Melanie H. Cobb

Melanie Cobb was the first to purify and clone mammalian MAP kinases, now known as universal elements of signaling pathways. She elucidated the mechanism of activation of ERK1 and ERK2 by phosphorylation, their cascades, how they regulate gene expression, and their role as central regulators of human diseases including cancer; thus, establishing ERKs as the prototypical MAP kinases. Cobb's work on these and many other important protein kinases established core principles in the field of signal transduction and provided foundational knowledge about how phosphorylation pathways are activated in response to external signals to control mammalian cell proliferation and differentiation.