Jonathan Scholey is a cell biologist and retired professor with a lifelong interest in the chemistry of cells i.e. the general problem of how atoms and molecules form living, moving, dividing cells. He undertook undergraduate, postgraduate, and postdoctoral studies in cell and molecular biology and was subsequently appointed a faculty member, first in the division of molecular and cell biology at National Jewish Hospital and Research Center in Denver, then at the University of California, Davis.

Teaching Interests: Scholey’s teaching reflects his interest in science at the interface of physical and biological sciences and accordingly he has taught various classes in biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology and molecular biology.

Research Focus: Scholey’s research has focused on the cell biology of motor proteins and the mechanisms of mitosis and ciliogenesis.

As a PhD student at the MRC lab of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Scholey worked with Dr Jake Kendrick-Jones on the biochemistry of myosin motors involved in muscle contraction and cell motility, focusing on their regulation by Ca++ ions and light chain phosphorylation (Scholey et al, 1980; Kendrick-Jones et al, 1983). Subsequently, between 1982-1986, he undertook postdoctoral studies on mitotic motors (kinesins and dyneins) in the cell biology laboratory of Dr Dick McIntosh at the Dept of MCDB, University of Colorado, Boulder. It was found that kinesin motors, first discovered as axonal transport motors, localize to mitotic spindles in dividing cells (Scholey et al, 1985). This work provided the foundation for the future research of the Scholey laboratory, initially during 1986-1989 in the Division of Molecular and Cell Biology at National Jewish Hospital and Research Center in Denver. There, monoclonal antibodies that inhibit kinesin-driven motility were developed and were used to help identify the mechanochemical “motor domains” of kinesin motors (Ingold et al, 1988; Scholey et al, 1989).

Scholey moved his lab from NJHRC in Denver to join the faculty of the Depts of Zoology and Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Davis in 1989. His research at UC Davis was focused on the CELL BIOLOGY OF MOTORS INVOLVED IN THE MECHANISMS OF MITOSIS AND CILIOGENESIS (Ou and Scholey, 2022; Khan and Scholey, 2018; Scholey et al, 2016). At UC Davis, the contributions of the Scholey Lab and their collaborators included; (i) the purification and characterization of heterotrimeric kinesin-2 as an anterograde motor required for the assembly of cilia on swimming sea urchin embryos (Cole et al, 1993; Wedaman et al, 1996; Morris and Scholey, 1997); (ii) the finding that kinesin-2 motors exist in both heterotrimeric and homodimeric forms and cooperate with each other and with the retrograde motor, dynein-2, to drive bidirectional intraflagellar transport and ciliogenesis on C. elegans sensory neurons (Signor et al, 1999a,b; Snow, Ou et al, 2004; Pan et al, 2006, Prevo et al, 2015); (iii) the determination of the bipolar homotetrameric organization of mitotic kinesin-5 motors and an analysis of their cooperation with other motors in driving the sliding-filament/force-balance mechanism underlying mitotic spindle assembly and anaphase B spindle elongation in Drosophila embryos (Kashina et al, 1996; Sharp et al, 1999; Brust-Mascher, Civelekoglu-Scholey et al, 2004; Civelekoglu-Scholey et al, 2010; Scholey et al, 2014, 2016); and (iv) the development of a multiple motor-dependent force-balance model for chromosome motility during mitosis in Drosophila embryos (Civelekoglu-Scholey et al, 2006) based on experimental data (Sharp et al, 2000; Rogers et al, 2004).

Scholey also enjoyed teaching various classes in Biochemistry (BIS102, MCB221D); Biophysics (MCB 143); Cell Biology (BIS104, MCB142, MCB110V, MCB212); and Molecular Biology (BIS1A). He retired on his 60th birthday on 03/07/2015 and spends his retirement reading research papers and writing reviews in Cell Biology; reading science books in broad areas of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (his A-level subjects) and in the History of Science (a long-term layperson hobby); following sports, especially the Man United, Fenerbahce and England soccer teams as well as the SF 49ers in the NFL; and learning Turkish and exploring Turkey where he lives in Istanbul with his Turkish Mathematician wife for much of the year.