Nicole King facts for kids

Nicole King, born in 1970, is an American biologist. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work focuses on how living things evolved from simple single cells to complex animals.

She received a special award called the MacArthur Fellowship in 2005. Since 2013, she has also been a researcher with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). In 2023, she became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Understanding Life's Evolution

Nicole King studies how multicellularity evolved. This means she looks at how living things went from being just one cell to having many cells. She especially studies tiny organisms called choanoflagellates.

Her main goal is to figure out how animals, which are multicellular, first developed from single-celled life forms. This research helps us understand the history of life on Earth.

Choanoflagellates: Key to Animal Origins

Before Dr. King's work, scientists weren't sure if choanoflagellates or fungi were the closest relatives to animals. Animals are also called "metazoans." Dr. King's research helped show that choanoflagellates are indeed the closest single-celled relatives of animals.

She used a method called comparative genomics. This means she compared the genes of different organisms. This work helped scientists better understand the "tree of life."

Shared Genes with Animals

Dr. King and her team found something amazing. Choanoflagellates have many genes that are very similar to genes found in early animals. These animals include sponges, cnidarians (like jellyfish), and ctenophores (comb jellies).

This discovery suggests that the building blocks for multicellular life were already present in the single-celled ancestors of animals.

How Cells Stick Together and Talk

Dr. King's more recent work shows that molecules important for multicellular life also exist in choanoflagellates. For example, cadherin is a key molecule that helps animal cells stick to each other. It was surprising to find cadherin in choanoflagellates. This means cadherin existed even before animals evolved.

She also found that choanoflagellates have genes that animal cells use to "talk" to one another. This cell communication is vital for multicellular organisms. An example is the Receptor tyrosine kinase gene.

Nicole King's Academic Journey

Dr. King continues her studies on choanoflagellates and multicellularity. She is an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science (B.S.), in 1992. This was from Indiana University Bloomington. There, she worked on fruit flies, known as Drosophila melanogaster.

She then went to Harvard University for her graduate studies. She earned her A.M. in 1996 and her PhD in 1999. Her PhD research focused on how spores form in a type of bacteria called Bacillus subtilis.

After finishing her postdoctoral research in 2003, she joined the University of California, Berkeley.

ChoanoBase: A Genetic Library

Dr. King's lab created and maintains a special online resource called ChoanoBase. This is like a genetic library. It holds a lot of information about the genes of choanoflagellates.

Awards and Honors

Nicole King has received several important awards for her scientific work:

• In 2005, she received the "genius" award from the MacArthur Foundation.
• In 2004, she was named a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.
• Lehigh University gave her an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2015.
• In 2022, Dr. King was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
• She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2023.