Skip to Main Content
Biological & Biomedical Sciences
Yale Home

INFORMATION FOR

Thomas Pollard, MD

DownloadHi-Res Photo
Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Titles

Director Programs in Physics Engineering and Biology, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Professor of Cell Biology and of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry

About

Titles

Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Director Programs in Physics Engineering and Biology, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Professor of Cell Biology and of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry

Biography

A graduate of Pomona College, Dr. Thomas D. Pollard, earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He taught at Harvard Medical School 1972-78 and joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as the Bayard Halsted Professor and founding director of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy in 1977. At Johns Hopkins, was the founding director of a graduate program in cellular and molecular medicine and was honored with teaching awards seven times.

He joined the Salk Institute as President in 1996. He has also served as adjunct professor at the University of California at San Diego until he moved to Yale University in 2001. He has had a long affiliation with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Pollard was president of both the American Society for Cell Biology and the Biophysical Society, and on behalf of these organizations he was active politically in support of funding for biomedical research.

He chaired the Commission on Life Sciences at the National Research Council 1993-98. Honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, the Rosensteil Medical Research Award from Brandeis University with James Spudich of Stanford University (1996), the Howard T. Ricketts Award from the University of Chicago (2000), the E.B. Wilson Medal from the American Society for Cell Biology (2004) and the Gairdner International Award in Biomedical Sciences (2006).

His other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MERIT Award from the National Institute of General Medical Science, a Public Service Award from the Biophysical Society and a Winston Churchill Overseas Fellowship from Churchill College in Cambridge, England. Pollard has authored or coauthored more than 400 scientific papers and scholarly articles on his work.

Education & Training

Intern
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (1969)
MD
Harvard Medical School (1968)
BA
Pomona College (1964)

Research

Overview

We use biochemical, biophysical, cellular, and genetic experiments to study the molecular mechanisms of actin-based cellular movements.

Actin-based movements: We study how cells control the assembly and disassembly of actinfilaments during cellular movements. We have projects on the structure and function of actin, Arp2/3 complex, activators of Arp2/3 complex (such as the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein, WASp), profilin, ADF/cofilin and capping protein. We use fluorescence microscopy of proteins tagged with fluorescent fusion proteins to follow the time course of the interactions of these proteins during endocytosis in fission yeast.


Cytokinesis: We study the mechanism of cytokinesis using the fission yeast S. pombe as a favorable model organism to learn how cells pinch themselves in two when they divide. We investigate the early steps in the assembly of the cytokinetic contractile ring, so we study the structures and functions of the proteins that organize the precursors of the contractile ring, including anillin, myosin-II, a formin, an IQGAP and an F-BAR protein. Anillin and IQGAPs appear to be adapter proteins that form a scaffold for the other proteins. Formins grow actin filaments while remaining attached to the end of the elongating polymer. Myosin-II pulls together the precurors of the contractile ring and later constricts the contractile ring to pinch the daughter cells in two.

We use computer simulations of mathematical models to compare our ideas regarding mechanisms with observations in live cells.
Actin dynamics

  1. Effect of profilin on actin filament assembly
  2. Actin filament severing by cofilin
  3. Mechanism of actin filament nucleation by Arp2/3 complex
  4. Structural studies of nucleation promoting factors binding Arp2/3 complex
  5. Assembly and disassembly of actin patches at sites of endocytosis
  6. Role of F-BAR proteins in clathrin-mediated endocytosis


Cytokinesis

  1. Pathway of assembly of the contractile ring in fission yeast
  2. Role of anillin in organizing the contractile ring
  3. Role of IQGAP in organizing the contractile ring
  4. Role of F-BAR proteins in organizing the contractile ring
  5. Mechanism of actin filament nucleation and elongation by formins
  6. Mechanism of constriction and disassembly of the contractile ring

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Cell Biology; Cytokinesis; Molecular Biology; Myosins

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Thomas Pollard's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

2021

2019

2018

2017

See All Publications

Academic Achievements and Community Involvement

  • honor

    Gairdner International Award in Biomedical Sciences

    International AwardGairdner Foundation
  • honor

    E.B. Wilson Medal

    National AwardAmerican Society for Cell Biology
  • honor

    Member, Institute of Medicine

    National AwardInstitute of Medicine
  • honor

    Public Service Award

    National AwardBiophysical Society
  • honor

    Rosenstiel Award

    National AwardBrandeis University
See All Achievements

Get In Touch

Contacts

Email
Academic Office Number
Lab Number
Office Fax Number