David G. Drubin

David G. Drubin is a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology; Affiliate of the Davision of Genetics, Genomics, and Development at the University of California, Berkeley; and the Editor in Chief of Molecular Biology of the Cell. Over the course of the past 26 years, Drubin has researched the role of cytoskeleton and regulatory proteins and elucidated how they determine cell shape, motility, division, and endocytic traffic. His work united the disparate fields of cytoskeletal architecture with physiological dynamics and protein structure. Drubin uses advanced imaging techniques to study how cells divide, take up nutrients, and secrete signals. His recent live-cell imaging studies dramatically changed our understanding of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in mammalian cells. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) enables cells to take up nutrients and regulate the composition of cell-surface lipids and proteins, which in turn controls how the cell responds to environmental signals, differentiates, and grows. CME is the primary route for endocytosis, and alterations of the CME process are implicated in the pathogenesis of some cancers and atherosclerosis, as well as how viruses and harmful bacteria infect cells. The Drubin lab continues to integrate real-time imaging of live cells, genome-wide functional analyses, genetics, molecular genetics, and biochemistry to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of membrane trafficking events. Their current research focuses on two areas: (1) membrane trafficking and the cytoskeleton, and (2) actin assembly. Drubin is Editor of the journal Molecular Biology of the Cell, and a member of the editorial board of Trends of Cell Biology. He was elected Co-Chair and Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on the Plant and Fungal Cytoskeleton in 1995 and 1998, respectively, and was Chair of the Program Committee for the 1999 meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology. He served as Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Cytokinetics, Inc. His publications appear in prominent journals such as Cell and Nature Cell Biology.