biology

Marianne Bronner

Marianne Bronner is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Marianne Bronner rather than just read about it. In short: Marianne Bronner (born 1952) is a developmental biologist who currently serves as Edward B. Lewis Professor of Biology and an executive officer for Neurobiology at the California Institute of Technology.

Key takeaways

Marianne Bronner belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Marianne Bronner to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Marianne Bronner from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Marianne Bronner (born 1952) is a developmental biologist who currently serves as Edward B. Lewis Professor of Biology and an executive officer for Neurobiology at the California Institute of Technology. Her most notable work includes her research on the neural crest. focusing on the study of cellular events behind the migration, differentiation, and formation of neural crest cells. She currently directs her own laboratory at the California Institute of Technology called the Bronner Laboratory, and she has authored over 400 articles in her field.

Early years Bronner was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1952 to parents who were both survivors of the Holocaust. When she was four, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 prompted her family to flee Hungary into Austria, where they stayed for six months before immigrating to the United States.

Education and career Bronner attended Brown University for her undergraduate studies in 1971. After she graduated from Brown University in 1975, she decided to apply to the biophysics graduate school program at Johns Hopkins University. Once there, she decided to take an undergraduate course in developmental biology, joining Alan Cohen's laboratory. From there, she continued to specialise in the field, completing her thesis in 1977 on neural crest cell developmental potential by injecting an individual quail neural crest cell (which Cohen had cloned) into a chicken embryo and studying how the cell developed. Once Bronner graduated from Johns Hopkins University with her Ph.D. in 1979, she began teaching at the University of California, Irvine. Bronner spent 16 years at the university teaching and researching and eventually became the associate director of the Developmental Biology Center. In 1988, Bronner and her husband, fellow biophysicist Scott Fraser, did a study that showed neural crest cells being multipotent in an embryo for the first time. A similar study in 2015 via different methods showed similar results. She was promoted to a Professor at University of California, Irvine in 1990. In 1996, Bronner left the University of California, Irvine and moved her laboratory to the California Institute of Technology. In 2001, Bronner became Chair of the Faculty at the California Institute of Technology, being the first woman to hold the position. She held that position for two years before becoming the director of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology in 2019.

The Bronner Laboratory Bronner has been directing a laboratory at the California Institute of Technology since she first arrived at the university. The lab focuses most of its research on how neural crest cells arise, the factors involving their migration from the neural tube to different positions in the embryo, and the evolution of these cells. One project focuses on characterizing the structures involved with neural crest cell movements. Another project in the lab focuses on comparing the mechanisms behind neural crest invasive behavior and the mechanisms that allow for adult derivatives to become migratory and invasive.

Personal life Bonner married Scott Fraser, a fellow biophysicist, whom she worked with on several studies. She has two children, and was one of the few women in her fields to be a mother in addition to her work.

Awards and honors Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science (2025) Elected member, National Academy of Sciences (2015) American Academy of Arts & Science, Fellow (2009) Edwin G. Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology (2013) Women in Cell Biology Senior Leadership Award (2012) BUSAC Award for Excellence in Teaching (2001 & 2005) Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke (2002–2009) ASCIT Award for Excellence in Teaching (1997 & 1998) Distinguished Research Award from the University of California, Irvine (1994)

Professional societies Bekman Institute at California Institution of Technology, director (2019–present) International Society for Differentiation, president (2013–2014) International Society for Developmental Biology, secretary (2010–2013) Gordon Research Conferences, board of directors (2006–2013), chair (2012) Society for Developmental Biology, president (2009) Sontag Foundation, scientific advisory board member (2006–present) American Society for Cell Biology, council member (1994–1997)

Selected publications Rogers CD, Saxena A, Bronner ME. Sip1 mediates an E-cadherin-to-N-cadherin switch during cranial neural crest EMT. J. Cell Biol. 2013 Dec 9;203(5):835-47. doi: 10.1083/jcb.201305050. Epub 2013 Dec 2. Barembaum, M. and Bronner, M. E. (2013) Identification and dissection of a key enhancer mediating cranial neural crest specific expression of transcription factor, Ets-1. Dev. Biol. (in press). Hochgreb-Hägele, T. and Bronner, M.E. (2013) Zebrafish stem/progenitor factor msi2b exhibits two phases of activity mediated by different splice variants. Stem Cells (in press). Simões-Costa M, Bronner ME. (2013) Insights into neural crest development and evolution from genommic analysis. Genome Res. 23, 1069-80 Saxena, A., Peng, B. and Bronner, M.E. (2013) Sox10-dependent neural crest origin for olfactory microvillous neurons. eLife e00336. Smith, J., et al., (2013) Sequencing of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) genome provides insights into vertebrate evolution. Nat Genet. 45, 415–21. Simões-Costa, M.*, McKeown, S.*, Tan-Cabugoa, J., Sauka-Spengler, T. and Bronner, M.E. (2012) Dynamic and differential regulation of stem cell factor FoxD3 in the neural crest is encrypted in the genome PLoS. Genetics e1003142. Green SA, Bronner ME. (2012) Gene duplication and the early evolution of neural crest development. Semin Cell Dev Biol. S1084-9521(12)00230-3 Hu, N., Strobl-Mazzulla, P., Sauka-Spengler, T., Bronner, M.E. (2012) DNA methyltransferase3A as a molecular switch mediating the neural tube to neural crest fate transition. Genes and Development 26, 2380–5.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marianne Bronner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marianne Bronner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Marianne Bronner before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Marianne Bronner ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Marianne Bronner

In research: Marianne Bronner appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Marianne Bronner in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Marianne Bronner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American biologists, 20th-century American women biologists, 21st-century American biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marianne Bronner outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Marianne Bronner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
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Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Marianne Bronner in simple terms?

Why does Marianne Bronner matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Marianne Bronner?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Marianne Bronner.