Angelika Amon

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Austrian American academic molecular and cell biologist (1967–2020)

title: "Angelika Amon" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1967-births", "2020-deaths", "20th-century-american-biologists", "20th-century-american-women-biologists", "20th-century-austrian-scientists", "21st-century-american-biologists", "21st-century-austrian-scientists", "21st-century-american-women-scientists", "american-molecular-biologists", "american-women-molecular-biologists", "austrian-molecular-biologists", "austrian-women-biologists", "cell-biologists", "cancer-researchers", "deaths-from-cancer-in-austria", "deaths-from-ovarian-cancer", "howard-hughes-medical-investigators", "massachusetts-institute-of-technology-school-of-science-faculty", "members-of-the-austrian-academy-of-sciences", "members-of-the-united-states-national-academy-of-sciences", "scientists-from-vienna", "university-of-vienna-alumni", "women-molecular-biologists", "fellows-of-the-american-academy-of-microbiology", "american-women-academics", "recipients-of-the-presidential-early-career-award-for-scientists-and-engineers"] description: "Austrian American academic molecular and cell biologist (1967–2020)" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelika_Amon" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Austrian American academic molecular and cell biologist (1967–2020) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
nameAngelika Amon
imageAngelikaamon.jpg
captionAmon in October 2017
birth_dateJanuary 10, 1967
birth_placeVienna, Austria
death_dateOctober 29, 2020 (aged 53)
citizenshipAustria & United States
workplaces
alma_mater{{unbulleted list
doctoral_advisorKim Nasmyth
known_forChromosome duplication and cell division
awards
signature
::

| name = Angelika Amon | image = Angelikaamon.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Amon in October 2017 | birth_date = January 10, 1967 | birth_place = Vienna, Austria | death_date = October 29, 2020 (aged 53) | death_place = | residence = | citizenship = Austria & United States | fields = | workplaces = | alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|University of Vienna B.S., Ph.D.(1993)}} | doctoral_advisor = Kim Nasmyth | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Chromosome duplication and cell division | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | footnotes = | ethnicity = | religion = Angelika Amon (January 10, 1967 – October 29, 2020) was an Austrian American molecular and cell biologist, and the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Amon's research centered on how chromosomes are regulated, duplicated, and partitioned in the cell cycle. Amon was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.

Early life

Amon was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. She displayed an early interest in plant and animal biology as a child, keeping a notebook full of newspaper clippings, and was motivated to study biology after learning about Mendelian genetics and seeing time-lapse micrographs of the division of plant cells in middle school.

Amon received an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Vienna. She continued her doctoral work there beginning in 1989 under a newly hired Kim Nasmyth at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), receiving a PhD in 1993. Amon left Austria for the United States in 1994, joining the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a postdoctoral researcher. She was named a Whitehead Fellow in 1996, which allowed her to start her own laboratory at the Institute.

Career

Amon's independent work at the Whitehead Institute led directly to her securing a faculty appointment at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT in 1999, the same year she received the Presidential Early Career Award and was named a Howard S. and Linda B. Stern Career Development Assistant Professor. Amon became an associate investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2000, and was promoted to full professor at MIT in 2007; she had earlier achieved tenure as an assistant professor.

Amon was listed as a member of the Editorial Board for Current Biology in 2016, but no longer appears in this position as of 2019. She served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) from 2009 to 2019.

Amon was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017, by which time she had been named the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor of Cancer Research at MIT. She was conferred the Vilcek Prize two years later, in recognition of her as one who had "made extraordinary contributions to their fields" while being a foreign-born researcher in the United States.

Personal life

Amon was married to Johannes Weis. Together, they had two daughters (Theresa and Clara). She died on October 29, 2020. She was 53, and suffered from ovarian cancer in the two-and-a-half years leading up to her death.

Research

Amon's research has investigated how cells control and organize the segregation of their chromosomes during cell division. More specifically, her research examines the regulation of exit from mitosis, the regulation of the meiotic cell cycle, and effects of aneuploidy on normal physiology and tumorigenesis.

As a student under Nasmyth, Amon made significant discoveries related to the biosynthesis and breakdown of cyclins during the cell cycle. More specifically, she demonstrated that CDC28 protein kinase is not required for the metaphase to anaphase transition and CLB2 proteolysis continues until reactivation of CDC28 toward the end of G1.

During her time as a post-doctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute in the 1990s, Amon turned from yeast to fruit flies in the laboratory of Ruth Lehmann, though she found fruit flies to be a far less attractive model than yeast; "once you had worked with yeast, you were spoiled", she said.

The Amon lab primarily investigates yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as a model for understanding the controls that govern cell-cycle progression and received an Early Career Award grant, a PECAS award, from he NIH for this work in 1998. The PECAS is "the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers". As a Whitehead Fellow, her team discovered that CDC20 plays a crucial role in cell division. Her Whitehead team identified an interaction between phosphatase and CDC14 which initiates the exit of cells from mitosis to the G1 phase. Amon's team demonstrated that CDC20 is the target protein in the spindle checkpoint during mitosis.

Amon's more recent work has investigated the regulation of chromosome segregation and how chromosomes are accurately transmitted to gametes in meiosis by examining gene regulatory networks. She identified two regulatory networks (FEAR and MEN) that promote the release of CDC14 which have the potential to identify the mechanisms that control the final stages of the mitotic cell cycle.

Her research group recently created haploid yeast cells containing extra copies of chromosomes and discovered that these aneuploid strains elicit phenotypes independent of the identity of the additional chromosome such as defects in cell cycle progression, increased energy demands, and interference with protein biosynthesis. Amon has also examined trisomy in the mouse as a model of mammalian cell growth and physiology and demonstrated that mammalian aneuploidy results in a stress response analogous to yeast aneuploidy. Amon's aneuploidy research has potential applications to cancer research. She found that aneuploidy can interfere with a cell's normal DNA repair mechanisms, allowing mutations to accumulate in tumor cells.

Awards and honors

References

References

  1. "HFSP Nakasone Awardees".
  2. Amon, Angelika. (March 21, 2007). "Besser forschen in den USA". Der Standard.
  3. Sharp, Phillip A.. (June 19, 2003). "MIT Reports to the President 1998–99". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  4. Silbey, Robert J.. (June 19, 2003). "Department of Biology, Annual Reports to the President: 1999–2000". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  5. (June 13, 2007). "Corporation announces faculty promotions". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  6. "Editorial Board".
  7. "Editorial Board".
  8. "Scientific Advisory Board". Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP).
  9. Staff. (April 12, 2017). "Eleven from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2017". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  10. Schroeder, Bendta. (October 30, 2020). "Angelika Amon, cell biologist who pioneered research on chromosome imbalance, dies at 53". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  11. (1993). "Destruction of the CDC28/CLB mitotic kinase is not required for the metaphase to anaphase transition in budding yeast". The EMBO Journal.
  12. (1994). "Closing the cell cycle circle in yeast: G2 cyclin proteolysis initiated at mitosis persists until the activation of G1 cyclins in the next cycle". Cell.
  13. "The Presidential Early Award for Scientists and Engineers Program Archive". U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
  14. "Regulation of Mitosis by Proteolysis in Yeast". U.S. National Institutes of Health.
  15. Mervis, Jeffrey. (July 15, 2009). "DOD Dominates Presidential Early-Career Awards". Science.
  16. (1997). "CDC20 and CDH1: A Family of Substrate-Specific Activators of APC-Dependent Protoloysis". Science.
  17. (1998). "The Phosphatase Cdc14 Triggers Mitotic Exit by Reversal of Cdk-Dependent Phosphorylation". Molecular Cell.
  18. (1998). "Budding yeast CDC20: A Target of the Spindle Checkpoint". Science.
  19. (February 25, 2016). "Angelika Amon, Ph.D.". Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
  20. (2002). "The Cdc14 Phosphatase and the FEAR Network Control Meiotic Spindle Disassembly and Chromosome Segregation". Developmental Cell.
  21. (2003). "MEN and SIN: chat's the difference?". Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology.
  22. (2004). "Cdc14 and Condensin Control the Dissolution of Cohesin-Independent Chromosome Linkages at Repeated DNA". Cell.
  23. (2007). "Effects of Aneuploidy on Cellular Physiology and Cell Division in Haploid Yeast". Science.
  24. (2008). "Aneuploidy affects proliferation and spontaneous immortalization in mammalian cells". Science.
  25. (2009). "Aneuploidy –Cancer's Fatal Flaw?". Cancer Research.
  26. Trafton, Anne. (October 17, 2018). "Angelika Amon wins 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  27. "Alan T. Waterman Award Recipients". Office of the Director, National Science Foundation.
  28. Thomson, Elizabeth A.. (October 3, 2007). "Amon, Golub win cancer prize". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  29. (September 26, 2007). "Paul Marks Prize Recognizes Three Young Cancer Researchers". Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
  30. (January 22, 2008). "Academy Honors 13 for Major Contributions to Science". Office of News and Public Information, National Academies.
  31. "Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science | Office of Research".
  32. "Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science". Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
  33. (October 17, 2018). "Winners of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics Announced".
  34. (May 14, 2003). "From Cell-Cycle Secrets to NSF's Waterman Award Amon Earns Top Honor for Young Scientists". Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, National Science Foundation.

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