Dr akwasi minta
Dr. Akwasi Minta is a distinguished figure in the field of cellular and molecular biology, celebrated for his remarkable contributions to the scientific community. With a career spanning several decades, Dr. Minta has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to advancing the frontiers of scientific knowledge, particularly in the realm of cellular calcium research.
As an accomplished scientist, Dr. Minta has played an instrumental role in unraveling the complexities of calcium within living cells. His journey began in the early days of cellular research, long before the advent of modern fluorescence calcium indicators. Over the years, he has witnessed and actively participated in the evolution of this field, from its nascent stages to the cutting-edge developments that have shaped contemporary scientific understanding.
This book is also a scientific memoir, so it has a chapter dedicated to the biography of the Author. The author was born in Ghana, studied chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of Cape Coast, where he did research in Natural Products which resulted in the isolation of a new alkaloid from the plant, Fagara Rubescens, called Rubesamide, with Professor B.A Dadson.
He continued the Natural Products PhD research in Biosynthesis with Professor A.R Battersby at the University of Cambridge in UK with studies on the mechanism of synthesis in vivo of the alkaloid, Hasubanonine, from a Japanese vine, Stephania japonica. He proceeded to do post-doctoral research with the synthesis of Cardiotonic steroids with Professor Karel Wiesner at the University of New Brunswick at Fredericton N.B in Canada. He did another research in Enzymatic study of mechanism of Methylation of S-Adenosyl Methionine at Rice University with Professor Ronald Parry in Houston. He got a call from the late Roger Tsien, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, who was in the Department of Physiology in Cambridge, UK at the same time when the author was in the Department of Chemistry in Cambridge, in 1982 to collaborate in the creation of more fluorescent calcium indicators from his invention of synthetic calcium indicators. Specifically, he wanted a visible wavelength version of his invention. The collaboration resulted in the first visible wavelength fluorescent calcium indicators we called ‘Fluo’ from fluorescein and ‘Rhod’ from rhodamine. Together with other fluorescent calcium indicators called ‘Fura’ and ‘Indo’ made by colleague, Dr. Gregorz Grynkiewicz, modern fluorescent calcium indicators were born at the University of California Berkeley. He went to Molecular Probes in Eugene, Oregon, to commercialize them in 1988. He came to University of Texas at Austin as a research fellow in 1990, made two new indicators and started a company, Teflabs, in 1992. He continued till 2018 when it was acquired by Mr. Francisco Conti as Ion indicators company, later called Ionbiosciences, where He was a research director till his retirement.