Ahna Skop

Ahna Renee Skop is an American geneticist, artist, and a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is known for her research on the mechanisms underlying asymmetric cell division, particularly the importance of the midbody in this process.

Skop grew up in New Haven, Connecticut and Fort Thomas, Kentucky. She graduated from Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Ky before receiving a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in Ceramics from Syracuse University and went on to complete her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She then did postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley in the laboratories of Rebecca Heald, Barbara Meyer and John Yates (Scripps). Skop then moved back to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2004, where, as of 2011, is a Full Professor of Genetics.

Skop is known for her work on Caenorhabditis elegans, a free-living worm, and mammalian tissue culture cells where she has studied the mechanisms that control cell division. Her early work was on the final stages of cell division in C. elegans, and she identified the proteins in the midbody that are involved in cell division. Her more recent work examines defects that could be caused by problems in the midbody, where she has shown that midbody is an organelle that harbors translationally active RNA.

Skop has curated a scientific art show at the International C. elegans meeting, the "Worm Art Show", and she worked with a Madison, Wisconsin artist, Angela Johnson to create an art installation called "Genetic Reflections".

• Skop, Ahna R.; Bergmann, Dominique; Mohler, William A.; White, John G. (2001-05-15). "Completion of cytokinesis in C. elegans requires a brefeldin A-sensitive membrane accumulation at the cleavage furrow apex". Current Biology. 11 (10): 735–746. Bibcode:2001CBio...11..735S. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(01)00231-7. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 3733387. PMID 11378383.
• Skop, Ahna R.; Liu, Hongbin; Yates, John; Meyer, Barbara J.; Heald, Rebecca (2004-07-02). "Dissection of the Mammalian Midbody Proteome Reveals Conserved Cytokinesis Mechanisms". Science. 305 (5680): 61–66. Bibcode:2004Sci...305...61S. doi:10.1126/science.1097931. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 3679889. PMID 15166316.
• Skop, Ahna R.; White, John G. (1998-10-08). "The dynactin complex is required for cleavage plane specification in early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos". Current Biology. 8 (20): 1110–1117. Bibcode:1998CBio....8.1110S. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(98)70465-8. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 3690630. PMID 9778526.
• Thompson, Heather M.; Skop, Ahna R.; Euteneuer, Ursula; Meyer, Barbara J.; McNiven, Mark A. (2002-12-23). "The Large GTPase Dynamin Associates with the Spindle Midzone and Is Required for Cytokinesis". Current Biology. 12 (24): 2111–2117. Bibcode:2002CBio...12.2111T. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(02)01390-8. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 3690653. PMID 12498685.
• Otegui, Marisa S.; Verbrugghe, Koen J.; Skop, Ahna R. (2005-08-01). "Midbodies and phragmoplasts: analogous structures involved in cytokinesis". Trends in Cell Biology. 15 (8): 404–413. doi:10.1016/j.tcb.2005.06.003. ISSN 0962-8924. PMC 3677513. PMID 16009554.

Skop was a 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers award winner. In 2009 Skop received an honorary Doctorate of Science from the College of Saint Benedict, and in 2018 Skop was awarded by the American Society for Cell Biology for her work in inclusivity, the first time this prize was given.