Elizabeth Gavis

Elizabeth Gavis is an American biologist who is the Damon B. Pfeiffer Professor of Life Sciences, at Princeton University. Gavis served as the President of the North American Drosophila Board of Directors in 2011.

Elizabeth Gavis
Alma materStanford University
Yale University
Scientific career
InstitutionsPrinceton University
Whitehead Institute
ThesisCharacterization of the U̲l̲t̲r̲a̲b̲i̲t̲h̲o̲r̲a̲x̲ proteins of D̲r̲o̲s̲o̲p̲h̲i̲l̲a̲ M̲e̲l̲a̲n̲o̲g̲a̲s̲t̲e̲r̲ (1991)

Early life and education

Gavis was an undergraduate student at Yale University, where she majored in biology and graduated summa cum laude.[1] She spent her summer holidays as a summer fellow in the Carnegie Institution for Science, working in the department of embryology, and the Johns Hopkins University.[1] Gavis completed her thesis research in the laboratory of Joseph G. Gall. She moved to the Stanford University School of Medicine for her graduate research, where she earned an MD–PhD in 1990. She was based in the research group of David Hogness. During her doctoral studies Gavis worked on the Bithorax complex.[2] She became increasingly interested in genetics, and particularly developmental gene regulation.[1]

Research and career

Gavis joined the laboratory of Ruth Lehmann at the Whitehead Institute.[1] She was appointed to the faculty at Princeton University in 1994, where she would be promoted to Professor in 2008 and the Damon B. Pfeiffer Endowed Professor in 2016. Gavis spent a year on sabbatical at the University of Cambridge, where she worked with Andrea Brand.

Gavis makes use of Drosophila as a model organism to study Messenger RNA (mRNA) localisation, translation, stability and degradation.[3] She has used single molecule imaging to identify how various mRNAs localise to the back of a developing Drosophila egg.[4][5] She showed that these mRNAs pack into highly ordered germ granules,[6] which are segregated into germ cell progenitors and their development.[7]

She investigated the hnRNP F/H RNA binding protein Glorund and demonstrated it uses a novel mode of interaction to both bind and repress the RNAS. This mode of interaction may regulate their splicing.[8]

Academic service

Gavis has held various positions in the Genetics Society of America, including serving as the President of the Drosophila Board of Directors. In this capacity she established the Victoria Finnerty Undergraduate Travel Award, which looked to support undergraduate students to attend the Annual Drosophila Conference. She is also involved with science communication activities with the general public.[9]

Selected publications
  • S. L. McKnight; E. R. Gavis; R. Kingsbury; R. Axel (1 August 1981). "Analysis of transcriptional regulatory signals of the HSV thymidine kinase gene: Identification of an upstream control region". Cell. 25 (2): 385–398. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(81)90057-X. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 6269744. Wikidata Q48408790.
  • E. R. Gavis; R. Lehmann (1 October 1992). "Localization of nanos RNA controls embryonic polarity". Cell. 71 (2): 301–313. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(92)90358-J. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 1423595. Wikidata Q50789762.
  • Kevin M Forrest; Elizabeth R Gavis (1 July 2003). "Live imaging of endogenous RNA reveals a diffusion and entrapment mechanism for nanos mRNA localization in Drosophila". Current Biology. 13 (14): 1159–1168. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00451-2. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 12867026. Wikidata Q48824977.

References
  1. "Elizabeth R. Gavis". scholar.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  2. Gavis, Elizabeth Rose (1990). Characterization of the U̲l̲t̲r̲a̲b̲i̲t̲h̲o̲r̲a̲x̲ proteins of D̲r̲o̲s̲o̲p̲h̲i̲l̲a̲ M̲e̲l̲a̲n̲o̲g̲a̲s̲t̲e̲r̲ (Thesis). OCLC 245507417.
  3. "Research". scholar.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  4. Little, Shawn C.; Sinsimer, Kristina S.; Lee, Jack J.; Wieschaus, Eric F.; Gavis, Elizabeth R. (May 2015). "Independent and coordinate trafficking of single Drosophila germ plasm mRNAs". Nature Cell Biology. 17 (5): 558–568. doi:10.1038/ncb3143. ISSN 1476-4679. PMC 4417036. PMID 25848747.
  5. Eagle, Whitby V. I.; Yeboah-Kordieh, Daniel K.; Niepielko, Matthew G.; Gavis, Elizabeth R. (2018-11-22). "Distinct cis-acting elements mediate targeting and clustering of Drosophila polar granule mRNAs". Development. 145 (dev164657): dev164657. doi:10.1242/dev.164657. ISSN 0950-1991. PMC 6262787. PMID 30333216.
  6. Niepielko, Matthew G.; Eagle, Whitby V. I.; Gavis, Elizabeth R. (2018-06-18). "Stochastic Seeding Coupled with mRNA Self-Recruitment Generates Heterogeneous Drosophila Germ Granules". Current Biology. 28 (12): 1872–1881.e3. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.037. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 6008217. PMID 29861136.
  7. Lerit, Dorothy A.; Gavis, Elizabeth R. (2011-03-22). "Transport of Germ Plasm on Astral Microtubules Directs Germ Cell Development in Drosophila". Current Biology. 21 (6): 439–448. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.01.073. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 3062663. PMID 21376599.
  8. Tamayo, Joel V.; Teramoto, Takamasa; Chatterjee, Seema; Hall, Traci M. Tanaka; Gavis, Elizabeth R. (2017-04-04). "The Drosophila hnRNP F/H Homolog Glorund Uses Two Distinct RNA-Binding Modes to Diversify Target Recognition". Cell Reports. 19 (1): 150–161. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2017.03.022. ISSN 2211-1247. PMC 5392723. PMID 28380354.
  9. "2020 Election Candidate Statements". Genetics Society of America. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
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