Katharina Ribbeck

Katharina Ribbeck is a German-American biochemist and biophysicist. She is known for her work on mucus.[1] She studies both the function of mucus as a barrier to viruses and other pathogens[2][3][4] and the changes that cervical mucus undergoes before birth, which may lead to a novel diagnostic for risk of preterm birth.[5] She is the Hyman Career Development Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT.

Katharina Ribbeck
Born	Darmstadt, Germany
Alma mater	University of Heidelberg, Germany
Known for	Studies of the molecular mechanism by which the nuclear pore mediates selective transport, and how mucus manages pathogens.
Scientific career
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard University
Thesis	Mechanistic analysis of transport through the nuclear pore complex (2001)
Academic advisors	Dirk Görlich, Tim Mitchison, Ian Mattaj, Andrew Murray, Jan Ellenberg

Education

Ribbeck received her B.S. from the University of Heidelberg in 1998 and her Ph.D., also from the University of Heidelberg, in 2001.[6]

Career

During her Ph.D. work, Ribbeck investigated the selective transport of molecules through the nuclear pore complex,[7][8] which is partly mediated by a hydrogel barrier. After post-doctoral research, she moved to Harvard University as an independent Bauer Fellow in 2007, where she began to investigate how particles move through mucin hydrogels.[9] In 2010 she moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor.

Ribbeck has shown that purified foreign mucins can prevent viruses from infecting cells, and suggested that they could be used to supplement the anti-viral activity of native mucins.[10] She has also shown that mucins prevent bacteria such as the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus mutans, the bacterium that causes tooth decay, from forming biofilms, which make them hard to eradicate.[11] Mucins may also block fungal pathogens such as Candida albicans from becoming virulent in healthy humans.[11] She has extensively investigated the biophysical properties of mucus and other hydrogels and the mechanisms by which some particles and molecules selectively pass through the barrier.[12][13][14][15]

Ribbeck identified a correlation between the properties of the mucus in the cervix in pregnant women and the likelihood of preterm birth,[16] and has developed probes to test mucus permeability as a step towards diagnosis of risk for premature birth.[17] Additionally, Ribbeck was instrumental in founding the company ProMuc Inc., a company that develops synthetic mucins for lubrication and antimicrobial applications.

Ribbeck also studies hydrogels produced by pathogens, and has found that the extracellular matrix formed by the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa protects the bacterium against antibiotics.[18]

Awards

• 2003: Ruprecht-Karls Prize Heidelberg University[19]
• 2007: Award for Genome-Related Research (Merck)[20]
• 2013: John Kendrew Award (EMBL).[21]
• 2014: Popular Science, "Brilliant 10"[22]
• 2015: NSF CAREER award[23]
• 2015: Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching (MIT)[24]
• 2016: Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award (MIT)[25]
• 2018: Professor Amar G. Bose Research Grant (MIT), given for "work that is unorthodox, and potentially world-changing".[26]

References

1. "WATCH: Why mucus is the 'unsung hero' of the human body". STAT. 2018-01-17. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
2. "Mucus Is Beneficial In The Fight Against Bacteria". Medical News Today. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
3. Walter, Kenny (2017-04-27). "Synthetic Mucus Helps Fight Antibiotic Resistance". Research & Development. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
4. Trafton, Anne. "The science of slime". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
5. "Test of cervical mucus may reveal pregnant women's risk of going into labor too early". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
6. "Universität Heidelberg". www.uni-heidelberg.de. Retrieved 2019-04-07.
7. Ribbeck, K.; Kutay, U.; Paraskeva, E.; Görlich, D. (1999-01-14). "The translocation of transportin-cargo complexes through nuclear pores is independent of both Ran and energy". Current Biology. 9 (1): 47–50. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(99)80046-3. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-002D-1CB6-0. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 9889126.
8. Ribbeck, Katharina; Görlich, Dirk (2002-06-03). "The permeability barrier of nuclear pore complexes appears to operate via hydrophobic exclusion". The EMBO Journal. 21 (11): 2664–2671. doi:10.1093/emboj/21.11.2664. ISSN 0261-4189. PMC 126029. PMID 12032079.
9. Lieleg, Oliver; Vladescu, Ioana; Ribbeck, Katharina (2010-05-19). "Characterization of particle translocation through mucin hydrogels". Biophysical Journal. 98 (9): 1782–1789. Bibcode:2010BpJ....98.1782L. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2010.01.012. ISSN 1542-0086. PMC 2862156. PMID 20441741.
10. Lieleg, Oliver; Lieleg, Corinna; Bloom, Jesse; Buck, Christopher B.; Ribbeck, Katharina (2012-06-11). "Mucin biopolymers as broad-spectrum antiviral agents". Biomacromolecules. 13 (6): 1724–1732. doi:10.1021/bm3001292. ISSN 1526-4602. PMC 3597216. PMID 22475261.
11. Kwon, Diana. "Mucus: The Body's Unsung Hero". Scientific American. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
12. Li, Leon D.; Crouzier, Thomas; Sarkar, Aniruddh; Dunphy, Laura; Han, Jongyoon; Ribbeck, Katharina (2013-09-17). "Spatial configuration and composition of charge modulates transport into a mucin hydrogel barrier". Biophysical Journal. 105 (6): 1357–1365. Bibcode:2013BpJ...105.1357L. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2013.07.050. ISSN 1542-0086. PMC 3785869. PMID 24047986.
13. Witten, Jacob; Ribbeck, Katharina (2017-06-22). "The particle in the spider's web: transport through biological hydrogels". Nanoscale. 9 (24): 8080–8095. doi:10.1039/c6nr09736g. ISSN 2040-3372. PMC 5841163. PMID 28580973.
14. Chen, Wesley G.; Witten, Jacob; Grindy, Scott C.; Holten-Andersen, Niels; Ribbeck, Katharina (2017-11-07). "Charge Influences Substrate Recognition and Self-Assembly of Hydrophobic FG Sequences". Biophysical Journal. 113 (9): 2088–2099. Bibcode:2017BpJ...113.2088C. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2017.08.058. ISSN 1542-0086. PMC 5685782. PMID 29117531.
15. Wagner, C. E.; Wheeler, K. M.; Ribbeck, K. (2018). "Mucins and Their Role in Shaping the Functions of Mucus Barriers". Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. 34: 189–215. doi:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-100617-062818. ISSN 1530-8995. PMID 30296390.
16. Critchfield, Agatha S.; Yao, Grace; Jaishankar, Aditya; Friedlander, Ronn S.; Lieleg, Oliver; Doyle, Patrick S.; McKinley, Gareth; House, Michael; Ribbeck, Katharina (2013). "Cervical mucus properties stratify risk for preterm birth". PLOS ONE. 8 (8): e69528. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...869528C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069528. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3731331. PMID 23936335.
17. Smith-Dupont, K. B.; Wagner, C. E.; Witten, J.; Conroy, K.; Rudoltz, H.; Pagidas, K.; Snegovskikh, V.; House, M.; Ribbeck, K. (2017-09-04). "Probing the potential of mucus permeability to signify preterm birth risk". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 10302. Bibcode:2017NatSR...710302S. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-08057-z. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5583328. PMID 28871085.
18. Billings, Nicole; Millan, MariaRamirez; Caldara, Marina; Rusconi, Roberto; Tarasova, Yekaterina; Stocker, Roman; Ribbeck, Katharina (2013). "The extracellular matrix Component Psl provides fast-acting antibiotic defense in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms". PLoS Pathogens. 9 (8): e1003526. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003526. ISSN 1553-7374. PMC 3738486. PMID 23950711.
19. "Aus der Stiftung Universität Heidelberg - Universität Heidelberg". www.uni-heidelberg.de. Retrieved 2019-04-07.
20. "MERCK PRESENTS 2007 AWARDS FOR GENOME-RELATED RESEARCH". Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology. 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
21. "Alumni Awards - The John Kendrew Award - EMBL". www.embl.de. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
22. "The Brilliant Ten of 2014". Popular Science. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
23. "NSF Award Search: Award#1454673 - CAREER: SELECTIVE TRANSPORT IN BIOLOGICAL HYDROGELS - FROM DESIGN PRINCIPLES TO MECHANISMS". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
24. "MIT School of Engineering | » Teaching Awards". Mit Engineering. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
25. "Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award". MIT Institutional Research. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
26. "Bose grants for 2018 fund research at the frontier of discovery". MIT News. Retrieved 2019-02-13.

External links

• The Ribbeck lab
• How mucus keeps you healthy (YouTube)