chemistry

Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann

Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann is a chemistry 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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann rather than just read about it. In short: Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann (9 November 1954 – 4 September 2015) was a Swiss biochemist and cell biologist working on interactions in the extracellular matrix. Life Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann was born in Zürich.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann (9 November 1954 – 4 September 2015) was a Swiss biochemist and cell biologist working on interactions in the extracellular matrix.

Life Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann was born in Zürich. She received her Ph.D. from the ETH Zürich in 1981. Her mentors were Hans M. Eppenberger and David C. Turner. As a postdoctoral fellow she worked with Robert Dottin at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, US. In 1984 she joined the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel as a Junior group leader and was promoted to Senior group leader in 1993. In 2006 she was appointed as Adjunct Professor (Titularprofessorin) at the University of Basel. She was a board member of the Swiss Cancer League and the Cancer League of Basel, and chaired the Swiss Society for Connective Tissue Research. She served as a Council Member of the International Society for Matrix Biology. At the age of 60, she died suddenly at her home in Pratteln, near Basel.

Career Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann's research focused on the influence of the extracellular matrix on cell behavior, a very new field at the time. Today it is recognized that different matrix proteins influence cell adhesion, cell growth and migration, tissue morphology and signal transduction in specific and decisive ways. Chiquet-Ehrismann contributed pioneering work on the tenascin gene family of matricellular proteins, of which some members were discovered, cloned and sequenced by her group. Different tenascins have related domain organisations and their 3-6 subunits oligomerize into star-like structures ("hexabrachion"). Tenascin C interferes with the adhesion of many cells to fibronectin, which led to the concept that it is anti-adhesive. Tenascin C accumulates in the stroma of carcinomas and is a sensitive tumor marker that is involved in cancer metastasis. More recently, Chiquet-Ehrismann and her group discovered roles for tenascin C and tenascin W in stem cell and cancer metastatic niches, and elucidated how tenascin C expression is controlled by the transcription factor MKL1, that links cellular mechanosensation to fibrosis and cancer progression. Chiquet-Ehrismann and her group also discovered the teneurin gene family. These type II trans-membrane proteins are conserved throughout animals and function in germ cell development, neuronal pathfinding and CNS development. The cleaved intracellular domain functions in transcriptional regulation.During 31 years of work at the Friedrich Miescher Institute, Chiquet-Ehrismann guided a very active research group. Many Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows emerged from this group, who continue to develop the field of matrix research. She won the Huggenberger-Bischoff Prize for Cancer Research in 1990.

Key publications Chiquet-Ehrismann, R., Kalla, P., Pearson, C. A., Beck, K., and Chiquet, M. (1988). Tenascin interferes with fibronectin action. Cell 53, 383–390. Spring, J., Beck, K., and Chiquet-Ehrismann, R. (1989). Two contrary functions of tenascin: Dissection of the active sites by recombinant tenascin fragments. Cell 59, 325–334. Hendaoui, I., Tucker, R. P., Zingg, D., Bichet, S., Schittny, J., and Chiquet-Ehrismann, R. (2014). Tenascin-C is required for normal Wnt/b-catenin signaling in the whisker follicle stem cell niche. Matrix Biol. 40, 46–53. Sivasankaran, B., Degen, M. et al. (2009). Tenascin-C is a novel RBPJkappa-induced target gene for Notch signaling in gliomas. Cancer Res. 69, 458–465. Asparuhova, M. B., Feralli, J., Chiquet, M., and Chiquet-Ehrismann, R. (2011). The transcriptional regulator megakaryoblastic leukemia-1 mediates serum response factor-independent activation of tenascin-C transcription by mechanical stress. FASEB J. 25, 3477–34883. Baumgartner, S., Martin, D., Hagios, C., and Chiquet-Ehrismann, R. (1994). tenm, a Drosophila gene related to tenascin, is a new pair-rule gene. EMBO J. 13, 3728–3740. Rubin, B. P., Tucker, R. P., Martin, D., and Chiquet-Ehrismann, R. (1999). Teneurins, a novel family of neuronal cell surface proteins in vertebrates, homologous to the Drosophila pair-rule gene product Ten-m. Dev. Biol. 216, 195–209. Schöler, J., Ferralli, J., Thiry, S., Chiquet-Ehrismann, R. (2015) The intracellular domain of teneurin-1 induces the activity of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) by binding to transcriptional repressor HINT1. J Biol Chem. 290, 8154–65.

References

External links Symposium in Honour of Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann ISMB Newsletter 22, October 2015 Who’s Who Women in Life Sciences LabOme Cancer Research in Switzerland 2015 Other Obituaries/External Items. Upstate Grad Update November 2015

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, 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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann 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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann 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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann

In research: Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann appears in chemistry 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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann 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: Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 births, 2015 deaths, 20th-century Swiss women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann 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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann in simple terms?

Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann (9 November 1954 – 4 September 2015) was a Swiss biochemist and cell biologist working on interactions in the extracellular matrix. Life Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann was born in Zürich.

Why does Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann?

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 Ruth Chiquet-Ehrismann.