Dr. Leonard H. Rome is a cell biologist, biochemist and part-time dean involved in research, teaching and administration at the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned his undergraduate degree (B.S. in Chemistry) and graduate degrees (M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked on lysosome biogenesis.

Dr. Rome has been on the faculty of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA since he joined the Department of Biological Chemistry in 1979. He became a full Professor in 1988 and has been Senior Associate Dean for Research in the School of Medicine since 1997. Since 2005 he has been the Associate Director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Dr. Rome has served as the elected Chair of the School of Medicine Faculty Executive Committee and he is actively involved in Graduate and Medical Education. In 1991 he received a UCLA School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Education.

On this episode we explore one of the most enduring mysteries in cell biology: the nano vault.  A small protein capsule within the cell. No one seems to know why they exist or what they do within the cell.  Even cell biology text books have ignored there existence.  Dr. Leonard Rome and his colleague, Dr. Nancy Kedersha, discovered them in 1986.  Dr. Rome has been working to solve this mystery ever since.  He joins us to share his journey and long relationship with vaults.