Rate My Professor Anne Straube

Professor Anne Straube is a leading cell biologist specializing in the mechanisms of intracellular transport and cytoskeletal organization. She earned a Diploma in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and a PhD from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, where she studied microtubule cytoskeleton dynamics in the fungus Ustilago maydis. Following her PhD, she conducted postdoctoral research as an Emmy Noether Fellow of the German Science Foundation at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology in Edinburgh, focusing on microtubule organization in differentiating muscle cells under Andreas Merdes from 2004 to 2007. In 2007, she established her independent research group at the Marie Curie Research Institute in Oxted, Surrey. In 2010, she co-founded the Centre for Mechanochemical Cell Biology at the University of Warwick alongside Rob Cross and Andrew McAinsh, relocating her laboratory there. She was promoted to Professor at Warwick Medical School in 2020 and served as Director of Warwick Biomedical Sciences from 2022 to 2025.

Straube's research investigates the molecular machines that organize microtubules and transport cargoes within cells, particularly the generation of specific microtubule arrays in polarized cells, dynamic interactions of microtubule tips with intracellular structures, and regulation of motor proteins such as dynein, KIF1C, and kinesin-3 family members. Her lab employs quantitative live-cell imaging and imaging-based biochemistry to study cargo-mediated activation of motors and their roles in cell polarity and migration. Key contributions include elucidating how PTPN21 and Hook3 relieve KIF1C autoinhibition (Nature Communications, 2019), force generation impairments in pathogenic KIF1C mutations (Current Biology, 2022), and KIF1C's activation of dynein via the FHF adaptor (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2025). Earlier works cover EB3's role in myoblast fusion (Current Biology, 2007) and MAP4 in muscle differentiation (eLife, 2015). Her achievements are recognized by the Lister Institute Research Prize (2013), membership in the Lister Institute, and Wellcome Investigator Awards (2016 and 2022). With thousands of citations, her work significantly influences understanding of cytoskeletal dynamics and cellular motility.