Biophysical Newsletter - August 2014

4

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2014

AUGUST

Biophysicist in Profile

GABRIELA AMODEO California redwoods first inspired Gabriela Amodeo ’s interest in plant science. The sheer size of the trees sparked her curiosity. “Since childhood,” she explains, “I was impressed with a photograph of the tallest trees in nature, and I was puzzled with the idea of how nature could deal with altitude and water transport to and from the tiny leaves on top of these trees: water, gravity, fluids, tension…inadvertently, I was looking at nature with biophysical eyes!” Amodeo’s parents were very encouraging of her curiosity and academic interests, and always had books available for her. Thus, she became a voracious reader. She says, “Reading was like breathing. I grew up with Encyclopedia Britannica , among many other books. I was taught to look at the books to find answers.” Given her interest in botanical questions, Amodeo decided to study biology. When she took her first plant physiology class, she knew that she had found the right course of study for her.

Amodeo completed her bachelor’s degree in biology at the National University of the South in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, the city where she grew up. She continued at the university for her graduate program, studying ion channels in plant cells. “The first time I was invited to a laboratory to watch an experiment in electrophysiology, "Amodeo remembers, “ I saw an oscilloscope trace signal. I was told that the signal was produced by a live ion channel opening and closing at regular intervals: ions moving through a cell membrane!” She began using electrophysiology techniques, specifically patch clamping isolated vacuoles, isolated from an algae ( Chara corallina ), and later in her work continued on ion channels in onion ( Allium cepa ) guard cells. Early on, Amodeo had great difficulty with this tech- nique. She explains, “Patch clamping plant cells is kind of tricky—not as easy as with animal cells. For some reason it is difficult to obtain good seals. I thought I would never see a nice and clean result out of my setup.” After this difficult start, she was able to move forward with her thesis work. It was during her time in graduate school that Amodeo met Ariel Escobar at a bio- physics meeting in Tigre, Argentina, and her research impressed him even then. “She was a real pioneer,” he remembers,

“ I was impressed with a photo- graph of the tallest trees in nature, and I was puzzled with the idea of how nature could deal with alti- tude and water transport to and from the tiny leaves ” – Gabriela Amodeo

Amodeo (left) with members of her lab.