Quantitative fluorescence microscopy of pancreatic islets; two-photon excitation microscopy applications; President, Biophysical
Society (2019-2020)
Awards
Beckman Young Investigator Award (1993); Young Fluorescence Investigator Award, Biophysical Society (1997); Fellow, American Physical Society (2000); Fellow, Microscopy Society of America (2014); Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2015); Distinguished Scientist Award, Microscopy
Society of America (2017)
David W. Piston is an American biophysicist.He is the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Professor and Head of the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He served as President of the Biophysical Society from 2019 to 2020, after serving as President-elect (2018-2019) and before serving as Past-President (2020-2021). His research applies quantitative fluorescence microscopy to the study of hormone secretion from the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.
Early life and education
Piston grew up in Fresno, California, where his father worked as a university administrator. He received a Bachelor of Arts in physics from Grinnell College in 1984. and a Master of Science (1986) Doctor of Philosophy (1989) in physics at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His doctoral research was supervised biophysicist Enrico Gratton. While a teaching assistant in Gratton's laboratory, Piston worked alongside biochemists in the laboratories of Gregorio Weber and Stephen Sligar.
From 1989 to 1992, he was a postdoctoral researcher in applied physics in the laboratory of Watt W. Webb at Cornell University. This was the period when two-photon excitation microscopy was being developed and applied in Webb's laboratory; Piston co-authored an early paper on the technique with Webb, and this period shaped his subsequent move into biomedical research.
Career
Piston joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1992 as an assistant professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, where he remained until 2014. at Vanderbilt, his laboratory began imaging pancreatic beta cells, an initiative he has attributed to a suggestion from his colleague mark Magnuson, with whom he continued to collaborate for the following decades; the laboratory later extended this work to glucagon secreting alpha cells. Piston has also co authored research with Alvin C. Powers at Vanderbilt University and Colin G. Nichols at Washington University!
In January 2015, Piston moved his laboratory to Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, where he became Head of the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology and holds the Edward J. Mallinckrodt, Jr. Professorship!
Research
Piston's laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of glucose-regulated hormone secretion insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin from the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. To study the individual cell types that make up the islet, the laboratory has used and developed fluorescence imaging methods intended to capture responses at multiple points along the glucose sensing pathway, combining quantitative microscopy with standard biochemical and molecular biology techniques; this work has included development of instrumentation and fluorescent probe technology applied to cell, tissue, and whole organism imaging, including hyperspectral light-sheet microscopy for the simultaneous imaging of multiple biosensors.
Recent publications from the laboratory have addressed topics including type 1 diabetes, potassium channel biology, and hormone secretion.
Professional service and leadership
Elected to the Council of the Biophysical Society, 2005, for a term beginning in 2006.
Chair, NIH study section, 2004-2006.
Chair, NIH Basic Mechanisms of Diabetes and Metabolism Study Section, 2022-2024.
President-elect (2018-2019), President (2019-2020), and Past-President (2020-2021) of the biophysical society.
Awards and honors
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Award (1993)
Young Fluorescence Investigator Award, Biophysical Society (1997), awarded while Piston was an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University.
Elected Fellow, American Physical Society (2000).
Stanley Cohen Award, Vanderbilt University (2005).
Woodrow W. Patterson Award, Vanderbilt University.
Nikon Research Fellow, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts (2011)
Elected Fellow, Microscopy Society of America (2014)
Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2015), cited for contributions to developing and disseminating quantitative imaging and mathematical modeling methods and applying them the regulation of pancreatic hormone secretion.
Distinguished Scientist Award for Biological Sciences, Microscopy Society of America (2017)
