Scott D. Emr (born February 8, 1954) is an American cell biologist and the founding and current Director of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology at Cornell University, where he is also a

Frank H.T. Rhodes Frank Harold Trevor Rhodes (October 29, 1926 – February 3, 2020) was the ninth president of Cornell University from 1977 to 1995. Biography Rhodes was born in Warwickshire, England, on October 29, 1926, the son of Gladys (Ford) and Harold ...

Class of 1956 Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.

Early life and education

Emr was born in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. and grew up in Fort Lee, New Jersey. His father was a manager of a manufacturing company, and he has 1 sister and 2 brothers. The 1960s documentary '' The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau'' prompted him to pick a university with a strong

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

program, starting in 1972 at the University of Rhode Island as a biology major. He became interested in genetics during his undergraduate years. He started his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 1976 at the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard University, working under Thomas Silhavy and Jonathan Beckwith and graduating in 1981.

Career

Emr began his career at the University of California, Berkeley as a Miller Institute Fellow and a postdoctoral researcher at Randy Schekman's group. He moved to the California Institute of Technology in 1983, becoming an assistant, and later

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

, at the Division of Biology.

George Emil Palade George Emil Palade (; November 19, 1912 – October 7, 2008) was a Romanian cell biologist. Described as "the most influential cell biologist ever",

recruited Emr to the University of California, San Diego in 1991, where he stayed as a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and, at the same time, an investigator at the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

. He left for Cornell University in 2007 when he was appointed as the founding director of the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology (later renamed to Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology after a donation from Joan and

Sanford I. Weill Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill (; born March 16, 1933) is an American banker, financier and philanthropist. He is a former chief executive and chairman of Citigroup. He served in those positions from 1998 until October 1, 2003, and April 18, 2006, re ...

) and a

Class of 1956 Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. Academically, Emr serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including (as of 2021) mBio, Journal of Cell Biology,

Trends in Cell Biology ''Trends in Cell Biology'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal by Elsevier BV. Abstracting and indexing ''Trends in Cell Biology'' is abstracted and indexed the following bibliographic databases: *Science Citation Index Expanded ...

, and Current Opinion in Cell Biology.

Research

Emr's research focuses on the regulation of

membrane vesicle trafficking Membrane vesicle trafficking in eukaryotic animal cells involves movement of biochemical signal molecules from synthesis-and-packaging locations in the Golgi body to specific release locations on the inside of the plasma membrane of the secretory c ...

pathways. His lab's study of the ESCRT (Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport) complexes earned him a

Shaw Prize The Shaw Prize is an annual award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours "individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and signifi ...

in Life Science and Medicine. ESCRTs are required for the degradation of membrane protein at the lysosome, a late step in cytokinesis, and the budding and release of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). His other research interests include

lipid signaling Lipid signaling, broadly defined, refers to any biological signaling event involving a lipid messenger that binds a protein target, such as a receptor, kinase or phosphatase, which in turn mediate the effects of these lipids on specific cellular r ...

(especially a group of lipids known as phosphatidylinositol phosphates), protein transport in cells by

vesicles Vesicle may refer to: ; In cellular biology or chemistry * Vesicle (biology and chemistry), a supramolecular assembly of lipid molecules, like a cell membrane * Synaptic vesicle ; In human embryology * Vesicle (embryology), bulge-like features o ...

and the role of arrestin and ubiquitylation in the degradation of membrane proteins.

Honors and awards

* Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology (1998) * Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(1999) * Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004) *

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, 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 Nati ...

(2007) * Avanti Award in Lipids, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2007) * Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (2008) * van Deenen Medal, Institute of Biomembranes, Utrecht University (2014) *

Keith R. Porter Lecture This lecture, named in memory of Keith R. Porter, is presented to an eminent cell biologist each year at the ASCB Annual Meeting. The ASCB Program Committee and the ASCB President recommend the Porter Lecturer to the Porter Endowment each year ...

, American Society for Cell Biology (2017) * Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology (2017) *

in Life Science and Medicine (2021)

Personal life

Emr met his wife Michelle in his junior, or third, year at university. She was also in her third year, majoring in music and

early education Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is up to the equival ...

. They married 3 years later when Emr was pursuing his

. As of 2021, their daughter Bryanna is a pediatric surgeon in Pittsburgh, and their son Kevin is an anesthesiologist in Albany, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emr, Scott D. 1954 births 21st-century American biologists Cornell University faculty University of Rhode Island alumni Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, San Diego faculty California Institute of Technology faculty Living people Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Fellows of the American Society for Cell Biology