Bridget Carragher


Bridget Olivia Carragher is an American physicist and a pioneer in electron microscopy. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University, and together with Clint Potter the director of the National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, director of the Simons Electron Microscopy Center at New York Structural Biology Center and PI at the National Center for CryoEM Access and Training. She is also Founder and Chief Operations Officer of the company NanoImaging Services, Inc.

Personal life

Carragher was born and grew up in South Africa. Except for a short period, where she lived in Ghana during her childhood and for a one-year period in England, she moved to the US after her master's degree and has lived there since. Carragher is an American citizen, is married and has two children.

Education

Carragher received her first education at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, in the field of Physics. In 1982 she graduated from the Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. In the same year, she started her PhD at University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois defending in 1987.

Career

For almost her entire career, Carragher has been involved in the development of streamlined and automated methods for electron microscopy, aimed at improving both the quality of EM data as well as the accessibility of these techniques to the wider biological community. Her scientific career is a massive mixture of professional experience and activities.
After her PhD, Carragher worked in a variety of positions, both in industry and academia until moving to the Scripps Research Institute in 2001. Since 2002 she has served, together with Clint Potter, as the Director of the National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, an NIH funded national biotechnology research resource. The purpose of the NRAMM is to lead the way in the development and application of automated technologies for EM and in providing training at all levels.
In 2007 Carragher co-founded a new company, NanoImaging Services, Inc., where she serves as Chief Operations Officer. The company's goal is to provide cryoEM and other microscopy services to the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
In 2015 Carragher and Clint moved their academic lab from The Scripps Research Institute to the New York Structural Biology Center where they serve as Co-Directors of the Simons Electron Microscopy Center. In May 2018 they were awarded a U24 grant to start the National Center for CryoEM Access and Training.
YearPosition
1987 - 1988Research Associate, U. Chicago
1988 - 1990Senior Scientist, CEMAX Incorporated, Santa Clara, California
1990 - 1991Assistant Research Neuroscientist, Dept. of Neuroscience, UCSD
1992 - 1998Director, Optical Visualization Facility, Beckman Institute, UIUC
1994 - 2001Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept. of Cell and Structural Biology, UIUC
1996 - 1999Senior Research Scientist, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, UIUC
1998 - 2001Director, Imaging Technology Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC
2001 - 2012Associate Professor, Dept. of Cell Biology, The Scripps Research Institute. La Jolla, CA
2003–presentDirector, National Resource for Automated Molecular Microcopy
2007–presentFounder and Chief Science Officer, NanoImaging Services, Inc.
2012 - 2014Professor, Dept. of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute. La Jolla, CA
2015–presentDirector, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, NY, NY
2015–presentAdjunct Professor, Columbia University, New York, NY
2018–presentCo-PI, National Center for CryoEM Access and Training

Contribution to Science

During her career, Carragher published over 150 papers, received several research funding grantsand owns five patentsso far.

Patents

  • Smith PE, Callahan MP, Daniel I, Potter CS, Carragher B, Suloway CJ, inventors; Robotic system for sequencing multiple specimens between a holding tray and microscope. 2005, US 2005/0107917 A1.
  • Mulder A, Carragher B, Potter CS, inventors; Characterization of particulates using electron microscopy and image processing methods. 2011, Provisional. Filed 8/17/2011.
  • Carragher B, Potter CS, Jain T, inventors; Preparation of specimen arrays on an EM grid. 2012, Provisional. Filed 1/17/2012.
  • Carragher B, Potter CS, Jain T, inventors; Superhydrophilic specimen grids for electron microscopy. 2012, Provisional. Filed 1/17/2012.
  • Carragher B, Potter CS, Jain T, Kahn P, Wiktor P, inventors; Apparatus and method for producing specimens for electron microscopy. 2012, Provisional. Filed 1/17/2012.

    Five most significant contributions to the EM field

  5. Additional selected contributions to the EM field

''CryoEM automation''

Carragher was an early advocate for automated methods for electron microscopy. She developed software to analyze poorly ordered sickle cell hemoglobin fibers and went on to collaborate with Ron Milligan's group to develop a pipeline for helical processing. Together with Clint Potter, Carragher then led the development of , a system for automated control and data acquisition from an electron microscope, and , a pipeline for single particle data processing. Recently they showed that they could use this automated pipeline to obtain maps to a resolution of 2.8 Å.

''New technologies for TEM''

Carragher and her team have developed a number of novel technologies for transmission electron microscopy. These include Spotiton, an inkjet dispense and vitrification system for cryo-TEM, robotic devices to load TEM specimens into the microscope, liquid handling robots for controlling sample vitrification and negative staining, and new substrates, including one that led to grids that are now commercially available under the trade name .

''Contributions to structural biology''

The major goals of technology development have been driven by the needs of compelling biological research projects. These are normally managed by a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow who establishes close lines of communication between the EM group and the biological research lab. While their major role is to manage the technical efforts, they are often also intimately involved in guiding the biological questions and writing the papers. The first authors of these papers were all either graduate students or post-docs in Carragher's labs.

''Contributions to the field:''

Carragher has been involved in a number of efforts to validate and improve methods for the entire field. These include a particle picking workshop, the recent CTF challenge and a number of workshops organized by the EMDB to discuss standards and validation. She have also organized numerous workshops, including the well-regarded NRAMM biennial Advanced Methods Workshop that is attended by ≈150 participants.