Realizing Caulobacter would be an Ideal Organism

A defining moment for me, of course, was to find the simplest system that would be a cell differentiation. And in my reading, I came upon work by Jeanne Poindexter and Jean Schmidt, who were students with Roger Stanier. And Roger Stanier had observed early on that Caulobacter would be an ideal organism to look at cell differentiation. And I agreed. So, I got my first cultivars and I had to learn how to grow it in minimal media. I had to figure out what on the cell I could use as a marker. I needed antibody to the flagellum. I needed antibodies to parts of the stalk. I needed to lay out all my tools that would allow me to interrogate this little creature. But what was missing and which I knew was essential was genetics. And I became friends with a wonderful geneticist called Bert Ely and, he was then at Johns Hopkins, and Bert and his students and, with us as well, established genetics in Caulobacter. And that was the critical defining moment. We could actually do genetics. And all my work at Cold Spring Harbor was finally bearing fruit. So that was a defining moment.

Recognizing the Importance of Interdisciplinary Work

Then it was clear to me, this is now the second defining moment, that you had to not just do genetics, you had to not just do biochemistry, but you had to become interdisciplinary and you had to use every tool possible to interrogate the system. And this is what we did.

Lucy Shapiro (b. 1940, New York City) is a developmental biologist and Professor Emeritus of Developmental Biology at Stanford University where she has been a faculty member since 1989. She held the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Chair in Cancer Research and served as director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. Dr. Shapiro’s lab has focused on studying Caulobacter crescentus, one of the simplest organisms that divides asymmetrically into different cell types, to uncover fundamental principles of developmental biology.

Dr. Shapiro received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Fine Arts from Brooklyn College in 1962, and her Ph.D. In Molecular Biology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1966. In 1986, Shapiro moved to the Columbia University School of Medicine as the first female chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Two years later, in 1989, Shapiro moved to Stanford University and founded the Department of Developmental Biology.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Shapiro became involved in policy work. She was invited to the White House to speak to President Bill Clinton and his Cabinet about the potential threats to the public posed by the increase in antibiotic resistance, emerging infectious diseases, and the possibility of bioterrorism. She then went on to serve as a scientific advisor to the Clinton administration and advisor on bioterrorism to the secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, and to the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice during the George W. Bush administration.

In addition to her research, Dr. Shapiro co-founded the anti-infectives discovery company Anacor Pharmaceuticals to develop new types of antibiotics and antifungals. This has resulted in the production of two FDA approved drugs; Kerydin, a treatment for toenail fungus and Crisaborole, to treat atopic dermatitis. Anacor Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Pfizer in May 2016. She also co-founded Boragen, an agricultural innovation company that merged with AgriMetis to form 5Metis, Inc, where she serves on the board. She also serves on the board of directors at GlaxoSmithKline and Pacific BioSciences, Inc.

Dr. Shapiro has received numerous awards including the National Medal of Science awarded by President Barack Obama, the Linus Pauling Medal, Dickson Prize in Science, Canada Gairdner International Award, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Excellence in Science Award, the Selman Waksman Award, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Abbott Lifetime Achievement Award, the John Scott Award, and the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize.