Ron Vale Recounts the Discovery of Kinesin, a Microtubule-Based Motor Protein

Ron Vale tells the story of how kinesin, a motor protein that moves organelles along microtubules, was discovered. Work at Woods Hole (MBL) used video-enhanced microscopy developed by Allen, Inoué and others to visualize axonal transport in squid axons directly for the first time. A control experiment meant to rule out interference from soluble protein fragments instead confirmed that organelles themselves move along microtubules, leading to the purification of kinesin and a change in Vale's own research trajectory.