Carole LaBonne
Alma materUniversity of Rochester
Harvard University
Scientific career
FieldsDevelopmental and Stem Cell Biology
InstitutionsCalifornia Institute of Technology
Northwestern University
Websitehttps://sites.northwestern.edu/labonnelab/

Carole LaBonne is a Developmental and Stem Cell Biologist at Northwestern University. She is the Erastus O. Haven Professor of Life Sciences, and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences.

Education and early career

LaBonne received her bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester,[1] doing research with Sayeeda Zain on the molecular basis of Alzheimer's disease.[2] Inspired by the work of famed embryologist and Rochester emeritus professor Johannes Holtfreter, LaBonne pursued doctoral work at Harvard University studying germ layer formation using Xenopus as a model. As a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral Fellow working with Malcolm Whitman, LaBonne characterized the role of FGF signaling in formation of the mesendoderm. During her doctoral study, LaBonne discovered that activin-mediated mesoderm induction required FGF signaling[3] and elucidated the role of RAS-Map Kinase signaling in this process.[4][5]

Following her graduate work, LaBonne pursued post-doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology as an American Cancer Society Fellow working with Marianne Bronner on the molecular mechanisms underlying the early development of neural crest cells. She showed that formation of neural crest cells, a stem cell population unique to vertebrates, required both attenuation of endogenous BMP signaling and active Wnt signaling, and further showed that up regulation of the zinc-finger transcriptional repressor SNAI2 could bypass the need for BMP inhibition.[6] In subsequent work she demonstrated that Snail-family proteins are required for both establishing the neural crest stem cell state and for the migratory and invasive behavior of neural crest cells,[6] a role these factors also play in metastasizing tumor cells.[7]

Research and career

LaBonne started her independent laboratory at Northwestern University in 2001 in the department of Molecular Biosciences (formerly Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology).[8] She became a tenured associate professor in 2007, and a full professor in 2012. She was appointed the Erastus O. Haven Professor of Life Sciences in 2017.[9] LaBonne has served as co-leader of the Tumor Environment and Metastasis Program in Northwestern's Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2005.[8] She served as director of Northwestern's Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences PhD program from 2009 to 2017. She currently serves as co-director of the NCI funded Oncogenesis and Developmental Biology Training Program, and as Director of Northwestern's training cluster in Developmental, Systems and Stem Cell Biology. She was appointed Chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences in 2017.[10] LaBonne has served as the co-director of the Embryology course at the Marine Biological Laboratory since 2020.[11]

Research in the LaBonne laboratory was the first to link Myc to the acquisition of stem cell attributes, and demonstrated that Myc plays a central role in neural crest ontogeny,[12] several years prior to the initial report of the Yamanaka factors. This work proposed that Myc plays this key role in many stem cell populations, and more recent work by others has shown this to be the case. LaBonne's group subsequently demonstrated that Id3 was a key Myc target in maintaining neural crest potency. The growing realization of the commonalities between pluripotent blastula inner cell mass cells/embryonic stem cells and neural crest cells led LaBonne's group to proposed a new model in which neural crest cells arose via retention of the regulatory network controlling pluripotency in blastula cells and showed that neural crest cells possess a previously unrecognized capacity to form endoderm. This pioneering work created a new framework for studying these developmentally and clinically important cells.[13][14][15] The LaBonne lab also demonstrated a role for FGF signaling in the retention of pluripotency underling neural crest genesis, and discovered that a novel switching of effector pathways, from Map Kinase to PI3 Kinase, controls the transit from pluripotency to lineage restriction.[16] Recent work in the LaBonne lab has focused on the epigenetic control of pluripotency in naïve blastula cells, including a central role for HDAC activity in both maintaining blastula pluripotency and establishment of the neural crest stem cell population.[17]

Awards and honors

  • Erastus O. Haven Endowed Chair, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (2017)
  • Chair, Gordon Research Conference on the Neural Crest and Cranial Placodes (2015)[18]
  • Ann McClaren Memorial Award, International Society for Differentiation (2014)
  • Steering Committee, National Xenopus Resource (NXR) (2011–present)
  • Award for Distinguished Teaching, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (2014)[19]
  • Science Policy Committee, FASEB (Federation American Societies for Experimental Biology) (2013–present)
  • Board of Directors, FASEB (2009–2013)[8]
  • Board of Directors, Society for Developmental Biology (2008–2014)[8]
  • Neurogenesis and Cell Fate Study Section (NCF), NIH (2012–2018)
  • General Motors Cancer Research Scholar (2004)[8]
  • American Cancer Society Scholar Award (2004)
  • March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Award (2001)[8]

References

  1. ↑ Truong, Teresa; Lindell, Rebecca. "Molecular Bioscientist Carole LaBonne Named Co-Director of Esteemed Embryology Program". weinberg.northwestern.edu. Northwestern University. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  2. ↑ Marotta, C. A.; Chou, W. G.; Majocha, R. E.; Watkins, R.; LaBonne, C.; Zain, S. B. (1989-01-01). "Overexpression of amyloid precursor protein A4 (beta-amyloid) immunoreactivity in genetically transformed cells: implications for a cellular model of Alzheimer amyloidosis". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 86 (1): 337–341. Bibcode:1989PNAS...86..337M. doi:10.1073/pnas.86.1.337. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 286459. PMID 2563163.
  3. ↑ Labonne, C.; Whitman, M. (1994-05-01). "Mesoderm induction by activin requires FGF-mediated intracellular signals". Trends in Genetics. 10 (5): 150. doi:10.1016/0168-9525(94)90085-x. ISSN 0168-9525.
  4. ↑ "Role of MAP kinase in mesoderm induction and axial patterning during Xenopus development". Trends in Genetics. 12 (1): 14. 1996-01-01. doi:10.1016/0168-9525(96)81381-3. ISSN 0168-9525. S2CID 9310795.
  5. ↑ LaBonne, C.; Whitman, M. (1997-03-01). "Localization of MAP Kinase Activity in EarlyXenopusEmbryos: Implications for Endogenous FGF Signaling". Developmental Biology. 183 (1): 9–20. doi:10.1006/dbio.1996.8497. ISSN 0012-1606. PMID 9119118.
  6. 1 2 LaBonne, C.; Bronner-Fraser, M. (2000-05-01). "Snail-Related Transcriptional Repressors Are Required in Xenopus for both the Induction of the Neural Crest and Its Subsequent Migration". Developmental Biology. 221 (1): 195–205. doi:10.1006/dbio.2000.9609. ISSN 0012-1606. PMID 10772801.
  7. ↑ Palmer, Chris. "Carole LaBonne: Neural Crest Cells and the Rise of the Vertebrates | Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences". Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Carole LaBonne Named to FASEB Board of Directors: Northwestern University News". www.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  9. ↑ "Ten faculty members appointed to named professorships". news.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  10. ↑ says, Abduljalal Ado (2018-08-09). "The people behind the papers - Anjali Rao & Carole LaBonne". the Node. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  11. ↑ "Molecular bioscientist Carole LaBonne named co-director of esteemed embryology program: Weinberg College - Northwestern University". weinberg.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  12. ↑ Bellmeyer, Amy; Krase, Jessica; Lindgren, Julie; LaBonne, Carole (2003-06-01). "The Protooncogene c-Myc Is an Essential Regulator of Neural Crest Formation in Xenopus". Developmental Cell. 4 (6): 827–839. doi:10.1016/s1534-5807(03)00160-6. ISSN 1534-5807. PMID 12791268.
  13. ↑ Buitrago-Delgado, E.; Nordin, K.; Rao, A.; Geary, L.; LaBonne, C. (2015-04-30). "Shared regulatory programs suggest retention of blastula-stage potential in neural crest cells". Science. 348 (6241): 1332–1335. Bibcode:2015Sci...348.1332B. doi:10.1126/science.aaa3655. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 4652794. PMID 25931449.
  14. ↑ "New origin theory for cells that gave rise to vertebrates". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  15. ↑ "New Origin Theory for Cells That Gave Rise to Vertebrates". news.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  16. ↑ Geary, Lauren; LaBonne, Carole (2018-01-19). "FGF mediated MAPK and PI3K/Akt Signals make distinct contributions to pluripotency and the establishment of Neural Crest". eLife. 7. doi:10.7554/eLife.33845. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 5790379. PMID 29350613.
  17. ↑ Rao, Anjali; LaBonne, Carole (2018-08-08). "Histone deacetylase activity has an essential role in establishing and maintaining the vertebrate neural crest". Development. 145 (15): dev163386. doi:10.1242/dev.163386. ISSN 1477-9129. PMC 6110147. PMID 30002130.
  18. ↑ "2015 Neural Crest and Cranial Placodes Conference GRC". www.grc.org. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
  19. ↑ "Past Teaching Award Recipients: Weinberg College - Northwestern University". www.weinberg.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-02.
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