Fowler showed that tropomodulin's function is critical for development of the heart and blood cells, and for proper function of many cells and tissues, including eye lens, neurons in the brain, epithelial cells lining the gut, endothelial cells lining blood vessels, as well as platelets, red blood cells. It is required for efficient muscle contraction in both skeletal and cardiac muscles.
“I started with a molecule that had a function in one tissue, and I thought the function had to happen in these other tissues,” she said. “I connected the dots.”
Recently, Fowler was part of a team that discovered that a mutation in the tropomodulin proteins which prevents the protein from functioning properly causes a severe inherited cardiomyopathy in children. This is the first time the protein’s function has been directly linked to heart disease in humans. The research was published earlier this month in the journal Communication Biology.
Fowler was recently recognized as a 2023 Lifetime Fellow of the American Society of Cell Biologists (ASCB), partly for her work on tropomodulin. She is one of 19 scientists from around the world to receive the honor this year. The society includes the top researchers in the field and counts several Nobel Prize winners as members.
“Dr. Fowler has advanced our understanding of fundamental questions in cell biology,” Jia Song, associate professor of biological sciences, said in her letter nominating Fowler for the award. “Her groundbreaking work, published in more than 140 research articles, has significantly advanced our understanding of actin cytoskeletal function in architecture and behavior of diverse cells.”
Her advice for young scientists? Have a hypothesis, do good experiments, follow your notes, read widely and look for connections, especially when things don’t work as expected, as that may lead to the next experiment.
“You might show her something and you're not proud of it because it didn't work, but she's always wants to know that,” said Dimitri Diaz, a doctoral student in the lab. “Sometimes she loves the negative data more than the positive in some regards, because negative data doesn't mean it’s bad. It just means it didn’t work.”
Fowler attributes her long and prestigious career to lifelong curiosity and being comfortable with risk and uncertainty.
“Something I personally discovered because I was curious and thought about it has now been written into a textbook as 'this is how muscle filament lengths are regulated.’ I like that,” she said with a smile.
Article by Hilary Douwes
Photos by Evan Krape
Photo illustration by Jeffrey C. Chase
February 29, 2024