Gerald Schatten


Gerald Schatten is an American stem cell researcher with interests in cell, developmental, and reproductive biology. He is Professor and Vice-Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also Director of the Division of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine at the university's School of Medicine. Additionally, he is Deputy Director of the Magee-Womens Research Institute and Director of the Pittsburgh Development Center.

Early life and education

Schatten was born in 1949 in New York City and was educated in the public school system, including at Stuyvesant High School. He graduated with an A.B. in Zoology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology.

Academic career

Schatten was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for 1976-1977 to conduct mentored research under the direction of Daniel Mazia at UC Berkeley. He was also awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the German Cancer Research Center.
1976-1985 he was Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor of Biological Sciences and Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University; while there, he received a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award.
1985–1997 he was Professor of Zoology, Molecular Biology, Animal Science and Obstetrics-Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Here he was also director of the Integrated Microscopy Resource and Senior Scientist at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and at the Waisman Center for Human Development.
1997–2001 he was Professor and Vice-Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Oregon Health & Science University and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. He was also Research Director of OHSU’s enter for Women’s Health, as well as Director of Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center.
2001 – present he was Professor and Vice-Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also Director of the Division of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine at the School of Medicine. Additionally, he is Deputy Director of the Magee-Women's Research Institute and Director of the Pittsburgh Development Center.
Throughout his academic career, Schatten has also conducted research and taught at various other institutions. During 1985-1986, he was an Instructor in Molecular Embryology of the Mouse at the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory and a Resident Instructor of Embryology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. From 1986-1987, he held a visiting professorship at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University.

Research

Schatten's research focuses on imaging, cell biology, cell motility, cell architecture, human and other primates assisted reproductive technology, reproductive and cell aging, cloning, transgenesis, and stem cells. His research has been funded through the National Institutes of Health as well as the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the NASA.
Schatten’s work has been published extensively in many journals, such as Science, Nature, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Nature Cell Biology, Journal of Cell Biology, Genetics, Development, Developmental Biology, Biology of Reproduction, Human Reproduction, and the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics.

Fertilization and reproduction

Schatten’s work on fertilization examines the differential inheritance of cellular components contributed by the sperm and egg, respectively, as well as the program of oocyte activation and cell division during meiosis and mitosis. His group has demonstrated the importance of the sperm centrosome-centriole complex during mammalian fertilization, with the unexpected exception of rodents in which the centrosome is of maternal origin.

Imaging and microscopy

Schatten also made contributions to imaging and microscopy. In his first published paper, he demonstrated the utility of polylysine and other engineered peptides that could adhere to cells, embryos, and intracellular structures for various microscopic applications and purifications. This technology is now widely applied and has solved the problem of holding cells for imaging. His team also published findings on imaging calcium and other ion transients in egg, embryos and cells, as well as dynamic architectural alternations during fertilization and cell division.

Transgenesis and stem cells

His more recent research has focused on the use of human and primate stem cells to determine the potential of stem cell-based medical therapies and better understand cell and human development; the study of genetic versus epigenetic causes for human disease; cloned transgenic disease modeling .

Bioethical considerations

Schatten has also published on the topic of scientific ethics, including a 1998 piece on bio-ethical aspects of ART, "Art before Science?", in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics as well as a 2002 article in Nature Cell Biology titled "Safeguarding ART". Soon after, Schatten helped expose cloning frauds both by the Raelians and by a Korean lab he had links to. More recently, in 2009, he commented on the utilities and limitations of human disease modeling in genetically modified monkeys in the journal Nature.

Research misbehavior

In 2005, Schatten came to widespread media attention when he broke off his 20-month collaboration with Hwang Woo-suk, a Korean stem cell researcher, after reporting first ethical, and later scientific, lapses. In 2004 and 2005, Hwang claimed that his lab at the Seoul National University had successfully extracted stem cells from cloned human embryos, a statement later proved false. Science retracted both the 2004 article, in which Schatten had no involvement, and the 2005 article, on which he was listed as an author, and which he helped publicize. Schatten also received money from Hwang. Schatten called for an investigation by his university, the University of Pittsburgh, in 2005. Finished in February 2006, the investigation committee concluded that "Dr. Schatten shirked these responsibilities, a serious failure that facilitated the publication of falsified experiments in Science magazine. While this failure would not strictly constitute research misconduct as narrowly defined by University of Pittsburgh policies, it would be an example of research misbehavior."

Research mentoring

Schatten has trained twenty doctoral and thirty postdoctoral fellows and he serves on the executive board of UNESCO’s International Cell Research Organization, a body devoted exclusively to research career training and mentorship. With Roger Pedersen, Schatten established "Frontiers in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research", an NIH-sponsored advanced training course for new and established investigators. As with his National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-sponsored "Frontiers in Reproduction" course at the Woods Hole laboratory, this endeavor brings physician-scientists together with non-clinical counterparts for full-time, side-by-side, hands-on research training.

Awards and honors

Schatten’s honors include: NIH Sadler Lectureship ; NIH MERIT award ; the Purkinje Medal awarded by the Czech Academy of Sciences; Daniel Mazia Award from Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station ; Elected Fellow and Delegate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Patrick Steptoe Medal of the British Fertility Society ; the Stem Cell and Policy Award from the Genetics Policy Institute ; Pioneer in Embryonic Stem Cell Research awarded by FrhESC at Stanford University and Council Member of the National Institute of Aging. Schatten has also lectured widely and testified for the United States Senate, The President's Council on Bioethics, and the United Nations.

Selected publications