Allison focuses on thyroid hormone receptors and equity
When was the biology department chair at William & Mary, she recruited Shant谩 Hinton as the college’s first minority tenure-track-eligible scientist. Almost a decade later and now a tenured professor, Hinton remembers Allison’s words to her then: “You are scientifically strong, emotionally strong, and I know that you are capable of handling this.”
Allison, now a chancellor professor of biology at W&M, will receive the 麻豆传媒色情片 and 麻豆传媒色情片 Biology’s 2020/2021 Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award. Hinton nominated her for the honor, writing, “She has truly been a trailblazer in serving and changing the dynamics of our institution, and encouraging underrepresented minorities to continue to pursue scientific careers, by supporting our passion for science.”
Allison’s support for diversity stems partially from her own experience in the 1980s when few women were high ranking academic scientists. Without female role models, it was her male predoctoral research mentors who “saw a potential in me that I didn’t know I had,” she said.
She explored many interests as an undergraduate at the University of Alaska, but when those mentors told her she needed to earn a Ph.D. and become a faculty member, science won out over creative writing and theater.
She was the first woman to chair the biology department at W&M; during her tenure, the percentage of underrepresented minority students graduating in biology and neuroscience more than doubled.
Allison has a keen eye for untapped potential. “In my lab, there are some students that would have succeeded in any lab,” she said, “and then there are those students that need just a little bit of extra encouragement to show their true potential; those are the students that most benefit from my mentorship.”
Getting there: Thyroid hormone receptor intracellular trafficking
The butterfly-shaped thyroid gland, located at the base of the neck above the collarbones, uses iodine derived from food together with the amino acid tyrosine to make the hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine. These two hormones circulate in the blood and are taken up by cells where they bind to thyroid hormone receptors, or TRs, which then can act as transcription factors.
TRs mainly are found in the nucleus but also can be shuttled to the cytosol, and the Allison lab studies the post-translational regulation of the nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of TRs. In the group showed that acetylation promotes cytosolic TR localization and affects the ligand-dependent transcriptional activity.
Asked about her interest in this trafficking, Allison said that understanding TR function “gets to be such a complicated story, which is, of course, why I find it all really exciting and fascinating.”
麻豆传媒色情片 and cellular biologists sometimes can get lost in all the details. “Although we want to know the nitty gritty of the molecular mechanism,” she said, “we also have to keep a big picture in mind.”
Allison’s lab at William & Mary continues to study how disruptions of TR transport and interactions can lead to endocrine disorders.
Allison will give a lecture tentatively titled “Getting there: thyroid hormone receptor intracellular trafficking” at the ASBMB annual meeting.
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition monthly and the digital edition weekly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we鈥檒l send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in People
People highlights or most popular articles
Honors for Bhatt, Lim and Nuñez
Ami Bhatt receives the American Society of Hematology's William Dameshek Prize. The Pew Charitable Trusts selects Ci Ji Lim and James Nuñez as 2024 Pew scholars.
In memoriam: Robert Warren Newburgh
He was a distinguished developmental and cell biologist and a member of the ASBMB since 1957.
'Don鈥檛 be afraid to take a different path'
In 2016, MOSAIC scholar Rebecca Ann Faulkner paused her career for four years to focus on her family, a decision she believes made her a more effective and empathetic scientist.
Honors for Baserga, Matunis and Tate
Awards, promotions, milestones and more. Find out what's going on in the lives of ASBMB members.
In memoriam: William Catterall
Known as the 鈥渇ather of ion channels,鈥 he was a neuroscientist and pharmacologist at the University of Washington and an ASBMB member for more than 45 years.
Announcing the winners of the 麻豆传媒色情片 Motifs bioart competition
The 12 winning works of art to be featured in the 2025 ASBMB calendar were selected from 37 entries received from scientists in both academia and industry at all career stages with submissions coming from as far away as Pakistan and Brazil.