EMBOÂ today announced Sophie Martin of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, as the winner of the 2014 EMBO Gold Medal. The award acknowledges her work to understand the molecular events that define the organization and development of the cell.
Martin has been working for the past 15 years to understand cellular polarity, in particular the way in which the spatial organization of cells contributes to cell size and cell division. In the last 11 years, she has been using fission yeast, which grow as single, rod-shaped cells, as a model system for her investigations.
In 2009, Martin discovered that a protein kinase called Pom1, which forms concentration gradients that originate from each end of the cell, regulates progression through the cell cycle. Martin proposed a model for how Pom1 gradients provide spatial information that prevents fission yeast cells from dividing until they reach a sufficient length.1 This work renewed interest in the mechanisms of regulation of cell size.
Earlier work by Martin and colleagues identified a protein present on the growing ends of microtubules – the tube-like structures critical for shaping cells – and showed that this protein binds to an actin nucleation factor. Her work revealed a potential mechanism by which microtubules direct where the actin cytoskeleton promotes cell growth. 2
“From early in her career, Sophie has demonstrated exceptional and consistent scientific achievement in molecular and cell biology,†said EMBO Member Daniel St Johnston, who supervised Martin when she was a PhD student studying cell polarization in Drosophila at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge, England. “She has also demonstrated a remarkable talent that includes a proven ability to change research fields and work on different model organisms while maintaining leadership roles in each of her chosen scientific areas.â€