Judith Kimble

{{short description|American professor and biochemist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Judith Kimble | birth_name = Judith Elisabeth Kimble | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date =  | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Molecular regulation of animal development in ''Caenorhabditis elegans''<ref name="scopus">{{Scopus|id=7102448718}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/0012-1606(79)90035-6 | last1 = Kimble | first1 = J. | last2 = Hirsh | first2 = D. | title = The postembryonic cell lineages of the hermaphrodite and male gonads in Caenorhabditis elegans | journal = Developmental Biology | volume = 70 | issue = 2 | pages = 396–417 | year = 1979 | pmid = 478167 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Wickens | first1 = M. P. | last2 = Gallegos | first2 = B. | last3 = Puoti | first3 = M. | last4 = Durkin | first4 = A. | last5 = Fields | first5 = E. | last6 = Kimble | first6 = S. | last7 = Wickens | first7 = J. | title = A conserved RNA-binding protein that regulates sexual fates in the C. Elegans hermaphrodite germ line | journal = Nature | volume = 390 | issue = 6659 | pages = 477–484 | year = 1997 | doi = 10.1038/37297 | pmid = 9393998| bibcode = 1997Natur.390..477Z | s2cid = 4318177 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Morrison | first1 = S. J. | last2 = Kimble | first2 = J. | doi = 10.1038/nature04956 | title = Asymmetric and symmetric stem-cell divisions in development and cancer | journal = Nature | volume = 441 | issue = 7097 | pages = 1068–1074 | year = 2006 | pmid = 16810241 | bibcode = 2006Natur.441.1068M | hdl = 2027.42/62868 | s2cid = 715049 | hdl-access = free }}</ref> | workplaces = University of Wisconsin–Madison<br>Laboratory of Molecular Biology | alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley<br>University of Colorado Boulder | thesis_title = The Post-embryonic cell lineages of the hermaphrodite and male gonads in Caenorhabditis elegans | thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302915194 | thesis_year = 1978 | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = Julie Ahringer<ref name="ahringerphd">{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Julie Ann|last=Ahringer |title=Posttranscriptional regulation offem-3, a sex-determining gene of Caenorhabditis elegans |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison |date=1991 |author-link=Julie Ahringer|id={{ProQuest|303972449}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ahringer | first1 = J. | last2 = Rosenquist | first2 = T. A. | last3 = Lawson | first3 = D. N. | last4 = Kimble | first4 = J. | title = The Caenorhabditis elegans sex determining gene fem-3 is regulated post-transcriptionally | journal = The EMBO Journal | volume = 11 | issue = 6 | pages = 2303–2310 | year = 1992 | pmid = 1376249 | pmc = 556697 | doi = 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1992.tb05289.x }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ahringer | first1 = J. | last2 = Kimble | first2 = J. | doi = 10.1038/349346a0 | title = Control of the sperm–oocyte switch in Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodites by the fem-3 3′ untranslated region | journal = Nature | volume = 349 | issue = 6307 | pages = 346–348 | year = 1991 | pmid = 1702880 | bibcode = 1991Natur.349..346A | s2cid = 4304843 }}</ref> | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website = {{URL|http://www.biochem.wisc.edu/faculty/kimble}} | footnotes = | spouse = | children = }} '''Judith Kimble''' is a Henry Vilas Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Medical Genetics and Cell and Regenerative Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Kimble’s research focuses on the molecular regulation of animal development.<ref name="scopus"/>

==Education and training== Judith Kimble received her Bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971. She originally intended to become a physician.<ref>{{cite web|title=HHMI biographies|url=http://www.hhmi.org/scientists/judith-kimble}}</ref> However, whilst in her last year as an undergraduate, she took a temporary job at the University of Copenhagen Medical School, she taught medical students about the structure and function of human organs, which, combined with her undergraduate studies in human embryology, sparked an interest in the "basic problems in animal development."

She began her graduate studies in 1974 at the University of Colorado Boulder. There, she worked with molecular biologist David Hirsh who was studying the model organism ''Caenorhabditis elegans''. Kimble then moved to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where she spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow working with Sir John Sulston on the control of organogenesis. During the course of her work, Kimble found a special somatic cell at the tip of the gonad which tells nearby germ cells - reproductive cells - how to divide. When she destroyed the distal tip cell, germ cells stopped dividing. When she moved the somatic cell to a different place, germ cells started dividing in that new location. This was the first time a single cell with such an oversight function had been identified.

==Early career== Kimble moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1983 where she took up an assistant professorship position. Discovery of the distal tip cell gave her the means of exploring the control of germline stem cells. She then began to examine the genetic and molecular mechanisms responsible for germline stem cells and the processes by which germ cells develop into sperm or egg cells.

==Later work== {{Scholia}} Kimble's more recent work has focused on sexual dimorphism in order to understand how organs with different shapes, sizes and tissues can be made from the same starting cells.

==Achievements== Kimble has published more than 150 scientific articles<ref name="scopus"/> and is listed on two US-issued patents. She has trained more than 30 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, including Tim Schedl, and Julie Ahringer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wormbase.org/resources/person/WBPerson320#01--10|website=Wormbase Lineage|title=Judith Kimble (Person) - WormBase : Nematode Information Resource}}</ref> She was President of the Genetics Society of America for 2000.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.genetics-gsa.org/about/past_officers.shtml|title= Past and Present GSA Officers|publisher= GSA|access-date= 27 November 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181114171742/http://www.genetics-gsa.org/about/past_officers.shtml|archive-date= 14 November 2018|url-status= dead}}</ref>

She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995<ref>{{cite web |title=Judith Elisabeth Kimble |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/judith-elisabeth-kimble |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |access-date=3 May 2019 |language=en}}</ref> and the American Philosophical Society in 2002.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Judith+Kimble&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-10-11|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> She was an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1994–2019 and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Judith Kimble|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/67751.html|access-date=2021-10-11|website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> She served on the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science (2012–2014) and as a chair of the committee in 2015. In 2024 she was awarded the Wiley Prize.<ref>[https://www.wiley.com/en-us/foundation/prize/biomedical#accordion-3ac7718796-item-3bb94c90af Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences]</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimble, Judith}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:21st-century American women Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:University of Colorado Boulder alumni Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Category:American women biochemists Category:Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Category:American women academics Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society