Following her PhD defense, Newton took up a postdoctoral research position at
University of California, Berkeley in the laboratory of
Daniel E. Koshland Jr. between 1986 and 1988, and subsequently began her own independent research laboratory in 1988, as
assistant professor in Chemistry at
Indiana University, subsequently receiving tenure as
associate professor in 1994. She moved to
University of California, San Diego in 1995, first as associate professor in
pharmacology and then Professor, from 2001 to 2017. Between 2002 and 2006, she was vice-chair, then chair, of the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program before becoming the Director of the Molecular Pharmacology Track in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at the University of California San Diego. She was conferred with the title of Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology in 2017.
As of 2020, she is president-elect for the
International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, having served, since 2016, as ASBMB representative to the IUBMB general assembly, and, since 2015, as a Member of the
International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Executive Committee for Congresses and Conferences.[8] Newton has supervised, and graduated, more 25 PhD postgraduate students and trained 23 Postdoctoral Fellows.[9]
Research
Newton has been a major driver in the
PKC research field since the 1980s, working originally with
Daniel E. Koshland Jr.[10][11] She helped define the multiple different mechanisms of
PKC regulation by
phosphorylation and its interaction with specific membrane
phospholipids, such as
phosphatidylserine[12][13][14][15] She has also made important discoveries in the
protein phosphatase field, discovering and naming
PHLPP (PH domain and Leucine rich repeat Protein Phosphatases), which regulate intracellular signaling through dephosphorylation of AKT.[16][17][18]
As of 2020, Newton has published over 190 peer-reviewed research articles that have been cited more than 25,000 times,[19] been awarded 1 patent [20] and co-edited two books on protein biochemistry and
PKC.[21][22] Her work straddles basic research and has illuminated understanding of
PKC in
Alzheimer's disease[23][24]
and as a tumor suppressor in human
cancers[25]
Editorials, research honours, scientific service and outreach
^Orr JW, Newton AC (1992). "Interaction of protein kinase C with phosphatidylserine. 1. Cooperativity in lipid binding". Biochemistry. 31 (19): 4661–4667.
doi:
10.1021/bi00134a018.
PMID1581316.
^Orr JW, Newton AC (1992). "Interaction of protein kinase C with phosphatidylserine. 2. Specificity and regulation". Biochemistry. 31 (19): 4667–4673.
doi:
10.1021/bi00134a019.
PMID1581317.
^Violin JD, Newton AC, Tsien RJ, Zhang J (2004), Chimeric phosphorylation indicator: US Patent No. 8,669,074
^Malacinski GM, Frielder D (1993). "Chapter 4: Essentials of Molecular Biology: The physical structure of protein molecules". Jones & Bartlett Publishers,Boston: 335.
ISBN978-0-8672-0137-6.
^Newton AC (2003). "Methods in Molecular Biology 233: Protein Kinase C Protocols". Humana Press: 584.
ISBN978-1-59259-397-2.