Anthony Arie Hyman (born 27 May 1962) FRS MAE is a British scientist[2][3] and director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Anthony Hyman
Born
Anthony Arie Hyman

(1962-05-27) 27 May 1962 (age 62)[1]
Haifa, Israel[1]
NationalityBritish
EducationWilliam Ellis School
Alma mater
SpouseSuzanne Eaton
Children2
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular Cell Biology
Institutions
ThesisEstablishment of division axes in the early embryonic divisions of Caenorhabditis Elegans (1987)
Websitehymanlab.org Edit this at Wikidata

Early life and education

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Hyman was born in 1962, the eldest of three children of R. Anthony Hyman, a historian of computing, and Hon. Laura Alice Boyd, daughter of the 6th Baron Kilmarnock.[10] He was educated at William Ellis School and St Marylebone Grammar School, University College London and the University of Cambridge,[1] where he was awarded a PhD in 1987.[11]

Career and research

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Hyman has focused his career on examining microtubules and how these structures of the cytoskeleton control: cell division, mitotic spindle position, and cell polarity. Hyman's research has identified how microtubules are made into cellular structures and how they are broken down.

While at King's College, Cambridge, Hyman worked under the supervision of John White and was a key researcher in Sydney Brenner's Caenorhabditis elegans group. Using microscopy and microsurgery, he examined the placement of cell axes during early cell division of C.elegans embryos. Hyman presented new findings about mechanisms of rotation by cutting microtubules with a laser beam. Hyman demonstrated that pulling forces acting from the posterior cortex on microtubules drives spindle rotation.[12]

At the University of California, San Francisco, Hyman investigated the interaction between chromosomes and microtubules that create the mitotic forces that separate chromosomes in the lab of Tim Mitchison. He also created a number of tools that are used today:

While at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Hyman along with Rebecca Heald and Eric Karsenti combined their work to create an impact on the current understanding of how the meiotic spindle self assembles.[17] Hyman created his first independent group at EMBL that discovered that the important factors in Xenopus egg extracts were the stabilizing protein, XMAP215 and the destabilizing protein, XKCM1.[18]

In 1999, Hyman became one of the four founding directors of Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics[19] and was the Managing Director for the institute from 2010–2013. During his tenure at the MPI-CBG, Hyman and his lab members have focused on:

  • Cytoplasmic organization and how cells form non-membrane bound compartments
  • Size and scaling of the spindle, centrosomes, and other organelles
  • Spatial control of the microtubule cytoskeleton
  • Positioning of the spindle

Hyman has worked on creating parts lists for cell division among human cells as part of the EU funded projects Mitocheck[20] and MitoSys.[21]

Hyman is currently[when?] studying the mechanisms by which cells compartmentalize their biochemistry. Of his many contributions to the field of molecular biology, he is best known for two discoveries in particular: In 2000, his team pioneered the use of RNA interference to define the "parts lists" for different cytoplasmic processes. And in 2009, he, together with Cliff Brangwynne and Frank Julicher, made a fundamental breakthrough by being the first to observe that compartments in cells can form by phase separation. Aberrant phase transitions within liquid-like compartments may underlie amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative and age-related diseases. Hyman's current work focuses on the physical-chemical basis by which intrinsically disordered proteins phase separate. Using this knowledge, he is studying the roles of phase separation in physiology and disease.[22]

Hyman served as a member of the Strategic Advisory Board on Science at the Wellcome Trust.[23]

Awards and honours

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Anthony Hyman is honorary professor at the Faculty of Biology at TU Dresden. In 2011, Hyman was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, Germany's most prestigious research award, for his work on microtubules and cell division.[24] Hyman was elected a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2000 and was awarded its Gold Medal in 2003.[25] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2007.[26] The Academia Europaea elected Hyman as a member in 2014 [27] and in 2017, he received the Schleiden Medal from the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[28] In 2020, he was given the NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Award by the NOMIS Foundation.[22] Hyman was elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences in April 2020.[29] In February 2021, Hyman was awarded the 2021 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences for his work on biomolecular condensates.[30][31] He received the 2021 HFSP Nakasone Award[32] together with Clifford Brangwynne and he was elected a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2021.[33] In 2022, Hyman received the Körber European Science Prize 2022.[34] For 2023 he was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for discovering a fundamental mechanism of cellular organization mediated by phase separation of proteins and RNA into membraneless liquid droplets.[35]

Personal life

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Hyman was married to American scientist Suzanne Eaton (1959–2019); the couple had two children.[36]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Anon (2015). "Hyman, Prof. Anthony Arie". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U250063. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Anthony A. Hyman publications indexed by Google Scholar  
  3. ^ Anthony A. Hyman publications from Europe PubMed Central
  4. ^ Hyman, A (2007). "Anthony Hyman: From unlikely scientist to Royal Society Fellow. Interview by Ruth Williams". The Journal of Cell Biology. 179 (7): 1330–1. doi:10.1083/jcb.1797pi. PMC 2373514. PMID 18166646.
  5. ^ Hyman, A. A. (2011). "Whither systems biology". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 366 (1584): 3635–3637. doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0074. PMC 3203457. PMID 22084389.
  6. ^ Gönczy, P; Echeverri, C; Oegema, K; Coulson, A; Jones, S. J.; Copley, R. R.; Duperon, J; Oegema, J; Brehm, M; Cassin, E; Hannak, E; Kirkham, M; Pichler, S; Flohrs, K; Goessen, A; Leidel, S; Alleaume, A. M.; Martin, C; Ozlü, N; Bork, P; Hyman, A. A. (2000). "Functional genomic analysis of cell division in C. Elegans using RNAi of genes on chromosome III". Nature. 408 (6810): 331–6. Bibcode:2000Natur.408..331G. doi:10.1038/35042526. PMID 11099034. S2CID 4364278.
  7. ^ Anthony Hyman's seminars: "Organization of Cytoplasm"
  8. ^ Anthony Hyman's Brief Overview: "Visualizing Plus-end Growth"
  9. ^ Video on Anthony A. Hyman's research (Latest Thinking)
  10. ^ Morris, Susan (2019). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. eBook Partnership. p. 2547. ISBN 9781999767051.
  11. ^ Hyman, Anthony Arie (1987). Establishment of division axes in the early embryonic divisions of Caenorhabditis elegans. cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 556497640. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.256630.
  12. ^ Hyman, A. A.; White, J. G. (1987). "Determination of cell division axes in the early embryogenesis of Caenorhabditis elegans". The Journal of Cell Biology. 105 (5): 2123–2135. doi:10.1083/jcb.105.5.2123. PMC 2114830. PMID 3680373.
  13. ^ Hyman, A. A.; Salser, S; Drechsel, D. N.; Unwin, N; Mitchison, T. J. (1992). "Role of GTP hydrolysis in microtubule dynamics: Information from a slowly hydrolyzable analogue, GMPCPP". Molecular Biology of the Cell. 3 (10): 1155–67. doi:10.1091/mbc.3.10.1155. PMC 275679. PMID 1421572.
  14. ^ Hyman, A; Drechsel, D; Kellogg, D; Salser, S; Sawin, K; Steffen, P; Wordeman, L; Mitchison, T (1991). Preparation of modified tubulins. Methods in Enzymology. Vol. 196. pp. 478–85. doi:10.1016/0076-6879(91)96041-o. ISBN 978-0-12-182097-8. PMID 2034137..
  15. ^ Hyman, A. A. (1991). "Preparation of marked microtubules for the assay of the polarity of microtubule-based motors by fluorescence". Journal of Cell Science. Supplement. 14: 125–7. doi:10.1242/jcs.1991.supplement_14.25. PMID 1832165.
  16. ^ Hyman, A. A.; Mitchison, T. J. (1991). "Two different microtubule-based motor activities with opposite polarities in kinetochores". Nature. 351 (6323): 206–11. Bibcode:1991Natur.351..206H. doi:10.1038/351206a0. PMID 2041567. S2CID 4335093.
  17. ^ Heald, R; Tournebize, R; Blank, T; Sandaltzopoulos, R; Becker, P; Hyman, A; Karsenti, E (1996). "Self-organization of microtubules into bipolar spindles around artificial chromosomes in Xenopus egg extracts". Nature. 382 (6590): 420–5. Bibcode:1996Natur.382..420H. doi:10.1038/382420a0. PMID 8684481. S2CID 4238425.
  18. ^ Tournebize, R; Popov, A; Kinoshita, K; Ashford, A. J.; Rybina, S; Pozniakovsky, A; Mayer, T. U.; Walczak, C. E.; Karsenti, E; Hyman, A. A. (2000). "Control of microtubule dynamics by the antagonistic activities of XMAP215 and XKCM1 in Xenopus egg extracts" (PDF). Nature Cell Biology. 2 (1): 13–9. doi:10.1038/71330. PMID 10620801. S2CID 10732643.
  19. ^ "Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics". Retrieved 11 December 2010.
  20. ^ "MitoCheck Consortium". Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  21. ^ "MitoSys Consortium". Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  22. ^ a b "Anthony Hyman – The NOMIS Foundation". nomisfoundation.ch. 13 April 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  23. ^ "Science Strategy Advisory Group". Wellcome. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  24. ^ "DFG Leibniz Prize Winner: Prof. Dr. Anthony A. Hyman". Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  25. ^ "EMBO Gold Medalists – Recipients – EMBO". 20 August 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  26. ^ Hyman, T. (2011). "Tony Hyman". Current Biology. 21 (7): R240–R242. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.02.010. PMID 21618732. S2CID 10703763.
  27. ^ "New members of Academia Europaea 2014". Academia Europaea. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  28. ^ "Press Release". Leopoldina. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  29. ^ "2020 NAS Election". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  30. ^ "Biomedical Sciences | Prize". www.wiley.com. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  31. ^ "Dewpoint Co-Founder Anthony Hyman Wins Prestigious Wiley Prize". Odessa American. Associated Press. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  32. ^ "HFSP Nakasone Awardees". Human Frontier Science Program.
  33. ^ "List of members". Leopoldina. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  34. ^ "Portrait Anthony Hyman". Körberstiftung. Retrieved 5 September 2022.}
  35. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Winners Of The 2023 Breakthrough Prizes In Life Sciences, Mathematics And Fundamental Physics Announced". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  36. ^ ASCB Profile: Tony Hyman. In: ASCB-Newsletter, November 2012, S. 41 (online).


Wellcome Trust,