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Ronald Vale
Biochemist

Ronald Vale

Famoose for

Discovering kinesin and explaining cellular motor proteins.

Microtubule transport · Kinesin structure

Born
11 January 1959
Birthplace
Hollywood

More people

Marie CurieDiscovering polonium and radium.Albert EinsteinDeveloping the theory of relativity.Charles DarwinExplaining evolution through natural selection.

Ronald Vale

American cell biologist whose experiments helped reveal how molecular motors move cargo within cells. His research has examined both kinesin and dynein.

Early life

Early experiments

Grew up in Hollywood and built a home laboratory to study bean plants’ daily rhythms. Studied chemistry and biology at UC Santa Barbara before a Stanford doctorate.

Career

  1. 1985

    Kinesin discovery

    Isolated the motor protein with colleagues at Woods Hole.

  2. 1986

    UCSF

    Joined the university as an assistant professor.

  3. 2012

    Lasker Award

    Shared recognition for research on molecular motors.

Contributions

Microtubule transport

Helped identify the protein driving movement along microtubules.

Kinesin structure

His group helped determine the motor domain’s structure.

Beyond work

Open science education

Founded iBiology in 2006 to share free talks by researchers, and later helped establish ASAPbio to encourage preprints and more open scientific communication.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Biophil23. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.