Stuart Newman
Encyclopedia
Stuart Alan Newman is a professor
of cell biology
and anatomy
at New York Medical College
in Valhalla
, NY
, United States
. His research centers around three program areas: cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate
limb development
, physical
mechanisms of morphogenesis
, and mechanisms of morphological evolution
. He also writes about social and cultural aspects of biological research and technology.
Newman received an A.B.
from Columbia University
in 1965 and a Ph.D.
in chemical physics
from the University of Chicago
in 1970. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Chicago and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex
, UK, and before joining New York Medical College was an instructor in anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania
and an assistant professor of biological sciences
at the State University of New York at Albany.
He has been a visiting professor at the Pasteur Institute
, Paris
, the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique
-Saclay
, the Indian Institute of Science
, Bangalore
, the University of Tokyo, Komaba
, and was a Fogarty Senior International Fellow at Monash University
, Australia
. He is a member of the External Faculty of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research
, Altenberg
, Austria
, and of the editorial boards of the Journal of Biosciences (Bangalore) and Biological Theory
(Altenberg). He was a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics
, Cambridge, MA and is a director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
, Nixon, NV.
Newman's work in developmental biology
includes a proposed mechanism for patterning of the vertebrate limb skeleton
based on the self-organization
of embryonic tissues. He has also characterized a biophysical effect in extracellular matrices
populated with cells or nonliving particles, "matrix-driven translocation," that provides a physical model for morphogenesis
of mesenchymal
tissues. He is co-author, with the physicist Gabor Forgacs, of the textbook Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
His work in evolutionary biology includes a theory for the origination of the animal phyla. This is proposed to have been driven by new physical
morphogenetic and patterning
effects set into motion when the products of the ancient developmental toolkit genes first came to operate on the multicellular scale in the late Precambrian
-early Cambrian
. The resulting forms were then "locked in"
by stabilizing selection
.
With the evolutionary biologist Gerd B. Müller
, Newman edited the book Origination of Organismal Form
(MIT Press, 2003). This book on evolutionary developmental biology
is a collection of papers by various researchers on generative mechanisms that were plausibly involved in the origination of disparate body forms during the Ediacaran
and early Cambrian
periods. Particular attention is given to epigenetic
factors, such as physical determinants and environmental parameters, that may have led to the rapid emergence of body plan
s and organ forms during a period when multicellular organisms had relatively plastic
morphologies.
Newman has been an outspoken critic of proposed uses of developmental biology to modify human species identity
, including cloning
and germline
genetic manipulation. In 1997, in order to encourage public discussion of emerging technologies along these lines, he applied for a U.S. patent
on a human-nonhuman chimera
, a composite organism
arising from a mixture of embryonic cells of two or more species. Although the patent was ultimately denied, it raised Constitutional and moral questions and was the subject of numerous articles in the legal and philosophical literature.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of cell biology
Cell biology
Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...
and anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
at New York Medical College
New York Medical College
New York Medical College, aka New York Med or NYMC, is a private graduate health sciences university based in Westchester County, New York, a suburb of New York City and a part of the New York Metropolitan Area...
in Valhalla
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place that is located within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, in Westchester County. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
, NY
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His research centers around three program areas: cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate
Vertebrate
Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
limb development
Limb development
Limb development in tetrapods — animals with four limbs — is an area of active research in developmental biology. Limb formation begins in the limb field, as a limb "bud." Fibroblast growth factor induces formation of an organizer, called the apical ectodermal ridge , which guides further...
, physical
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
mechanisms of morphogenesis
Morphogenesis
Morphogenesis , is the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape...
, and mechanisms of morphological evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
. He also writes about social and cultural aspects of biological research and technology.
Newman received an A.B.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Columbia University
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
in 1965 and a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in chemical physics
Chemical physics
Chemical physics is a subdiscipline of chemistry and physics that investigates physicochemical phenomena using techniques from atomic and molecular physics and condensed matter physics; it is the branch of physics that studies chemical processes from the point of view of physics...
from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1970. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Chicago and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
, UK, and before joining New York Medical College was an instructor in anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and an assistant professor of biological sciences
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
at the State University of New York at Albany.
He has been a visiting professor at the Pasteur Institute
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique
Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique
The Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives or CEA, is a French “public establishment related to industrial and commercial activities” whose mission is to develop all applications of nuclear power, both civilian and military...
-Saclay
Saclay
Saclay is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.It is best known for the large scientific facility CEA Saclay, mostly dealing with nuclear and particle physics....
, the Indian Institute of Science
Indian Institute of Science
Indian Institute of Science is a research institution of higher learning located in Bangalore, India. It was established in 1909.-History:After a chance meeting between Jamsetji N...
, Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, the University of Tokyo, Komaba
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
, and was a Fogarty Senior International Fellow at Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He is a member of the External Faculty of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research
Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research
The Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research is an international center for advanced studies in theoretical biology. It supports the articulation, analysis, and integration of biological theories and the exploration of their wider scientific and cultural significance...
, Altenberg
Sankt Andrä-Wördern
Sankt Andrä-Wördern is a municipality in the district of Tulln in Lower Austria, Austria.- External links :* - town website...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and of the editorial boards of the Journal of Biosciences (Bangalore) and Biological Theory
Biological Theory
Biological Theory is a peer-reviewed scientific journal devoted to theoretical advances in the fields of evolution and cognition. It was established in 2005 and is published online and in hard copy by the MIT Press and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research....
(Altenberg). He was a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics
Council for Responsible Genetics
The Council for Responsible Genetics is a non-profit NGO with a focus on biotechnology.- History :The Council for Responsible Genetics was founded in 1983 in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
, Cambridge, MA and is a director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism
The Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism is a non-profit organization based in Nixon, Nevada for the purpose of political activism against the emergent field of population genetics for human migration research...
, Nixon, NV.
Newman's work in developmental biology
Developmental biology
Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis", which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.- Related fields of study...
includes a proposed mechanism for patterning of the vertebrate limb skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
based on the self-organization
Self-organization
Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning...
of embryonic tissues. He has also characterized a biophysical effect in extracellular matrices
Extracellular matrix
In biology, the extracellular matrix is the extracellular part of animal tissue that usually provides structural support to the animal cells in addition to performing various other important functions. The extracellular matrix is the defining feature of connective tissue in animals.Extracellular...
populated with cells or nonliving particles, "matrix-driven translocation," that provides a physical model for morphogenesis
Morphogenesis
Morphogenesis , is the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape...
of mesenchymal
Mesenchyme
Mesenchyme, or mesenchymal connective tissue, is a type of undifferentiated loose connective tissue that is derived mostly from mesoderm, although some are derived from other germ layers; e.g. some mesenchyme is derived from neural crest cells and thus originates from the ectoderm...
tissues. He is co-author, with the physicist Gabor Forgacs, of the textbook Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
His work in evolutionary biology includes a theory for the origination of the animal phyla. This is proposed to have been driven by new physical
Soft matter
Soft matter is a subfield of condensed matter comprising a variety of physical states that are easily deformed by thermal stresses or thermal fluctuations. They include liquids, colloids, polymers, foams, gels, granular materials, and a number of biological materials...
morphogenetic and patterning
Pattern formation
The science of pattern formation deals with the visible, orderly outcomes of self-organisation and the common principles behind similar patterns....
effects set into motion when the products of the ancient developmental toolkit genes first came to operate on the multicellular scale in the late Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...
-early Cambrian
Cambrian
The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...
. The resulting forms were then "locked in"
Canalisation (genetics)
Canalisation is a measure of the ability of a population to produce the same phenotype regardless of variability of its environment or genotype. In other words, it means robustness. The term canalisation was coined by C. H. Waddington...
by stabilizing selection
Stabilizing selection
-Description:Stabilizing or ambidirectional selection, , is a type of natural selection in which genetic diversity decreases as the population stabilizes on a particular trait value. This is probably the most common mechanism of action for natural selection...
.
With the evolutionary biologist Gerd B. Müller
Gerd Müller (theoretical biologist)
Gerd B. Müller is professor at the University of Vienna where he heads the Department of Theoretical Biology and is speaker of the Center for Organismal Systems Biology. His research interests focus on evolutionary innovation, evo-devo theory, and the extension of the Evolutionary Synthesis...
, Newman edited the book Origination of Organismal Form
Origination of Organismal Form
Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology is a book published in 2003 edited by Gerd B. Müller and Stuart A. Newman. It explores the multiple factors that may have been responsible for the origination of biological form in multicellular life...
(MIT Press, 2003). This book on evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology is a field of biology that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to determine the ancestral relationship between them, and to discover how developmental processes evolved...
is a collection of papers by various researchers on generative mechanisms that were plausibly involved in the origination of disparate body forms during the Ediacaran
Ediacaran
The Ediacaran Period , named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, is the last geological period of the Neoproterozoic Era and of the Proterozoic Eon, immediately preceding the Cambrian Period, the first period of the Paleozoic Era and of the Phanerozoic Eon...
and early Cambrian
Cambrian explosion
The Cambrian explosion or Cambrian radiation was the relatively rapid appearance, around , of most major phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record, accompanied by major diversification of other organisms, including animals, phytoplankton, and calcimicrobes...
periods. Particular attention is given to epigenetic
Epigenetics
In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence – hence the name epi- -genetics...
factors, such as physical determinants and environmental parameters, that may have led to the rapid emergence of body plan
Body plan
A body plan is the blueprint for the way the body of an organism is laid out. An organism's symmetry, its number of body segments and number of limbs are all aspects of its body plan...
s and organ forms during a period when multicellular organisms had relatively plastic
Phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
morphologies.
Newman has been an outspoken critic of proposed uses of developmental biology to modify human species identity
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
, including cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
and germline
Human genetic engineering
Human genetic engineering is the alteration of an individual's genotype with the aim of choosing the phenotype of a newborn or changing the existing phenotype of a child or adult....
genetic manipulation. In 1997, in order to encourage public discussion of emerging technologies along these lines, he applied for a U.S. patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
on a human-nonhuman chimera
Chimera (genetics)
A chimera or chimaera is a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic...
, a composite organism
Parahuman
A parahuman or para-human is a term used to describe a human-animal hybrid or chimera. Scientists have done extensive research into the mixing of genes or cells from different species, e.g...
arising from a mixture of embryonic cells of two or more species. Although the patent was ultimately denied, it raised Constitutional and moral questions and was the subject of numerous articles in the legal and philosophical literature.
See also
- Playing God argument
- Frankenstein argument
- ParahumanParahumanA parahuman or para-human is a term used to describe a human-animal hybrid or chimera. Scientists have done extensive research into the mixing of genes or cells from different species, e.g...