Suzanne Scarlata, Whitcomb Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), whose term as Biophysical Society President will begin in March 2016, grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a fact which is evident by her lingering accent. Her mother was a very successful hairdresser and her father worked as a quality control specialist for the helicopter division of Boeing. No one in Scarlata’s large family worked—or was particularly interested—in science and as a young person, Scarlata herself was not very interested in it either. In fact, she did not give much thought to what career she would pursue at all. “In high school, I was put in the secretarial track where they placed students who weren’t interested in going to college,” she says. “After taking classes in typing (which has served me well) and shorthand (which has not), I switched to the college preparatory track.”
Scarlata did indeed go to college. She attended Temple University and began studying science. “I started taking science classes in college because there seemed to be more science-related jobs than in the fields that I enjoyed more, like sociology, art, and history,” Scarlata explains. Once she started down the path toward a science career, however, she unlocked an interest within herself. “In my junior year, I started an undergraduate project that focused on histone structure,” she says. “It was then that I realized I wanted a career in scientific research.” She earned her Bachelor of Arts in chemistry and then continued on to graduate school at the University of Illinois in Urbana- Champaign (UIUC). “My thesis work used different fluorescence methods to study protein dynamics and to quantify protein associations,” Scarlata says. “After characterizing the movement and interactions of proteins in model systems, I wondered how these data relate to proteins in their native cellular environment.”
Scarlata met Catherine Royer in the fall of 1980 at UIUC. They became friends quickly and worked together during their thesis studies, co-authoring a paper on protein interaction and dynamics. In the late 1980s, Scarlata and Royer worked together again on histone interactions. “I remember the papers well, because we measured fluorescence lifetimes via frequency domain prior to the automation of the instrument,” Royer recalls. “We calculated that we turned the knob between sample and reference 6,000 times for the data in the paper. We called it the Bengay paper! Younger biophysicists will not appreciate the amount of elbow grease we put into our work back then!” Scarlata notes that Royer, now at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, got sunburned from aligning light from the Xenon arc lamp, since those were the days before lasers were easily available.
After earning her PhD, Scarlata took a permanent position at AT&T Bell Labs, in their materials and optics division, developing optical testing methods for printed circuit boards. She wanted to pursue biophysical research further, so she left AT&T, taking a position at Cornell University Medical College in Manhattan. Early in her career, she faced a crisis of confidence that many scientists are familiar with: “I submitted a proposal to the National Institutes of Health that previously received a good, but not fundable score. The resubmission failed. In the summary statement, the panel said my work was incremental. This was devastating,” Scarlata says. “I was extremely depressed and looking at other career options, but then a friend asked, ‘Who are these people [the reviewers] anyway?’ This question put the reviewers into a different light. I realized that not everyone is going to understand what you are doing unless you clearly state the importance of your work and how it fits into a bigger picture. I also realized that you need a really thick skin to be in science. Not everyone is going to be sensitive or constructive.”
Following Cornell, Scarlata took a position at Stony Brook University, where she worked for 24 years before moving to Worcester Polytechnic Institute last fall. “We have several projects in the lab that all center on the phospholipase C beta- G protein signaling pathway,” she says. “This pathway is one of the main ways that allows cells to respond to many hormones and neurotransmitters to increase cellular calcium levels, which allows cells to move, divide, or die depending on the specific circumstances. Our goal is to understand the series of changes in protein associations that accompany these signals and the factors that impact their responses.”
“Scientifically,” Scarlata says, “the most challenging aspect is to think of all of the appropriate controls for each experiments. There are so many potential interactions of components in cells that can vary in different cell lineages and different localizations in the cell.” Even more of a challenge is getting funding, which Scarlata considers primarily a matter of luck.
Scarlata’s favorite thing about biophysics is being able to quantify biological systems and to put biology into physical terms, but the aspect she finds most fulfilling is seeing her students succeed. “I find it really rewarding when one of my graduate students presents their thesis research at their defense and see how excited and confident they are about their work,” she says. “This is when I feel the most successful.”
When not in the lab, Scarlata spends time with her husband, Walter Zurawsky, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at WPI, and three daughters, Cassandra, Alyssa, and Catherine. Scarlata and Zurawsky are currently working on renovating an old house they bought upon moving to Worcester. She spends much of her free time playing sports, as part of a tennis group and a few different soccer teams. In any remaining leisure time, Scarlata reads novels, discusses politics, and watches what she calls “ridiculous” TV series.
Throughout her career, Scarlata has been a member of the Biophysical Society. “I’ve been a member of BPS for so long that it seems like family,” she says. “To me, the BPS meeting is the whole enchilada—from science on the one-on-one level at poster sessions to large seminars, to networking groups, to career support—I really get so much out of the meeting. The Society has provided me with a peer group [with whom] I can discuss science, career, academics, etc. I’ve made many connections and have had a great deal of input that has really helped my research.”
Scarlata would advise biophysicists just starting out in their careers, “Keep your eyes on the prize—don’t let yourself get bogged down on peripheral studies or control studies that are unnecessary. Don’t waste time on reagents. Look for the key experiment that will give you the information you need.”