Jane Dyson is a leading biophysicist who has made seminal contributions in the study of the structure and dynamics of proteins in solution. She focuses on atomic-resolution studies revealing how protein motions and structural transitions regulate cell function. Jane is a Professor of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where she currently carries out her research and participates in teaching advanced classes in structural biology. In addition, Jane is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Biophysical Journal and has played various roles in the administration of the Biophysical Society for years. Besides being a successful scientist and research mentor, Jane is also the mother of two wonderful children.
Jane is a native of Australia, and grew up near Sydney with a keen passion for literature, languages, and music. She cultivated these interests during high school, imagining that all the knowledge she was gaining would ultimately be useful, though she did not know yet where life’s journey would lead her. It was not until her college years at the University of Sydney that Jane’s interest in science started emerging, as she took classes in math, physics, chemistry, biochemistry and microbiology, leading her to a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. One of Jane’s college teachers, Julia James, played a particularly important role in Jane’s life.
Julia was the only woman professor in a male-dominated academic environment, and she had a powerful passion for teaching and research. These unique traits attracted Jane, as she was instinctively driven by the balance between teaching and discovery that Julia embodied so well. Together, Jane and Julia explored the chemistry and biochemistry underlying the formation and decoration of caves. This experience, partly in the field and partly in the lab, was a most enjoyable way to expand Jane’s knowledge beyond what she could read in textbooks. Research brought science alive and encouraged Jane to continue along that path.
She then decided to pursue graduate studies to learn more about the mysteries of the world around her. Jane quickly landed a graduate student position as a teaching assistant at the University of Sydney, and she joined Jim Beattie’s laboratory. In Jim’s group, she delved into bioinorganic chemistry and investigated the variation in the electron spin-state of heme proteins under different environmental conditions, including the effect of pH on the spin-state of iron in cytochrome C. While performing research and writing a few highly influential papers on this topic, Jane also had the opportunity to help students understand chemistry, and found that she really enjoyed the combination of lab work and teaching.
As Jane finished her PhD in chemistry in Sydney, all seemed to be going well. She was, however, about to encounter some more challenging times. Having chosen to pursue a postdoc in RNA biology at MIT in Boston, Jane suddenly found herself dealing with a research topic she did not love as much as structural biology. It was not fun to be away from the warm climate and inviting seashores of south-eastern Australia, with only few friends and in a foreign country where life somehow seemed so plain and uninviting. She was not sure about her love for science anymore and eventually headed back to Australia. There, she was offered several faculty positions, and chose one that provided her with the opportunity to teach general chemistry to freshmen undergraduate students. She also kept her research sparkle alive by continuing her longtime collaboration with Julia James on cave chemistry, while keeping an open mind about her future. During that time in Sydney she also met Peter Wright, a young scientist — and her future husband — from New Zealand, who encouraged her to move to southern California with him. Jane decided to give life in the US another chance. She ended up thriving in La Jolla, where she enjoyed the climate and the environment. Yet, life had pulled her in a few different directions, and she was no longer sure about where to go next.
Being a thoughtful person and keeping her innate positive attitude even in the face of uncertainty, Jane decided that it was time to have her strengths analyzed objectively by an independent party, so she sought the help of a vocational institute. When she took an attitudinal survey there, it quickly emerged that her strongest asset was — guess what — research!
This made Jane realize that her passions were already rooted inside of her, and she just needed to recognize and cultivate them. Supported by Peter’s encouragement, Jane decided to pursue a senior research experience at the Scripps Research Institute in the laboratory of Richard Lerner. She enjoyed wonderful successes there, and started being exposed to NMR spectroscopy, which would later become her workhorse and favorite technique. She quickly rose up to the ranks and became a professor at Scripps. Jane had become a productive and successful biophysicist, with an incredible drive to reveal the secrets of protein structure and dynamics at atomic resolution, and with a passion for carefully analyzing experimental data so that she could squeeze every bit of information out of them.
Over the years, Jane has made significant contributions to science, starting from her studies on the structure and dynamics of redox-active proteins like cytochrome C and thioredoxin, to the elucidation of the kinetic folding pathways of apomyoglobin, to her more recent investigations addressing how the Hsp90 molecular chaperone affects client-protein conformation.
In recent years, a new emerging field has struck Jane’s imagination more than anything else: the study of intrinsically disordered proteins, most commonly referred to as IDPs. It turns out that up to 40% of the proteins in eukaryotic organisms contain substantial disordered regions, and very little is currently known about the reason behind their surprising lack of independent folding. As Jane explains, many IDPs only fold upon binding their biological counterpart (usually a folded protein or nucleic acid) and, in so doing, they trigger conformational changes in the host protein that elicit a biological response. The lack of independent structure and the peculiar local dynamics of IDPs impart them with a peculiar versatility. Many IDPs interact with more than one specific biomolecule and, in so doing, gain a competitive advantage over the more common regularly-folded proteins. However, many mysteries still remain in IDPs, including, for instance, the relation between their structural plasticity and their function and the evanescent role of IDP post-translational modifications. Jane is at the very forefront of this exciting research area.
Over the last two decades, Jane has done a wonderful job integrating her career-related activities and her family life. She goes to work early in the morning, stays extremely focused during her day, leaves in time for dinner, and puts science behind her when she is at home. This paced routine allowed Jane to spend quality time with her children as they grew up. In addition, when the children were little, Jane was able to select high-quality nannies and daycare options, so she was confident that someone trusted was always with her kids while she was at work. She dies wish she had been able to spend more time with the children, especially while traveling for work, yet overall she is happy about the balance she was able to strike.
When asked about a few words of advice to young scientists, Jane had no hesitation in advocating the importance of pursuing science that you really enjoy doing on a daily basis, even if you have not developed a long-term career plan yet, and even in fact if you have no idea where life will lead you. In addition, Jane stresses the importance of never becoming discouraged. As she puts it “Nothing is ever wasted! Keep on putting one foot in front of the other.” Lack of sufficient self-confidence is another common stumbling block encountered by developing scientists, especially young women. If things go wrong, do not automatically blame yourself, she says. Watch out for this and learn to trust yourself and your instincts.
Jane’s unstoppable curiosity for interesting scientific problems has led her where she is today. As Jane puts it, exciting questions – and the ability to answer them -- come to you almost magically if you keep an open mind, are not afraid of the unknown, and remain optimistic.