Bargmann was born in
Virginia and grew up in
Athens, Georgia.[4] Her parents are European immigrants.[5] She is one of four sisters, and the daughter of Rolf Bargmann, a statistician and computer scientist at the
University of Georgia.[6] She grew up playing the piano and was exposed to literature and education from a very young age. She described her family as “frighteningly well educated”.[7] She was inspired to study science because her older sister attended medical school. She also says that growing up in the space era fostered her love for science.[5]
She completed undergraduate studies at the
University of Georgia in 1981, with a degree in
biochemistry. While at UGA she grew her lab experience by working in Wyatt Anderson's biology lab and then in Sidney Kushner's genetics lab.[7] She completed graduate school from
MIT with a Ph.D. in the department of Biology in 1987 in the lab of
Robert Weinberg. She examined the molecular mechanisms of
oncogenesis, and helped identify the role of
Ras in bladder cancer. She wrote her thesis on
neu, a non-Ras
oncogene. Although the relevance of her research was doubted at the time, it later led to significant treatments in
breast cancer.[7]
Career and research
Bargmann completed a postdoc with
H. Robert Horvitz at MIT, working on
molecular biology mechanisms of
neuroscience. She began working on chemosensory behavior in C. elegans, and achieved several breakthroughs, demonstrating, among other things, that
nematodes have a sense of smell.[7][8]
Bargmann accepted a faculty position at
UCSF in the department of Anatomy in 1995. She was ultimately promoted from assistant professor to professor in 1998, and served as vice chair of the department from 1999 to 2000.[7]
She continued her studies of worm behavior and neural control, focusing on
olfaction at the molecular level. She looked for genes similar to those found by Richard Axel and Linda Buck to be the basis of smell and taste, and found those genes in the recently sequenced genome of C elegans. Her work led to discoveries of the mechanisms underlying complex behaviors, such as feeding behaviors.[7][9] The work has continued to lead to a deeper understanding of the brain, sensory abilities, and neuronal development. Bargmann also identified
SYG-1, a "matchmaker" molecule—a molecule that directs
neurons to form connections with each other during
development.[10][11][12][13]
In 2004, Bargmann moved to
Rockefeller University.[11] She says that the reason for the move is that she wanted more flexibility to focus on research.[5] She served as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until 2016 before she took the President of
CZI. Bargmann's lab uses a relatively simple organism, the nematode C. elegans, and its extremely sensitive sense of smell to study how genes regulate neuronal development, function, and behavior. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards including election to the National Academy of Sciences. She also served on the Life Sciences jury for the
Infosys Prize in 2012.
Bargmann is married to fellow olfactory scientist
Richard Axel, a Nobel laureate. Previously, she had been married to Michael J. Finney, who also completed graduate studies at MIT and is now a Director at Sage Science, Inc.