Aron Arthur Moscona
The University of Chicago
July 4, 1922 - January 14, 2009
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Scientific Discipline: Cellular and Developmental Biology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1977)
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Aron Arthur Moscona researched the manner in which undifferentiated cells network to form tissues and organs in an embryo. He disassociated embryonic cells in enzyme solution and observed that they were able to reorganize into their original structure. This work led to the discovery of cadherins, which are cell-surface receptors that allow cells to recognize one another and interact.
Moscona received his PhD in endocrinology and biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Strangeways Reseach Laboratory in Cambridge for two years. After his fellowship, he was a professor of physiology at the University of Jerusalem and a researcher at Rockefeller University. He had a long and distinguished career at the University of Chicago where he was a professor of zoology, co-founder of the committee on developmental biology, and the Louis Block Professor of Biology. In addition, he served on advisory panels for the National Institutes of Health.
