Biography
Following a very brief postdoctoral training at Scripps (La Jolla, CA), in January, 1991, Tom Sato began his own laboratory as an Assistant Member at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology. Roche Institute was a basic science institute funded by Roche, the same arrangement as another world renowned institution, Basel Institute of Immunology, had. At the Roche Institute, all the members were able to pursue the most creative and challenging areas of life science with no need to write grants. At the Roche Institute, Tom began his initial quest to discover the essence of vascular development. As a graduate student at Georgetown and a postdoctoral fellow at Scripps, Tom studied molecular and biochemical mechanisms of neurotransmission and neural development. However, in the middle of graduate training, Tom realized that he will not be able to understand the essence of "Mind" through molecular biological approaches. Therefore, Tom has decided to apply his training in molecular biology and biochemistry to a more tractable subject: vascular development. As soon as he began his small group at the Roche Institute, he began identifying molecules that may play one of the most essential roles in vascular development. As a result, Tom and his group has identified a new class of receptor tyrosine kinases, Tie1 and Tie2, that play one of the most profound roles in vascular development 1-5. At the closure of the Roche Institute, Tom moved to Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in 1995. During his brief tenure there, he and his group collaborated with George Yancopoulos's group at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to characterize a family of ligands for Tie receptors 6-8. In 1997, Tom moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Texas. He stayed there as Associate Professor and then as Full Professor until 2004. In Texas, Tom and his group continued to identify various novel mechanisms for vascular development and differentiation, and also began a few new lines of research areas 9-19. Tom considers this period of time in Texas a "rejuvenation" period for his career. In January, 2005, Tom moved to Weill Medical College of Cornell University, in New York City. After several years of "hibernation" period, he is now re-born and ready for new challenges in one of the most exciting, artistic, and philosophical places in the world, New York City. At Cornell, Tom investigates several scientific questions that have the most profound and long-lasting impacts on human life, philosophy and medicine. References: 1. Sato, T. N. et al. Distinct roles of the receptor tyrosine kinases Tie-1 and Tie-2 in blood vessel formation. Nature 376, 70-74 (1995). 2. Qin, Y. & Sato, T. N. Mouse multidrug resistance 1a/3 gene is the earliest known endothelial cell differentiation marker during blood-brain barrier development. Dev Dyn 202, 172-80 (1995). 3. Sato, T. N., Qin, Y., Kozak, C. A. & Audus, K. L. tie-1 and tie-2 define another class of putative receptor tyrosine kinase genes expressed in early embryonic vascular system. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 9355-9358 (1993). 4. Schlaeger, T. M., Qin, Y., Fujiwara, Y., Magram, J. & Sato, T. N. Vascular endothelial cell lineage-specific promoter in transgenic mice. Development 121, 1089-1098 (1995). 5. Rodewald, H.-R. & Sato, T. N. Tie1, a receptor tyrosine kinase essential for vascular endothelial cell integrity, is not critical for the development of hematopoietic cells. Oncogene 12, 397-404 (1996). 6. Maisonpierre, P. C. et al. Angiopoietin-2, a natural antagonist for Tie2 that disrupts in vivo angiogenesis. Science 277, 55-60 (1997). 7. Suri, C. et al. Requisite role of angiopoietin-1, a ligand for the TIE2 receptor, during embryonic angiogenesis. Cell 87, 1171-1180 (1996). 8. Schlaeger, T. M. et al. Uniform vascular-endothelial-cell-specific gene expression in both embryonic and adult transgenic mice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 3058-3063 (1997). 9. Caprioli, A., Zhu, H. & Sato, T. N. CRBP-III:lacZ expression pattern reveals a novel heterogeneity of vascular endothelial cells. Genesis 40, 139-45 (2004). 10. Sato, T. N. Emerging concept in angiogenesis: specification of arterial and venous endothelial cells. Br J Pharmacol 140, 611-3 (2003). 11. Motoike, T., Markham, D. W., Rossant, J. & Sato, T. N. Evidence for novel fate of Flk1 progenitor: contribution to muscle lineage. Genesis 35, 153-9 (2003). 12. Suri, C. et al. Increased vascularization in mice overexpressing angiopoietin-1. Science 282, 468-71 (1998). 13. Thurston, G. et al. Leakage-resistant blood vessels in mice transgenically overexpressing angiopoietin-1. Science 286, 2511-4 (1999). 14. Visconti, R. P., Richardson, C. D. & Sato, T. N. Orchestration of angiogenesis and arteriovenous contribution by angiopoietins and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99, 8219-24 (2002). 15. Sineshchekova, O. O., Kawate, T., Vdovychenko, O. V. & Sato, T. N. Protein-trap version 2.1: screening for expressed proteins in mammalian cells based on their localizations. BMC Cell Biol 5, 8 (2004). 16. Motoike, T. et al. Universal GFP reporter for the study of vascular development. Genesis 28, 75-81 (2000). 17. Kroll, J., Cobo, P. & Sato, T. N. Versatile inducible activation system of Akt/PKB signaling pathway in mice. Genesis 35, 160-3 (2003). 18. Sato, T. N., Loughna, S., Davis, E. C., Visconti, R. P. & Richardson, C. D. Selective functions of angiopoietins and vascular endothelial growth factor on blood vessels: the concept of "vascular domain". Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 67, 171-80 (2002). 19. Loughna, S. & Sato, T. N. A combinatorial role of angiopoietin-1 and orphan receptor TIE1 pathways in establishing vascular polarity during angiogenesis. Mol Cell 7, 233-9 (2001). EDUCATION: 1985 B.S. (Biology, Cellular Biochemistry Program) University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan 1987 Cold Spring Harbor Summer Course, "Learning and Memory" Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY 1988 Ph.D. (Biology, Neurobiology Program) Georgetown University, Washington, DC PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 1989 - 1990 Postdoctoral Fellow with M.C. Wilson Research Institute of Scripps Clinic La Jolla, CA 92037 1991 - 1995 Assistant Member (Assistant Professor Level) Roche Institute of Molecular Biology Nutley, NJ 07110 1995 - 1997 Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School Cardiovascular Division Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Boston, MA 02215 1997 - 2002 Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology Integrative Biology Graduate Program UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Dallas, TX 75390-8573 2003 2004 Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology Integrative Biology Graduate Program UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Dallas, TX 75390-8573 2005 present Professor of Cell and Development Biology Cell and Genetics Graduate Program Weill Medical College of Cornell University New York, NY 10021 For more information, please visit my webpage: http://www.cornellcellbiology.org/sato
