My Experiments on mammalian cell cycle

by Professor Potu N. Rao, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Time：14 : 30 pm, 24 Aug. 2010 (Tue.) 

Place：Lecture Hall D122, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Contact：Prof. WANG Hong-mei（64807187）

Dr. Potu N. Rao was born in 1930 in south India. In 1963 he earned a Ph.D in Cytogenetics from the University of Kentucky. While at the Roosevelt Cancer Institute, in 1970 he published two seminal papers in the journal Nature that served as major milestones in understanding cell regulation and cell division. Dr. Rao was recruited to join M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he worked for many years, training many students and continuing his research. He retired as a professor of Cell Biology in 1991.

Dr. Rao established the Rao Orengo Foundation, which is a non-profit educational fund to encourage the pursuit of higher education by providing summer enrichment stipends for promising youths.

Major contributions:

(1) S phase can induce DNA synthesis in G1 phase;

(2) Mitotic cell have some factors that can induce premature chromosome condensation (the 6th milestones of 13 milestones in the history of cell cycle research);

(3) Mitotic cells have MPF activity;

(4) MPM2 antigens may be a key component in the regulation of M phase induction.

Selected publications:

1. Kuang J, Penkala JE, Ashorn CL, Wright DA, Saunders GF, Rao PN. Multiple forms of maturation-promoting factor in unfertilized Xenopus eggs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991, 88:11530-4.

2. Kuang J, Zhao J, Wright DA, Saunders GF, Rao PN. Mitosis-specific monoclonal antibody MPM-2 inhibits Xenopus oocyte maturation and depletes maturation-promoting activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989, 86:4982-6.

3. Brinkley BR, Zinkowski RP, Mollon WL, Davis FM, Pisegna MA, Pershouse M, Rao PN. Movement and segregation of kinetochores experimentally detached from mammalian chromosomes. Nature. 1988, 336:251-4.

4. Beall PT, Hazlewood CF, Rao PN. Nuclear magnetic resonance patterns of intracellular water as a function of HeLa cell cycle. Science. 1976,192:904-7.

5. Johnson RT, Rao PN. Mammalian cell fusion: induction of premature chromosome condensation in interphase nuclei. Nature. 1970, 226:717-22.

6. Rao PN, Johnson RT. Mammalian cell fusion: studies on the regulation of DNA synthesis and mitosis. Nature. 1970, 225:159-64.