Bridget Olivia Carragher (born 17 June 1957) is a South African physicist specialized in electron microscopy.
Carragher is an adjunct professor at the Columbia University (New York City, NY) and the founder and Chief Operations Officer of NanoImaging Services, Inc. She was the co-director of the National Resources for Automated Molecular Microscopy (NRAMM) for about 20 years, is currently a co-director of the Simons Electron Microscopy Center at New York Structural Biology Center (New York City, NY) and the National Center for CryoEM Access and Training.
Personal life Carragher was born in South Africa. She lived in Ghana during her childhood and for one year in England. After earning her master's degree, she moved to the United States and has lived there since where she is a US citizen.
Carragher is married and has two children.
Education Carragher studied physics at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, from 1975 to 1981. She spent a year at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and graduated with a MSc in physics. In 1987 she gained her PhD in physics from University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Career Carragher has spent much of her career in developing streamlined and automated electron microscopy (EM) methods aimed at improving both the quality of EM data and the accessibility of these techniques to the broader biological community.
After her Ph.D., she held several posts in industry and academia until moving to the Scripps Research Institute in 2001. Since 2002, she has served with Clint Potter as the director of the National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy (NRAMM), an NIH-funded national biotechnology research resource. The NRAMM specializes in developing and applying automated technologies for EM and providing training at all levels.
In 2007 Carragher co-founded NanoImaging Services, a company that provides microscopy services to the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
In 2015 Carragher and Clint moved their academic lab from The Scripps Research Institute to the New York Structural Biology Center, where they serve as co-directors of the Simons Electron Microscopy Center. In May 2018, they were awarded a U24 grant to start the National Center for CryoEM Access and Training (NCCAT).
In 2022 she was named a Founding Technical Director of the Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging.Chan Zuckerberg official websiteNano Imaging Services website
+Positions and EmploymentYearPosition1987 - 1988Research Associate, U. Chicago1988 - 1990Senior Scientist, CEMAX Incorporated, Santa Clara, California1990 - 1991Assistant Research Neuroscientist, Dept. of Neuroscience, UCSD1992 - 1998Director, Optical Visualization Facility, Beckman Institute, UIUC1994 - 2001Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept. of Cell and Structural Biology, UIUC1996 - 1999Senior Research Scientist, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, UIUC1998 - 2001Director, Imaging Technology Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC2001 - 2012Associate Professor, Dept. of Cell Biology, The Scripps Research Institute. La Jolla, CA2003–presentDirector, National Resource for Automated Molecular Microcopy (NRAMM)2007–presentFounder and Chief Science Officer, NanoImaging Services, Inc.2012 - 2014Professor, Dept. of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute. La Jolla, CA2015–presentDirector, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, NY, NY2015–presentAdjunct Professor, Columbia University, New York, NY2018–presentCo-PI, National Center for CryoEM Access and Training2022–presentFounding Technical Director, Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging
+Other Experience and Professional MembershipsYearActivity1993–presentEditorial Board, Journal of Structural Biology1993–presentMember of various NIH/NSF Study Sections1993 - 2000Scientific Advisory Committee, National Center for Macromolecular Imaging, Baylor College of Medicine1993, 1995Co-organizer, Workshop on Advanced Computing for Biological Imaging, UIUC/NCSA1995Co-organizer, A Hands-on Workshop on Practical Stereological Techniques, UIUC1995–presentMember of Advisory Committee, HVEM Resource, Boulder, Co.1996Co-editor, Journal of Structural Biology Special Issue on “Software Resources for Image Processing and Visualization in Structural Biology”1998–presentMember of Advisory Committee, BMIRR, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY1997, 1999Vice-chair, chair, Gordon Conference on 3DEM of Macromolecules2003Co-organizer, Multidisciplinary Workshop on Automated Particle Selection2003 - 2014Co-organizer, Biennial Workshop In Molecular Microscopy2003Co-editor, Journal of Structural Biology, Special Issues on Automated Particle Selection and Analytical Methods2003 - 2005NIH BBCB Study Section2005 - 2007NIH MI Study Section2005–presentAssociate editor, Journal of Structural Biology2011 - 2015Scientific Advisory Committee, Transcontinental EM Initiative for Membrane Protein Structure2012 - 2014Advisory Board, National Canadian CryoEM Facility2013 - 2015External Advisory Committee, Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group2014–presentChair, EMDB Committee for cryoEM map challenge2015–presentMember, wwPDB Integrative/Hybrid Method (IHM) Task Force: Federation Subgroup2015–presentMember, Diamond Scientific Advisory Committee2015–presentMember, RCSB Protein Data Bank Advisory Committee2015–presentMember, External Advisory Board, National Center for X-ray Tomography2016–presentEditorial Board, Cell Chemical Biology2017–presentMember, NCXT Advisory Committee2017–presentMember, International Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute, Frankfurt2017–presentExternal Advisory Board, UTSW multi-user cryoEM facility2017Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopy Society2017–presentEditorial Board, Biophysical Journal2018–presentExternal Advisory Board, Harvard multi-user cryoEM facility
Contribution to Science Throughout her career, Carragher has published 165 papers,Neuro Tree websiteScience Direct Journal website, Paper of the Year awards 2004 and 2015 received several research funding grants and owns five patents.
Patents
Smith PE, Callahan MP, Daniel I, Potter CS, Carragher B, Suloway CJ, inventors; Robotic system for sequencing multiple specimens between a holding tray and microscope. 2005, US 2005/0107917 A1. Mulder A, Carragher B, Potter CS, inventors; Characterization of particulates using electron microscopy and image processing methods. 2011, Provisional. Filed 8/17/2011. Carragher B, Potter CS, Jain T, inventors; Preparation of specimen arrays on an EM grid. 2012, Provisional. Filed 1/17/2012. Carragher B, Potter CS, Jain T, inventors; Superhydrophilic specimen grids for electron microscopy. 2012, Provisional. Filed 1/17/2012. Carragher B, Potter CS, Jain T, Kahn P, Wiktor P, inventors; Apparatus and method for producing specimens for electron microscopy. 2012, Provisional. Filed 1/17/2012.
Contributions to the EM field
Additional selected contributions to the EM field
CryoEM automation Carragher was an early advocate for automated methods for electron microscopy. She developed software to analyze poorly ordered sickle cell hemoglobin fibers and went on to collaborate with Ron Milligan's group to develop a pipeline for helical processing (Phoelix). Carragher and Potter led the development of Leginon, a system for automated control and data acquisition from an electron microscope, and Appion, a pipeline for single particle data processing.
New technologies for TEM Carragher and her team have developed a number of technologies for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These include Spotiton, an inkjet dispense and vitrification system for cryo-TEM, robotic devices to load TEM specimens into the microscope, liquid handling robots for controlling sample vitrification and negative staining, and new substrates.
Contributions to structural biology Carragher has co-authored several papers in this area.Science Direct Journal website, Paper of the Year awards 2004 and 2015
Carragher's lab team includes a number of post-docs and graduate students . These researchers have contributed a number of papers to scientific journals.
Contributions to Methodology: Carragher has worked to validate and improve methods in the field. In particular, she has worked on a particle picking workshop, the recent CTF challenge and a number of workshops organized by the EMDB to discuss standards and validation. She have also organized workshops, including the NRAMM biennial Advanced Methods Workshop.
Honors In 2019, Carragher and Philip E Batson were awarded the 2019 Microscopy Society of America Distinguished Scientist Award. Microscopy Society Of America website
In 2022, Carragher was awarded The Biophysical Society Innovation AwardBioPhysics.org website and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
References
External links