BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
6
MAY
2014
JoeMindell
spent a lot of time as a childwonderinghow thingsworked.He benefited fromhaving an
engineer for a father.Mindell says, “He understood and explained the innerworkings of things beau-
tifully tomy brother andme.He had a very practical understanding of these things that profoundly
openedup theworld tous.” In addition to regularly taking books aboutmath and science out of the
library,Mindell looked forward to the elementary school science fair every year, so that he coulddelve
into a project thatwoulddeepenhis understanding of theworld aroundhim.
Inhigh school,Mindell became interested inphysics, especially inhow it explained theworld around
him.He thought that hemightmajor inphysics upon enteringYaleUniversity, but he explains, “At the
time, physics itself seemed focusedon elementary particles, whichwere far enough from the everyday
world that they didn’t drawme in.”He began taking
classes inneuroscience, where hewas first exposed to
the idea of solving biological problemswith concepts
fromphysics. Around the same time,Mindell read
TheDoubleHelix
by
JamesD.Watson
, and “was
struckbyWatson talking about howunderstanding
helical diffraction required thinking about Bessel
functions. And even though I didn’t knowwhat
thosewere, it clearly confirmed the connectionbe-
tweenmathematical thinking andbiological problem
solving”Mindell says. These formative experiences convincedMindell to studymolecular biophysics
andbiochemistry, inwhichhe receivedhis Bachelor of Science degree.
After graduating fromYale, he studied at Albert EinsteinCollege ofMedicine and earned a combined
MD-PhD.He completedhis PhDwork in
AlanFinkelstein’s
lab, using electrostatic analysis of charges
ondiphtheria toxin channels as a tool tomap theirmembrane topology.He then completed a residency
at Brigham andWomen’sHospital with an eye towardbecoming a nephrologist, due tohis interest
in renal salt transport.Mindell found, however, that hewasmore drawn to a life in research than to
pursuing a career as amedical doctor, sohe joined
ChristopherMiller’s
lab at BrandeisUniversity as
a postdoc. InMiller’s lab,Mindell workedon theClC family of chloride channels. “For the first few
years Iwas cloningnewhomologs of the family from the shark, whichhas an interesting salt transport
system.Unfortunately, in the end, the proteins I foundwere frustrating, as they didnot lend themselves
to furtherwork,” he says.
He thenbegan toworkonmembrane protein structural biology.Mindell says, “Iwas able to form
two-dimensional crystals of aClCwhich led to the first structural pictures of this family of proteins.”
Soon afterMindell leftMiller’s lab, however,Miller discovered that the proteinMindell hadworkedon
was not a channel at all, but rather a proton-coupled chloride transporter.Givenhis previous interest
in transporters, fromhis daysworkingwithkidneys,Mindell decided to embrace this revelation.He
explains, “Iwentwith it and gradually shiftedmywhole lab to study transporters, which are generally
much lesswell understood than ion channels.”
Mindell continues toworkwith transporters today, as a Senior Investigator in the intramural program
at theNational Institute ofNeurologicalDisorders andStroke,NIH.His lab studies structure-function
“
Our contactwith the
peoplearoundushas
tremendous influenceon
ourwork...
”
–
JoeMindell
Biophysicist in Profile
JOE MINDELL
