Inke Näthke is a German-British cell biologist. She is Professor of Epithelial Biology at the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, Interim Dean and Associate Dean for Professional Culture at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee in Scotland. She is known for her work on the role of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) protein in colorectal cancer.

Inke Näthke
Born1961
NationalityGerman-British
EducationSan Jose State University
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Dundee
Doctoral advisorFrances Brodsky
Other academic advisorsWilliam J. Nelson (Stanford), Tim Mitchison

Early life and education

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Näthke grew up in the northern German town of Itzehoe. She first came to the US as an au pair.[1] After spending a year in San Jose, California, she realized that the educational system in the US would allow her to learn about multiple topics, instead of focusing on a single discipline. Finding this attractive, she enrolled at San Jose State University, initially as a pre-med student but then switching to biochemistry.[1] After a year at a small biotechnology company, she attended graduate school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she studied the structure of clathrin in the laboratory of Frances Brodsky.[2] She then moved to Stanford for postdoctoral training in the laboratory of William J. Nelson. In her postdoctoral work she established a link between the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor and cell movement mediated by the cytoskeleton.[3] She then performed a short second postdoc in the laboratory of Tim Mitchison.

Career

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In 1998 Näthke was recruited to the University of Dundee as a lecturer in the Cell and Evolutionary Biology Department.[4][5] A core hypothesis in her work is that the APC protein is involved in cell motility and cell division through its effects on microtubules.[6][7] She discovered that loss of APC leads directly to chromosome instability and polyploidy by affecting the spindle checkpoint. In work on mouse and human gut stem cells, she found that these cells normally divide with their mitotic spindle in a particular orientation.[8] This orientation is lost in precancerous colon that is deficient in APC function.[8][9] Näthke has exploited this change in tissue organization to develop a new way to monitor very early changes that may lead to cancer, using microultrasound.[10] She developed a system for using the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum to study the effects of the APC on cell migration.[11] She has commented that since APC is an adaptor protein with "its fingers in many pies in the cell", loss of APC has many effects that push cells closer to becoming cancerous.[12]

She is co-editor of a book on APC Proteins.[13]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Inke Näthke | LIBRA". www.eu-libra.eu. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
  2. ^ Näthke, I. S.; Heuser, J.; Lupas, A.; Stock, J.; Turck, C. W.; Brodsky, F. M. (1992-03-06). "Folding and trimerization of clathrin subunits at the triskelion hub". Cell. 68 (5): 899–910. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(92)90033-9. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 1547490. S2CID 29611549.
  3. ^ Näthke, I. S.; Adams, C. L.; Polakis, P.; Sellin, J. H.; Nelson, W. J. (1996). "The adenomatous polyposis coli tumor suppressor protein localizes to plasma membrane sites involved in active cell migration". The Journal of Cell Biology. 134 (1): 165–179. doi:10.1083/jcb.134.1.165. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 2120913. PMID 8698812.
  4. ^ "Inke Nathke" (PDF). American Society for Cell Biology Newsletter. 27 (11). November 2004.
  5. ^ "More than Money". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  6. ^ Penman, George A.; Leung, Louie; Näthke, Inke S. (2005-10-15). "The adenomatous polyposis coli protein (APC) exists in two distinct soluble complexes with different functions". Journal of Cell Science. 118 (Pt 20): 4741–4750. doi:10.1242/jcs.02589. ISSN 0021-9533. PMID 16188939.
  7. ^ Dikovskaya, Dina; Li, Zhuoyu; Newton, Ian P.; Davidson, Iain; Hutchins, James R. A.; Kalab, Petr; Clarke, Paul R.; Näthke, Inke S. (2010-03-01). "Microtubule assembly by the Apc protein is regulated by importin-beta--RanGTP" (PDF). Journal of Cell Science. 123 (Pt 5): 736–746. doi:10.1242/jcs.060806. ISSN 1477-9137. PMID 20144988. S2CID 25478188.
  8. ^ a b "Differences in the way stem cells divide provide clues about bowel cancer". Cancer Research UK. 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  9. ^ Arney, Kat (2010). "Bowel Cancer Cells Forget Which Way is Up". Cell Stem Cell. 6 (2): 175–81. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2009.12.007. PMID 20144789. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  10. ^ Fatehullah, A.; Sharma, S.; Newton, I. P.; Langlands, A. J.; Lay, H.; Nelson, S. A.; McMahon, R. K.; McIlvenny, N.; Appleton, P. L. (2016). "Increased variability in Apc Min /+ intestinal tissue can be measured with microultrasound". Scientific Reports. 6 (1): 29570. Bibcode:2016NatSR...629570F. doi:10.1038/srep29570. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 4942766. PMID 27406832.
  11. ^ "Scientists follow slime trail to trace cancer's progression". Cancer Research UK. 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  12. ^ Sedwick, Caitlin (2010-05-31). "Inke Näthke: The ABCs of APC". The Journal of Cell Biology. 189 (5): 774–775. doi:10.1083/jcb.1895pi. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 2878947. PMID 20513763.
  13. ^ APC proteins. Näthke, Inke S. (Inke Swedlow), McCartney, Brooke M. (Brooke Marie). New York, N.Y.: Springer Science+Business Media. 2009. ISBN 9781441911452. OCLC 663882322.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ^ Thomas, James (2022-03-22). "Academic and artistic minds honoured as RSE Fellows". Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
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