Thomas F J Martin

Thomas F. J. Martin is an American biochemist and cell biologist. He is best known for his discovery and characterization of the CAPS (Calcium-dependent Activator Protein for Secretion, also known as CADPS) family of proteins, which serve as essential priming factors in regulated exocytosis-the calcium-triggered release of hormones and neurotransmitters from dense-core vesicles in neuroendocrine and neural cells.

He is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he held two named professorships and conducted research that helped elucidate the molecular machinery of vesicle priming and SNARE-mediated membrane fusion.

Early life and education Martin received his A.B. degree from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Work in his lab in 1995 also discovered that the phosphoinositide PI(4,5)P2 was essential for regulated vesicle exocytosis. Subsequent work established CAPS as a PI(4,5)P2-binding protein that acts at a pre-fusion step to promote assembly of SNARE complexes and vesicle priming.

His group further demonstrated that CAPS (and its paralog Munc13) functions as a "CATCHR" protein that drives trans-SNARE complex formation through direct syntaxin interactions, and that CAPS is required for dense-core vesicle exocytosis in genetic models such as Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster. This body of work, along with later reviews by Martin and colleagues, has clarified how PI(4,5)P2-binding effectors coordinate multiple stages of vesicle exocytosis and has informed research on secretion defects in neurological and endocrine disorders.

Awards and honors Wasson Professorship in Biochemistry NIH MERIT Award, for long-term studies on stages of regulated exocytosis McKnight Neuroscience Investigator Award, for research on the molecular mechanisms of neurosecretion

Selected publications