Pieribone, Vincent A. 1964(?)-

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Pieribone, Vincent A. 1964(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1964. Education: New York University, B.A., 1986, Ph.D., 1992; Rockefeller University, postdoctoral studies, 1992-95.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St., Rm. B-147, P.O. Box 208026, New Haven, CT 06520-8026; The John B. Pierce Laboratory, 290 Congress Ave., New Haven, CT 06519. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Rockefeller University, New York, NY, assistant professor, 1995-97; Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, currently associate professor in department of cellular and molecular physiology and neurobiology; John B. Pierce Laboratory, New Haven, CT, associate fellow, 1997—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Science Foundation and Fogarty International Fellow, 1990-92.

WRITINGS:

(With David F. Gruber) Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Contributor to journals, including the Journal of Experimental Zoology and the Journal of Neurochemistry.

SIDELIGHTS:

Vincent A. Pieribone was educated at New York University, first earning his undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry in 1986, and then continuing on to the graduate school, where he studied neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and earned his doctorate in 1992. Prior to his graduation, he spent two years as a National Science Foundation and Fogarty International Fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where he worked at the Nobel Institute of Neurophysiology. Following his graduation, he spent three years doing postgraduate work at the Rockefeller University, prior to accepting a position there as an assistant professor in 1995. In 1997, Pieribone joined the John B. Pierce Laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut, as an assistant fellow, as well as the Yale University School of Medicine. His primary research and academic interests include performing analysis of vertebrate neurotransmission at the physiological, structural, and molecular level. In 2005, he published Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence, with David F. Gruber.

In Aglow in the Dark, Gruber and Vincent Pieribone explore the history behind science's search for answers to the mechanisms behind bioluminescence. The authors "reveal the painstaking efforts of scientists to identify the mechanisms behind this mysterious light," which has been observed in organisms as diverse as deep-sea fish and common fireflies, noted a Science News contributor. They survey the history of the science and research into bioluminescence, discussing the pioneering contributions of nineteenth-century research Raphael DuBois, who originated the terms luciferase and luciferine to describe the fuel and chemical reaction in biofluorescence. They describe how these compounds were found in a variety of glowing creatures, including the firefly, by Edmond Newton Harvey. They also report on how Osamu Shimomura, a young Japanese biologist from Nagasaki, isolated a bioluminescent protein called aequorin by dissecting and straining more than nine thousand jellyfish through the fibers of a cotton handkerchief. Shimomura's success spurred an increased interest in biochemical light, and Gruber and Pieribone describe how this interest has led to modern developments such as gene tagging, which allows scientists and researchers to directly observe cell-level phenomena such as the development of disease, the placement of tumors, the action of nerves and neurological connections, and the actions of genetic materials. "Writing with warmth and optimism, Pieribone and Gruber will fascinate budding biochemistry students," concluded Gilbert Taylor in a Booklist review.