'' is a genus of charophyte green algae in the family Characeae. Species The species in the genus include: *'' Nitella abyssinica'' A. Braun * '' Nitella acuminata'' A. Braun ex Wallman *'' Nitella aemula'' A. Braun * '' Nitella ann ...

, which has long oriented actin fibers, and observed myosin coated beads moving along

filaments. This provided strong clues about the molecular transport of intracellular cargo, later refined to observing a single step of a single myosin molecule. His research and its place in the overall development of the motility field has been described in a number of well-cited review articles. He started at

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life ...

and then came to Stanford as a professor of

Structural biology Structural biology deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every level of organization. Early structural biologists throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries we ...

in 1977. In 1992 he switched to the Department of

Biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

. In the late 1990s, he joined with Stanford physicist

Steven Chu Steven ChuStanford University Bio-X Initiative Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and physically locates investigators from these distinct disciples together for extended periods. They pitched the concept to Stanford Provost

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...

. From 1994–1998 he was the editor of the ''

Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology The ''Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Annual Reviews since 1985. It releases an annual volume of review articles relevant to the fields of cell biology and developmental biology. ...

''. In 1998 Spudich co-founded Cytokinetics Inc. in San Francisco, along with Ron Vale and James Sabry from

and Larry Goldstein from

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing ...

. Spudich also co-founded MyoKardia in 2012 which was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020 for $13.1 billion. In 2019, James Spudich, Annamma Spudich, Darshan Trivedi, Suman Nag and Kathleen Ruppel co-founded Kainomyx Inc. which is focused on treating neglected tropical diseases. He was the president of the

American Society for Cell Biology The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a professional society that was founded in 1960. Spudich's long-time recreational hobby is flying small planes.

Awards

Massry Prize The Massry Prize was established in 1996, and is administered by the Meira and Shaul G. Massry Foundation. The Prize, of $40,000 and the Massry Lectureship, is bestowed upon scientists who have made substantial recent contributions in the biomedi ...

2013 *

Lasker Award In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...

2012 * Wiley Prize 2012 * E. B. Wilson Medal 2011 *

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Research Award (), also known informally as the Humboldt Prize, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of ...

1991

References

External links

Stanford Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spudich, James 1942 births Living people American biochemists American biophysicists Stanford University School of Medicine faculty Year of birth missing (living people) People from Macoupin County, Illinois University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Stanford University alumni American people of Croatian descent Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Massry Prize recipients American cell biologists