Beckman Center Administration

Lucy Shapiro, Ph.D., is a molecular developmental biologist who, in 1989, created and chaired the Department of Developmental Biology.

Dr. Shapiro cultivated a single organism into one of the most powerful experimental systems for understanding the control of the bacterial cell cycle and the establishment of cell fate. Her research with Caulobacter has yielded fundamental insights and has created valuable paradigms for understanding the bacterial cell as an integrated system in which the transcriptional circuitry is interwoven with the three-dimensional deployment of key regulatory and morphological proteins.

In pioneering work, Dr. Shapiro initiated the "cell biology" of prokaryotes, resulting in the first demonstration that proteins, such as chemoreceptors and signaling proteins, are dynamically localized in the cell, adding a spatial dimension to regulatory networks. Dr. Shapiro has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including the Canada Gairdner International Award and the National Medal of Science.