Amon was born and raised in Vienna, Austria.[10] She displayed an early interest in plant and animal biology as a child, keeping a notebook full of newspaper clippings, and was motivated to study biology after learning about Mendelian genetics and seeing time-lapse micrographs of the division of plant cells in middle school.[10][12]
Amon's independent work at the Whitehead Institute led directly to her securing a faculty appointment at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT in 1999,[10] the same year she received the Presidential Early Career Award and was named a Howard S. and Linda B. Stern Career Development Assistant Professor.[13] Amon became an associate investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2000,[14] and was promoted to full professor at MIT in 2007; she had earlier achieved tenure as an assistant professor.[15]
Amon was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017, by which time she had been named the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor of Cancer Research at MIT.[19] She was conferred the Vilcek Prize two years later, in recognition of her as one who had "made extraordinary contributions to their fields" while being a foreign-born researcher in the United States.[10]
Personal life
Amon was married to Johannes Weis. Together, they had two daughters (Theresa and Clara).[12][20] She died on October 29, 2020. She was 53, and suffered from ovarian cancer in the two-and-a-half years leading up to her death.[20]
Amon's research has investigated how cells control and organize the segregation of their chromosomes during cell division. More specifically, her research examines the regulation of exit from mitosis, the regulation of the meiotic cell cycle, and effects of aneuploidy on normal physiology and tumorigenesis.
As a student under Nasmyth, Amon made significant discoveries related to the biosynthesis and breakdown of cyclins during the cell cycle.[10] More specifically, she demonstrated that CDC28 protein kinase is not required for the metaphase to anaphase transition and CLB2 proteolysis continues until reactivation of CDC28 toward the end of G1.[21][22]
During her time as a post-doctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute in the 1990s, Amon turned from yeast to fruit flies in the laboratory of Ruth Lehmann, though she found fruit flies to be a far less attractive model than yeast; "once you had worked with yeast, you were spoiled", she said.[10]
The Amon lab primarily investigates yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as a model for understanding the controls that govern cell-cycle progression and received an Early Career Award grant, a PECAS award, from he NIH for this work in 1998.[1][23] The PECAS is "the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers".[24] As a Whitehead Fellow, her team discovered that CDC20 plays a crucial role in cell division.[25] Her Whitehead team identified an interaction between phosphatase and CDC14 which initiates the exit of cells from mitosis to the G1 phase.[10][26] Amon's team demonstrated that CDC20 is the target protein in the spindle checkpoint during mitosis.[27]
Amon's more recent work has investigated the regulation of chromosome segregation and how chromosomes are accurately transmitted to gametes in meiosis by examining gene regulatory networks. She identified two regulatory networks (FEAR and MEN) that promote the release of CDC14 which have the potential to identify the mechanisms that control the final stages of the mitotic cell cycle.[28][29][30][31]
Her research group recently created haploid yeast cells containing extra copies of chromosomes and discovered that these aneuploid strains elicit phenotypes independent of the identity of the additional chromosome such as defects in cell cycle progression, increased energy demands, and interference with protein biosynthesis.[32] Amon has also examined trisomy in the mouse as a model of mammalian cell growth and physiology and demonstrated that mammalian aneuploidy results in a stress response analogous to yeast aneuploidy.[33] Amon's aneuploidy research has potential applications to cancer research.[34] She found that aneuploidy can interfere with a cell's normal DNA repair mechanisms, allowing mutations to accumulate in tumor cells.[35]
^ ab"Alan T. Waterman Award Recipients". Office of the Director, National Science Foundation. 2003. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2009. For her seminal contributions to understanding how cells orchestrate the segregation of their chromosomes during cell division, the key process of life.
^ abThomson, Elizabeth A. (October 3, 2007). "Amon, Golub win cancer prize". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved October 29, 2019. Amon was cited for her work in studying how chromosomes segregate during cell division....
^ ab"Paul Marks Prize Recognizes Three Young Cancer Researchers" (Press release). Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. September 26, 2007. Retrieved October 29, 2019. Dr. Amon combines genetic, biochemical, and cell biology techniques to study the regulation of cell division in the budding yeast S. cerevisiae, an important model organism for studying cellular behavior.
^ ab"Academy Honors 13 for Major Contributions to Science" (Press release). Office of News and Public Information, National Academies. January 22, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2019. for groundbreaking studies that have provided insight into the mechanism of the central process of chromosome segregation and the regulation of segregation
^ ab"Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science". Office of Research. Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Retrieved October 29, 2019. Nominees for the Vanderbilt Prize must be women scientists in any area of basic or clinical research or clinical practice. The nominee must have a national reputation, a stellar record of research accomplishments, and must be an active mentor of other women in science.
^ abcAmon, Angelika (March 21, 2007). "Besser forschen in den USA" [Better research in the US]. Der Standard (Interview) (in German). Interviewed by Margarete Endl. Vienna, Austria. Archived from the original on January 14, 2013.
^Sharp, Phillip A. (June 19, 2003). "MIT Reports to the President 1998–99". MIT Reports to the President. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved October 29, 2019. One new faculty member, Angelika Amon, arrived during the past year to assume a position as an Assistant Professor and set up her laboratory in the Center for Cancer Research.
^Silbey, Robert J. (June 19, 2003). "Department of Biology, Annual Reports to the President: 1999–2000". MIT Reports to the President. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved October 29, 2019. Of particular note is the awarding of Howard Hughes Medical Investigator status to three of our young faculty: Professor Sebastian Seung (BCS), Professor Angelika Amon (Biology and CCR) and Professor Steven Bell (Biology).
^Hwang, Lena; Lau, Lucius; Smith, Dana; Mistrot, Cathy; Harwick, Kevin; Hwang, Ellen; Angelika, Amon; Murray, Andrew (1998). "Budding yeast CDC20: A Target of the Spindle Checkpoint". Science. 279 (5353): 1041–4. Bibcode:1998Sci...279.1041H. doi:10.1126/science.279.5353.1041. PMID9461437.
^"Angelika Amon, Ph.D."Our Scientists. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. February 25, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2019. Dr. Amon is a professor at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
^Trafton, Anne (October 17, 2018). "Angelika Amon wins 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved October 29, 2019. Angelika Amon, an MIT professor of biology, is one of five scientists who will receive a 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, given for transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life.
Further reading
A description of the Amon laboratory's work composed by Angelika Amon: Amon, Angelika (February 25, 2016). "Causes and Consequences of Aneuploidy". Biomedical Research Programs. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Retrieved October 28, 2019.