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Farewell to the cell biology giant: in memory of Alan Hall

I was so shocked to hear the sudden death of Dr. Alan Hall, the chair of Cell Biology Program of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and a truly great scientist. It was such an unexpected heart attack that left everyone in a great sorrow this week. Alan is such a fantastic scientist that has made tremendous contribution to the field of cell biology, cytoskeleton( bone structure of a cell) in particular. He is also a kind and inspiring mentor in our mind... The institute had a rather short memorial this Thursday and we will be having a more formal one later when his family get back from UK (his hometown). 


Even to people outside the cytoskeleton field, the contribution that Dr. Hall has made is so important that it provides basis of many of the discoveries that were made in the past 20 years. The cytoskeleton, as the supporting structure of cells, functions to maintain the shape and motion of cells. As such dynamic structure, the mechanisms of it has always been intriguing.

Back in the 1990s, the lab of Dr. Hall's pioneered in discovering the role of a family of small, energy-consuming proteins in mediating different cytoskeletons. The so-called Rho family proteins, including Rho, Rac and Cdc42, can respond to extracellular stimulus and mediate direct specific cytoskeleton structure to fulfill correlated cell actions (cell protrusion, membrane ruffles, etc). The findings not only layout the foundation of basic cell biology research, but also greatly help us understand important questions including cancer and inflammation. For example, the abnormal activation of many Rho family proteins is associated with tumorgenesis and also involved in tumor metastasis. The Hall Lab has been actively engaged in studying the role of Rho family protein in cancer in the past years.

May Dr. Hall rest in peace. What he has contributed to biological research shall be remembered forever...

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