Graça Raposo: Melanosomes, more than skin deep

T iny, membrane-bound packets of tinted protein, called melano-somes, dictate the color of human skin. Defi ciencies in melanosome production underlie pigmentation diseases, so it is important to understand how melanosomes are generated. But melanosomes are just one example of a larger family of lyso-some-related organelles, many of which are associated with pathologies when they are functionally impaired. Graça Raposo, from the Institut Curie in Paris, France, is—quite literally—taking a close look at the generation of melano-somes. Her training in electron microscopy (EM) and protein traffi cking during her graduate work (1) and postdoctoral studies (2) has been essential to her work. Combining EM with other approaches, her lab has demonstrated the endosomal origin of these organelles (3) and has begun dissecting the machinery needed for their construction (4, 5). We called her to get a close-up view of both melanosomes and of her career. You're the daughter of a Portuguese Admiral… Yes, so my family traveled quite a lot when I was a child. I was born in Lisbon, but my father was immediately sent to Angola, in Africa. We lived there until I was two years old, then, after a brief time in Por-tugal, we moved to France. My fi rst schooling was in France, from age three to six, and something about that time really stuck with me. Even though we subsequently moved several more times, including to Mozambique, I always wanted to return to France. Later, it turned out that my father was nominated to the Portuguese embassy in Paris just after I fi nished high school, so I had the luck to start my university studies in France. My father was posted to the Azores Islands three years later—which was great because I could go there on my holidays. But even though it was diffi cult to be separated from my family, I stayed in Paris, living in a tiny apartment with very little money and my best Portuguese friend, who is now a professor at Paris VI University. What did you study in university? I studied biochemistry and immunology because I had loved biology in high school. In my courses at Paris VII University, I was introduced to EM, and, even though it was not very fashionable anymore, I really liked it and the beautiful images it could produce. I felt that putting cells in a test tube and smashing them up was not …