although i was born in princeton , new jersey , i grew up half a world away in melbourne , australia .
this was the direct result of the peculiarities of the academic job market , even in the mid-1970s .
my father was a mathematician at princeton 's institute for advanced studies and was lured to the antipodes by an attractive offer from the university of melbourne .
i 'm sure my parents expected to come back to the united states in due course , but the relaxed australian life - style suited our family , and we settled permanently in melbourne .
because i was only three years old when we moved , i developed a deceptive australian accent that belies my new jersey heritage ! at high school and university ( both publicly funded ) , i followed a meandering path from biology to mathematics to psychology and back to biology .
the broad education that i received as an undergraduate at the university of melbourne , with an emphasis on systematics and evolution , built a solid foundation that frames the more molecular and mechanistic questions i ask today . like many others ,
my laboratory experience was limited to prescribed classes , so my first summer of  real  research at the end of my third year was a revelation .
i became fascinated by the elegant beauty of the single - celled algae that were the focus of study in rick wetherbee 's lab in the botany school .
i worked with a postdoctoral fellow , jan lind , to characterize the extracellular glycoproteins these organisms use as cellular glues ( ludwig et  al . , 1996 ) .
student , which in the australian system is an optional fourth year of university that allows a full year of dedicated bench research . by the end of my honors
office of naval research to investigate the marine diatoms that are the primary drivers of biofouling on ship hulls .
this allowed me to work as a research assistant for a year , while i considered what i wanted to do next with my life , thinking for the first time that one could actually make a living doing this fun research thing . during my time in rick 's lab
i started to appreciate the problem of how cells move macromolecules ( like those secreted glycoproteins ) around in very precise ways . with this interest in intracellular protein traffic in mind
, i went looking for a lab that would further my training and afford some scientific independence .
i was fortunate to join marilyn anderson in 1995 as she moved from the university of melbourne to la trobe university ( located in a suburb of melbourne ) .
i joined her small group to initiate a new project investigating the delivery of a plant defense protein , napi , to the vacuole in tobacco cells .
we had n't been at la trobe long when trevor lithgow joined the department , introducing me to the benefits of yeast as a model organism . under the joint supervision of marilyn and trevor , i defined the vacuolar sorting signal of napi and identified a candidate receptor that likely diverts the protein from the default pathway of secretion to an endosome - like prevacuolar compartment ( miller et  al . , 1999 ) .
aside from the superb scientific training i received from my advisors , graduate school was formative in other ways .
most importantly , i forged lasting friendships with my peers , including my now - husband , marcus lee ( a fellow graduate student in marilyn 's lab ) , that enriched my life both at the bench and beyond .
after four years in marilyn 's lab , it was time to move on and find the next step in my own path . inspired by both of my mentors fulfilling overseas postdocs ( marilyn at cold spring harbor and trevor at the biozentrum in basel ) , i sought out postdoctoral opportunities with those whose work i admired .
in retrospect , my approach was very naive , and i am fortunate that i was even invited to interview with so many great labs , coming as i did from a somewhat obscure university in a distant land with ( as yet ) no publications to my name .
nonetheless , both marcus and i managed to find excellent opportunities not only in the same city , but in the same lab , this time working with randy schekman .
so , we gave away our furniture , packed our suitcases , and headed to berkeley , california .
i was suddenly surrounded by a sizable cadre of smart , driven colleagues , both postdoctoral fellows and graduate students , all of whom focused on intellectual problems that fascinated me .
the lab was well - funded , and we all had enormous freedom to pursue our own questions , guided always by randy 's own powerful and creative intellect .
after a false start on a project to develop a new in vitro reconstitution assay , randy suggested i look into the molecular function of one of the coat proteins that drives vesicle formation from the endoplasmic reticulum ( barlowe et  al . , 1994 ) .
characterization of the copii coat was pioneered in randy 's lab , and we had in hand many genetic tools and in vitro assays that facilitated this new project .
i used a combination of yeast genetics and biochemistry to delineate the copii subunit sec24 as the primary cargo - binding component of the coat ( miller et  al . , 2002 ) .
my findings dovetailed nicely with x - ray crystal structures that elena mossessova solved in jonathan goldberg 's lab , and we ended up publishing our findings in back - to - back papers ( miller et  al . , 2003 ; mossessova et  al . , 2003 ) .
the panel of mutants that i generated in randy 's lab still provides interesting new leads ( kung et  al . , 2012 ) , and we continue to use the powerful approaches of yeast genetics and biochemical assays that mutually inform each other .
in retrospect , my postdoctoral years seem like glorious , carefree days when i had the time , resources , and stimulating environment to simply do the very best research i could .
again , a group of like - minded colleagues , especially david madden , per malkus , and raphael valdivia , greatly enriched both my bench and leisure lives . yet , once again , it all too soon became time to move on . although the obvious
 next step  after a postdoctoral fellowship is an independent faculty position ( at least here in the united states ) , i have to confess that i did n't necessarily see myself in that role at the end of my postdoc .
i did n't have a long - term career plan , having instead simply been driven by the joy that i derived from doing research and the desire to keep having fun .
nonetheless , i had to find a new position after several years in randy 's lab .
so i went on the job market , looking mainly in larger cities that would also afford opportunities for marcus , who wanted to change fields and explore protein trafficking in the malarial parasite .
our  two - body problem  was solved in new york city , with marcus joining a malaria lab on a second postdoctoral fellowship , while i joined the department of biological sciences at columbia university .
fortunately for me , it turns out that running a lab is also a lot of fun , even if i do n't get to do as much bench work as i 'd like .
my lab continues to explore the molecular mechanisms of vesicle formation from the endoplasmic reticulum , focusing on how protein folding influences this process .
it has long been known that misfolded or improperly assembled proteins are not captured into copii vesicles , but the mechanism by which this quality - control checkpoint works remains unclear .
this problem is central to a variety of human diseases , most notably cystic fibrosis , which is often caused by mutations in a chloride channel that cause the protein to misfold .
we aimed to use yeast as a model system to probe the cellular pathways that contribute to biogenesis of a related yeast protein , yor1 ( pagant et  al . , 2007 ) .
i was fortunate to receive pilot funding and a subsequent full grant from the cystic fibrosis foundation , who were persuaded that we could successfully model a human disease in a genetically tractable system .
my association with the cystic fibrosis foundation led directly to a fruitful collaboration with john hartman , an expert in quantitative genomics , who introduced us to the art of high - throughput screening ( louie et  al . , 2012 ) .
this approach has yielded a jackpot of mutants that we continue to characterize mechanistically using our biochemical assays .
it goes without saying that the success of my lab is entirely the result of the fantastic students and postdocs with whom i have worked .
i am grateful to my first crop of graduate students , ray louie , leslie kung , and mariana dorrington , who took a chance on a green principal investigator and joined my lab when we were still unpacking boxes .
one of my great mentors at columbia , marty chalfie , advised me that initially i would be my own best postdoc .
happily for me , this was not entirely true , as i managed to recruit a former colleague from the schekman lab , silvere pagant , who remains in the lab to this day as a senior research associate , leading our efforts on quality control of yor1 .
the work of two talented postdocs , alenka copic and cath latham , opened up a new view of the problem of quality control , turning our focus to the physical properties of the vesicles themselves ( copic et  al . , 2012 ) .
another dedicated student , jenn d'arcangelo , is well underway with her efforts to follow up on our new model , which proposes that the protein quality - control  checkpoint  is in fact a stochastic product of cargo occupancy and vesicle architecture .
there are clearly many exciting discoveries for us to make in the coming years . along with the debt of gratitude
i owe my lab members , i am also extremely thankful for the support and encouragement of many mentors over the years .
in addition to my research advisors , i deeply appreciate the support of my former department chairs and perennial cheerleaders : carol prives , mike sheetz , marty chalfie , and stuart firestein .
respected colleagues bill wickner , frances brodsky , lois weisman , and susan michaelis are scientific supporters whose enthusiasm for my work is truly gratifying .
indeed , i am grateful to the many talented colleagues who study intracellular membrane traffic and contribute to the supportive nature of the field as a whole .
my impression is that this collegial community is , like i am , driven by a passion for science and excited by new discoveries , whatever their sources .
finally , whatever success i have achieved professionally would not be possible without the support  both intellectually and personally  of my husband , who is an equal partner in raising our son and has made career sacrifices of his own to afford me the opportunities i 've had .
 i am honored to be the first recipient of the women in cell biology sustained excellence in research award . since my graduate school days , i have enjoyed being part of a stimulating scientific community the american society for cell biology embodies . 
 having found myself largely by accident in a career that i find deeply enjoyable and fulfilling , i hope here to convey a sense that one need not have a  grand plan  to have a successful life in science 
 . simply following one 's interests and passions can sustain a career , even though it may involve some migration . 
AN EARLY MOVE SOUTHWAY SOUTH
LIVING THE CALIFORNIA DREAM
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY, SMALL LAB