Bhanu Pratap Jena is an American cell biologist and the "George E. Palade University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Physiology" at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, who in the mid 1990s discovered the porosome, demonstrated to be the universal secretory machinery at the plasma membrane in cells
Biography
Jena was born in Jajpur, small town in Orissa, India, on November 1, 1955, to Manju and Prafulla Jena. He majored in Chemistry, Zoology and Botany from BJB College in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India and studied Zoology at Utkal University, Orissa,. Following four years of lectureship at various colleges in Utkal University, in 1982 Jena received a teaching and research fellowship from Iowa State University, to pursue studies leading to a doctorate degree. In December 1988, he received his Ph.D. degree in Zoology, Following postdoctoral studies at Iowa State and Yale Universities, Jena joined Yale University as an Assistant Professor, and in 2000, joined as Professor in the Department of Physiology, at Wayne State UniversitySchool of Medicine.
Scientific Discoveries
Using Atomic force microscope on live cells, Jena was the first to report the discovery of a new cellular structure the Porosome in the mid 1990s. The Porosome are permanent supramolecular structures at the cell Plasma membrane, where secretory Vesicle dock and fuse to release intravesicular contents to the outside of the cell. This discovery was a major breakthrough in our understanding of cell secretion. The Porosome, has been determined as the universal secretory machinery in cells, from exocrine cells of the pancreas, to neuroendocrine cells, and neurons. Jena and his research team has determined the structure and dynamics of the Porosome in live cells, at nm resolution and in real time. The structure of the Porosome was further confirmed by electron microscopy in whole cells, and in isolated Porosome preparations. The isolated Porosome has been both structurally and functionally reconstituted in lipid membrane and live cells, and its composition determined. The discovery of the Porosome, and an understanding of its structure, function, composition, and reconstitution, has opened a new field in cell biology; nano cell biology.
