Scott D. Emr is a cell biologist

Cell biology

Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

 and molecular geneticist

Molecular genetics

Molecular genetics is the field of biology and genetics that studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level. The field studies how the genes are transferred from generation to generation. Molecular genetics employs the methods of genetics and molecular biology...

 who is serving as the Frank H.T. Rhodes

Frank H.T. Rhodes

Frank Harold Trevor Rhodes was the ninth president of Cornell University from 1977 to 1995.-Biography:Rhodes was born in Warwickshire, England on October 29, 1926. He attended the University of Birmingham, graduating in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree...

 Class of '56 Director of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology

Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology

Founded in 2007, the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology is a collaborative, non-profit research institution located on Cornell University's campus in Ithaca, New York. The Weill Institute eventually will consist of twelve faculty-led teams, appointed in several life...

 at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. He is also a Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics in the College of Arts and Sciences

Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is a division of Cornell University. It has been part of the university since its founding, although its name has changed over time. It grants bachelors degrees, and masters and doctorates through affiliation with the Cornell University Graduate School...

 at Cornell, an Adjunct Professor of Molecular Medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

The New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University was founded in 1894. It was the first statutory college in New York. Before the creation of the college, instruction in veterinary medicine had been part of Cornell's curriculum since the university's founding...

 at Cornell, and a Professor of Biochemistry at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Emr was named as the first director of the Weill Institute in April 2007. Having received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics in 1981 from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 working with Thomas Silhavy

Thomas Silhavy

Thomas J. Silhavy is the Warner-Lambert Parke-Davis Professor of molecular biology at Princeton University. Silhavy is a bacterial geneticist who has made fundamental contributions to several different research fields. He is best known for his work on protein secretion, membrane biogenesis, and...

 and Jonathan Beckwith, he completed his postdoctoral research with Randy Schekman

Randy Schekman

Randy W. Schekman is an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley and Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2011 he was announced as the editor of a new high profile open access journal published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the...

 at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 (Miller Research Scholar, 1981-1983). Emr has since held faculty positions at the California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

 (assistant and associate professor, 1983-1991), and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine (distinguished professor and investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United...

 1991-2007).

Emr is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

, the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

, and the European Molecular Biology Organization

European Molecular Biology Organization

EMBO stands for excellence in the life sciences. The EMBO mission is to enable the best science by supporting talented researchers, stimulating scientific exchange and advancing policies for a world-class European research environment....

. He serves on the National Advisory Committee and review panel of the Pew

Pew

A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...

 Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. He also serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the Journal of Cell Biology, Trends in Cell Biology, and Lipid Signaling.

Emr's research focuses on the regulation of cell signaling

Cell signaling

Cell signaling is part of a complex system of communication that governs basic cellular activities and coordinates cell actions. The ability of cells to perceive and correctly respond to their microenvironment is the basis of development, tissue repair, and immunity as well as normal tissue...

 and membrane trafficking pathways. The lab is characterizing the role of phosphoinositide lipids

Phosphatidylinositol

Phosphatidylinositol is a negatively charged phospholipid and a minor component in the cytosolic side of eukaryotic cell membranes....

, vesicle

Vesicle (biology)

A vesicle is a bubble of liquid within another liquid, a supramolecular assembly made up of many different molecules. More technically, a vesicle is a small membrane-enclosed sack that can store or transport substances. Vesicles can form naturally because of the properties of lipid membranes , or...

-mediated transport reactions, and ubiquitin

Ubiquitin

Ubiquitin is a small regulatory protein that has been found in almost all tissues of eukaryotic organisms. Among other functions, it directs protein recycling.Ubiquitin can be attached to proteins and label them for destruction...

 in the down-regulation of activated cell surface receptors

Receptor (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a receptor is a molecule found on the surface of a cell, which receives specific chemical signals from neighbouring cells or the wider environment within an organism...

. The Emr lab recently identified the ESCRT

ESCRT

ESCRT refers to a series of cytosolic protein complexes called ESCRT-0, ESCRT-I, ESCRT-II, and ESCRT-III.-Endocytosis and Receptor Down-Regulation:...

 complexes, which are the first components of a molecular machine required for receptor down-regulation at the endosome

Endosome

In biology, an endosome is a membrane-bound compartment inside eukaryotic cells. It is a compartment of the endocytic membrane transport pathway from the plasma membrane to the lysosome. Molecules internalized from the plasma membrane can follow this pathway all the way to lysosomes for...

 (multivesicular body), a late step in cytokinesis

Cytokinesis

Cytokinesis is the process in which the cytoplasm of a single eukaryotic cell is divided to form two daughter cells. It usually initiates during the late stages of mitosis, and sometimes meiosis, splitting a binucleate cell in two, to ensure that chromosome number is maintained from one generation...

, and for the budding and release of HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

.