Contributors
Laurel Oldach
Articles by Laurel Oldach
Interview
'It’s the DNA. It’s the proteins. And they all are in cahoots.'
April 19, 2023
A little more than 20 years ago, Brian Strahl with his postdoctoral advisor David Allis proposed the idea of a “histone code.” While many features of this model have been borne out, Strahl thinks we still have much to learn.
Feature
Bumpus leads with science
Feb. 22, 2023
Namandjé Bumpus recently stepped away from her lab at Johns Hopkins to become the chief scientist of the FDA.
Feature
MOSAIC changes the landscape
Feb. 2, 2023
This new transitional grant program builds a close-knit community of postdocs and professors who share goals of diversity, equity and inclusion in academia.
Feature
Best of BMB 2022
Dec. 16, 2022
The ASBMB Today team is proud to present a list of exciting developments in biochemistry and molecular biology, suggested by ASBMB members and pulled from science headlines.
Feature
Spatial transcriptomics sharpens distinctions between brains
Dec. 15, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: Researchers can microdissect tissues for RNA sequencing, capture nucleic acids in a pattern before single-cell sequencing, or hybridize fluorescent probes.
Feature
An exercise molecule?
Dec. 14, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: Lac-Phe, the small molecule that increases in concentration most dramatically after a workout, forms through enzymatic conjugation of lactate with the amino acid phenylalanine.
Feature
Increasingly versatile peptide drugs for diabetes
Dec. 13, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: This year, the FDA approved the first peptide drug that works as a bifunctional agonist; tirzepatide both causes weight loss and improves cardiometabolic and glycemic outcomes in diabetic patients.
Feature
Advancing structural biology to blazing speed
Dec. 12, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: This year AlphaFold, algorithm, written by Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind, made 200 million protein structure predictions, roughly 25 terabytes of data.
Feature
A macrocyclic lipid and the enzyme that makes it
Dec. 9, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: One of many adaptations that archaea make to survive their superheated, high-pressure and frequently acidic deep-sea environments is remodeling their cellular membranes.
Feature
Predicting PROTAC properties
Dec. 8, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: Proteolysis-targeting chimeras bring together a drug target protein and a ubiquitin ligase to remove the target from the cell. But sometimes the process stalls out.
Feature
Cataloging itty-bitty proteins in large numbers
Dec. 7, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: Ribosome profiling has identified thousands of short protein-coding genes, many in unexpected parts of the genome. Research suggests some play important regulatory roles.
Feature
Giant, intricate structures
Dec. 6, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: In a “triumph of experimental structural biology,” multiple teams tackle the nuclear pore complex.
Feature
Evolutionary constraints on disordered proteins
Dec. 5, 2022
Best of BMB 2022: “There’s evidence that there must be conservation of function — so how does this happen, if the sequence changes so much?”
Interview
What’s in the structural vaccine designer’s toolbox?
Nov. 17, 2022
Structural biologist Jason McLellan, a researcher at UT Austin, has been recognized widely for his work on vaccine development. We asked him about the nuts and bolts of engineering the best antigen.
Climate Change
The climate change issue
Nov. 2, 2022
The articles in this special section explore a few of the many threads connecting biochemistry to the climate crisis.
Annual Meeting
Wirth focuses on parasitology and policy
Oct. 27, 2022
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health immunologist has won the ASBMB’s Alice and C.C. Wang Award in Molecular Parasitology.
Climate Change
What does biochemistry have to do with climate change?
Oct. 19, 2022
In a seminar course with a mission, Karla Neugebauer is teaching Yale students how biochemistry can inform our understanding of climate change.
Annual Meeting
Ruppin synthesizes cross-field expertise to study synthetic lethality
Oct. 17, 2022
A researcher at the National Cancer Institute, he will receive the ASBMB’s 2023 DeLano Award in Computational Biology.
News
Nobel Prize honors click and bioorthogonal chemistry
Oct. 5, 2022
Chemical biologist Bertozzi shares prize with chemists Sharpless and Meldal.
Feature
Is circadian cancer therapy coming?
Oct. 5, 2022
Could changing the time of a dose of chemotherapy be enough to boost its efficacy? Circadian biologists and physicians are divided.
News
Many of us are part Neanderthal. He found it out.
Oct. 3, 2022
A Nobel for paleogeneticist Svante Pääbo.
Interview
‘With advances in mass spectrometry, we can explore terra incognita’
Sept. 29, 2022
A conversation with Molecular & Cellular Proteomics associate editor Albert Heck, a researcher at Utrecht University.
Journal News
A membrane ATPase without transporter activity
Sept. 28, 2022
A classic article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry reflects on Guido Guidotti’s laboratory and the search for CD39.
Feature
Not so silent after all?
Sept. 23, 2022
Scientists debate synonymous codons’ biological effects.
Journal News
Starved for oxygen, T cells flag in cancer fight
Sept. 6, 2022
Researchers find that tumor hypoxia dramatically alters surface proteome.
Feature
High-affinity binding
Aug. 31, 2022
Two-PI labs are becoming more common. Here’s how the leaders of five joint labs make it work.
Interview
‘My involvement with ASBMB has made me want to do more’
Aug. 18, 2022
We get to know Ann Stock, a Rutgers University professor and the society’s new president.
Feature
Cannabis hyperemesis and the cure that burns
Aug. 3, 2022
When chronic users of marijuana show up in the ER with uncontrollable vomiting, physicians have a salve that can relieve their pain. Scientists aren’t sure why it works.
BMB in Africa
600 flavors of home
July 27, 2022
Former molecular biologist Tapiwa Guzha sells bespoke ice creams with a mission at a café in Cape Town.
Member News
AAAS inducts new members
July 18, 2022
Three of this year’s American Academy of Arts and Sciences inductees are ASBMB members: Mariano Garcia–Blanco, Rachel Klevit and Aviv Regev.
In Memoriam
In memoriam: John Edmond
July 4, 2022
He was an emeritus professor of biological chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and an ASBMB member since 1974.
News
The mechanism of the monkeypox antiviral
May 24, 2022
As monkeypox becomes an international concern, interest grows in tecovirimat; this smallpox drug targets a structural protein that helps wrap the virus in a second lipid bilayer.
Research Spotlight
Fishing for enzymes deep in the ocean
April 29, 2022
A chemist at the University of Sao Paulo prospects for new luciferases that might have biotechnology applications.
Feature
The scramble for protein nanopore sequencing
April 27, 2022
As this method of sequencing DNA becomes widespread, a once-elusive goal is biophysicists’ next target.
Annual Meeting
A chaperone’s quick shape change
April 2, 2022
When the temperature heats up, a chloroplast chaperone switches client proteins. Biophysicist Alex Siegel will talk about the structure changes that drive the swap Sunday at the ASBMB Annual Meeting.
Feature
What’s with Wikipedia and women?
March 8, 2022
Things are changing, little by little, at the open-source encyclopedia.
Feature
The evolution of cluster hiring
Feb. 23, 2022
How a mechanism for assembling research teams became a tool for increasing diversity
Member News
AAAS announces 2021 fellows
Feb. 21, 2022
Nineteen members of this year’s class are ASBMB members
Interview
‘A holistic view’
Feb. 4, 2022
As a metabolomics application specialist, Heino Heyman gets to talk metabolomics all day, helping customers plan and analyze their studies.
Feature
Woo, Ranade and the 'kick-me' mouse
Jan. 28, 2022
“We were all blown away.” Scientists seeking to understand pressure-sensitive receptors encountered some surprises along the way. Last in a series on the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Feature
Bertrand Coste and the pressure receptor
Jan. 27, 2022
“It was almost one of those ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this’ kind of projects.” The search for a protein that senses pressure. Part of a series on the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Feature
David McKemy and the cold receptor
Jan. 26, 2022
“This is the nature of doing bench work. We all go through those periods when stuff’s not working.” How persistence unlocked the cold-sensitive receptor TRPM8. Part of a series on the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Feature
How the Julius lab found that an ion channel senses heat
Jan. 25, 2022
“Holy cow, this is why hot peppers are hot.” How researchers established that the capsaicin receptor also recognizes heat. Part of a series on the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Member News
Partch wins NAS Award in Molecular Biology
Jan. 24, 2022
It recognizes a “recent notable discovery in molecular biology by a young scientist." Partch studies the molecular mechanisms of circadian signaling in mammalian and bacterial cells.
Feature
Michael Caterina and the capsaicin receptor
Jan. 24, 2022
Being scooped left a postdoc with a toolkit for hunting receptors — and a daring new project. First in a series on the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Wellness
Dancing together, separately
Jan. 11, 2022
An online Bollywood dance class didn’t just get me moving; it soothed my pandemic anxieties and gave me a sense of community.
Member News
Burrows, Seidah and Bastardo Blanco honored
Jan. 10, 2022
Awards, promotions, milestones and more. Find out what's going on in the lives of ASBMB members.
Interview
‘I could not ask for more’
Jan. 7, 2022
“In the end, I would say it was not a challenge but an honor that after so much hard work we were able to develop a vaccine that works to treat patients.”
Member News
Tabak takes over temporarily at NIH
Jan. 3, 2022
The longtime ASBMB member takes the reins from Francis Collins, who stepped down recently.
Member News
Gamble-George, Garneau-Tsodikova represented in statuary form
Dec. 27, 2021
The IF/THEN ambassadors are among 125 women in STEM featured in exhibit.
Interview
More than a year's worth of 5 questions
Dec. 24, 2021
Over the past year and a half, our science writer talked to members who work in industry about their paths. Check out those short and sweet interviews.
Feature
Best of BMB in 2021
Dec. 22, 2021
This subjective list reflects a field alive with discoveries driven by new computational tools and molecular techniques, recent advances in structural biology, and widespread interest in treating and preventing diseases.
Art
We put the titles of JBC’s most-read articles into an AI art generator
Dec. 13, 2021
We found a science text input that even Wombo couldn’t visualize.
Award
Bollinger built a bioinorganic powerhouse at Penn State
Dec. 10, 2021
Martin Bollinger has won the ASBMB’s William C. Rose Award recognizing outstanding contributions to biochemical and molecular biological research and a demonstrated commitment to the training of younger scientists.
Award
Sharpee sees many ways of looking at a tree
Dec. 8, 2021
Tatyana Sharpee will receive the ASBMB’s Delano Award for Computational Biosciences honoring accessible and innovative development or application of computer technology to enhance research in the life sciences at the molecular level.
Journal News
Democratizing calcium visualization
Dec. 7, 2021
Before Roger Tsien began to study GFP, for which he would share the Nobel Prize, he already had done a career’s worth of innovation in calcium sensing and signaling.
Member News
NAM names new members
Dec. 6, 2021
The National Academy of Medicine has announced its new class of members elected based on their professional achievements and commitment to service; six are members of the ASBMB.
Award
Airola learns from failure
Dec. 3, 2021
Michael Airola has won ASBMB’s 2022 Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator Award in Lipid Research recognizing outstanding research contributions in the area of lipids by a young investigator.
Feature
A very delicate balance
Nov. 17, 2021
Could blocking lysosomal gatekeeper PIKfyve slow neurodegeneration?
Interview
‘With protein biochemistry … you can survive anywhere.’
Nov. 12, 2021
After his father had a stroke, Manjunath Goolyam Basavaraj decided to study blood clotting — research with a personal connection.
Journal News
From the journals: JBC
Nov. 3, 2021
A transient receptor potential channel distinguishes “hot” from “pot.” Higher liver glycogen storage turbocharges mice. Blocking steroid hormone synthesis blocks cancer.
Journal News
Finding a third form of fat
Oct. 26, 2021
When brown fat was discovered in human adults, it came as a surprise. A classic JBC study found another surprise: White fat cells could be coaxed into a phenotype resembling brown fat.
Feature
On-the-bench training
Oct. 20, 2021
Apprenticeships offer pathways into biotechnology for a growing number of students. How does the training model work, why are policymakers excited about it, and who wants to be an apprentice?
Interview
‘It’s taken a lot of moves and reevaluations’
Oct. 15, 2021
“A lot of my career has been like, ‘All right, what’s my next step?’ In the last 10 years, the longest I’ve stayed in one position was three years. … I think that’s getting more and more common.”
Journal News
How inflammation changes antigen presentation
Oct. 13, 2021
In a special issue of MCP on the immunopeptidome, researchers report on how inflammation changes antigen presentation.
Award
Nobel Prize recognizes development of asymmetric organic catalysis
Oct. 6, 2021
Benjamin List and David MacMillan credited with developing "an ingenious tool for building molecules."
Award
Nobel Prize recognizes discoveries of ion channels
Oct. 4, 2021
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the medicine prize "for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch."
Feature
Nautilus founder unspirals a new approach to proteomics
Sept. 21, 2021
Parag Mallick may be trying to launch a competing proteomics technique, but you won’t catch him badmouthing mass spectrometers.
Interview
Building bridges between basic and clinical research
Sept. 16, 2021
Karin Bornfeldt, an associate editor for the Journal of Lipid Research, investigates how diabetes increases cardiovascular disease risk.
Interview
A turbulent industry: 5 questions with Paul Wright
Sept. 10, 2021
Paul Wright, a chemist whose 28-year career in the pharmaceutical industry spanned many types of roles and companies, shares what he learned along the way with ASBMB Today.
Feature
Personal chemistry: Proteomics tackles privacy concerns
Sept. 9, 2021
Sharing raw data is an important norm for the proteomics community. But as clinical studies become more detailed, researchers may need to clamp down to protect patient privacy.
Journal News
From the journals: MCP
Aug. 17, 2021
A triphosphorylated species may be linked to DNA repair. A site-specific proteomics approach holds promise for Alzheimer’s diagnosis. A new platform improves quantification of histone modifications.
Jobs
“Very, very luckily for me, this project is going well.”
Aug. 13, 2021
Glycobiologist Vijayakanth Pagadala wasn’t looking for a career in biotechnology, but he’s glad to have found one.
Jobs
What we’ve learned about careers in industry
Aug. 6, 2021
Industry careers columnist Courtney Chandler and staff writer Laurel Oldach team up to offer advice for job seekers.
Professional Development
Biotech industry jargon: A primer for the curious
July 29, 2021
The specific scientific and technical knowledge you need in an industry job depends on the role and will change over the course of your career. But it can help to know the basics.
Member News
Craik to join Royal Society; Wiegel lands fellowship, wins award for talk
July 5, 2021
Awards, promotions, milestones and more. Find out what's going on in the lives of ASBMB members.
Member News
Johnson and Shea win awards; Wolberger named chair
June 28, 2021
Awards, promotions, milestones and more. Find out what's going on in the lives of ASBMB members.
News
Addgene expands its collection into antibodies
June 4, 2021
The reagent repository Addgene, known for distribution and quality control of plasmids for open science, is expanding into recombinant antibodies and nanobodies in partnership with NeuroMab.
Interview
Exploring underappreciated molecules and new cities
June 2, 2021
Neurochemist Xianlin Han has been an associate editor for the Journal of Lipid Research since 2019.
Feature
Targeting 20,000 proteins by 2035
May 26, 2021
The organizers of Target 2035, the Structural Genome Consortium, have an ambitious aim: to invent an inhibitor or probe for every protein in the human proteome by 2035. How will they do it?
Virtual event
Precious cargo?
May 20, 2021
The co-organizer of an upcoming virtual meeting on extracellular vesicles shares his thoughts on these enigmatic intercellular communicators.
Interview
‘I could be happy doing other things’
May 19, 2021
Forensic investigations, IVF embryology, custom virus production for research: Alanna Mitsopoulos has done it all. In a Q&A with ASBMB Today, she describes her career path so far.
Journal News
From the journals: MCP
May 6, 2021
Using silver nanoparticles to target cancer. Glycosylation of SARS-CoV-2. Characterizing the glycan signature in tumor tissue. Read about recent papers in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.
Annual Meeting
Can probiotics change fish behavior?
April 28, 2021
Fishery-raised salmon often have three sets of parental chromosomes instead of the usual two. Can probiotics help address the immune and behavioral complications of triploidy?
Annual Meeting
Saving injera: Lessons from a teff grain's drought-tolerant cousin
April 27, 2021
Even after a killing drought, Eragrostis nindensis can rebound and sprout new green shoots when water becomes available. Could its tricks help the food grain E. teff?
Interview
‘Grad school is just the foundation’
March 30, 2021
Rebecca Krisher, global director of reproductive biology at Genus, went from developing new techniques for human in vitro fertilization to research in animal breeding.
Journal News
Messy data, robust conclusions
March 24, 2021
Differentiating between highly similar infections can be a clinical challenge. It was the first of many that Elodie Ghedin and Christine Vogel’s labs have tackled together.
News
Become the protein
March 4, 2021
Biochemists and biophysicists represented the proteins they study through movement in this year’s "Dance your Ph.D." competition.
Interview
“The pleasure of my life”
Feb. 19, 2021
Structural biologist Melissa Starovasnik shares what she learned about leadership and decision-making as a director and vice president at Genentech.
Feature
Can urban universities be better neighbors?
Feb. 10, 2021
Universities are a significant economic force in American cities. Some leaders are asking how they can use that power to benefit local communities.
Journal News
From the journals: JLR
Feb. 9, 2021
How does gastric bypass affect microRNA production? How does adiponectin fight fatty plaques? How is ceramide concentration sensed in cilia? Recent papers in the Journal of Lipid Research address these questions.
Journal News
A mold’s dangerous responses to its environment
Jan. 19, 2021
To understand how a toxin is synthesized and why, researchers stressed a fungus and investigated how its proteome changed.
Journal News
A novel technique maps antibodies’ epitope specificities
Jan. 6, 2021
Determining what proteins an antibody binds can be time and resource intensive. Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a faster, less expensive approach to epitope mapping.
Interview
Giving labs the tools to be successful
Dec. 18, 2020
Whether he’s studying genetic changes in astronauts or fine-tuning a forensic DNA test, Douglas Storts is always working to solve puzzles as the head of research in nucleic acids at Promega.
Award
From bacterial immunity to scientific revolution
Dec. 15, 2020
For their joint contribution to the use of CRISPR–Cas9 as a technology, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Award
Dozens of ways of using CRISPR
Dec. 15, 2020
CRISPR systems have inspired biochemists and engineers to develop a vast array of new molecular technologies based on using RNA to direct a protein. Here are a few that caught our eye.
Interview
“Besides getting sweat on me at times, I have enjoyed the experience”
Dec. 11, 2020
You have to know a lot about exercise physiology to make a good workout-recovery drink. PepsiCo’s Shyretha Brown uses biochemistry to understand the body’s responses.
Feature
Taking the spit test
Dec. 8, 2020
Taking a saliva-based test for COVID-19, the writer flashes back to the RT-PCR setups of her grad school days. How could fragile RNA hold up at room temperature long enough to be mailed to a lab?
Interview
“You’ve got … to get outside of your comfort zone”
Nov. 20, 2020
Wayne Fairbrother leads a department at Genentech tasked with validating disease-associated targets and determining whether they could be feasible for drug development.
Journal News
Bubbly biochemistry: Understanding the components of sparkling wine
Nov. 17, 2020
Champagne and prosecco may be tough to pipette, but motivated by a desire to determine what keeps those bubbles in solution, Australian researchers found a way.
Feature
The midcareer move
Nov. 4, 2020
After making it in academia, why would a tenured professor choose to seek a leadership role in the biotech or pharmaceutical industry? What challenges might someone making this change encounter along the way?
Interview
'Your diagnostic is only as good as what you understand about a disease'
Oct. 30, 2020
Renee Yura has spent much of 2020 supporting Pfizer’s COVID-19 response. She took a break to tell ASBMB Today about the world of diagnostics development and how she landed there.
Journal News
Rediscovering the first known plant cyclic peptide
Oct. 29, 2020
Australian researchers uncover the forgotten history of a peptide from rainforest trees that is synthesized by an enzyme that acts like a slightly confused protease.
Funding
Pandemic snarls research administration
Oct. 1, 2020
With data collection slowed and grant applications way up, the pandemic is disrupting the complex, slow-moving NIH funding system. Federal officials and university grant administrators are working to help researchers keep things moving.
Journal News
Our internal ecology
Sept. 29, 2020
According to microbial ecologist Leyuan Li, “We need to start thinking about the gut microbiome like a rainforest.”
Interview
It all comes down to where we place our bets
Sept. 18, 2020
Mark Harpel works in a research unit at GlaxoSmithKline that helps choose the most promising targets for new drug development.
Member News
Cell biology, microbiology societies present awards
Sept. 14, 2020
Honorees include ASBMB members Joann Trejo, James Olzmann, Steven Farber, Sue Wickner and Bernard Moss.
Feature
A zest for synthetic biology
Sept. 2, 2020
Metabolic engineers seek to overcome the challenges of mass-producing commodity chemicals, such as limonene, an oil from orange peels.
Journal News
Health journey helps researcher teach old mice new tricks
Sept. 1, 2020
Graduate student Eileen Parks was interested in allopregnanolone because of its role in epilepsy. When she joined professor Bill Sonntag’s lab, she turned that interest into a discovery about aging.
Profile
On managing and mentoring
Aug. 21, 2020
“Everybody’s career trajectory is different, and there's no one way to do it,” says Jenna Hendershot, whose last-minute internship in grad school turned her from academic bench work to industry.
News
New studies define transcription–translation coupling
Aug. 20, 2020
Bacteria hitch RNA polymerases and ribosomes together. Newly published cryo-EM research is showing how the complex forms.
Profile
There and back again
Aug. 7, 2020
Grant Blouse, senior vice president of translational research at Catalyst Biosciences, offers career advice from his experience in both a big pharmaceutical company and a smaller biotech outfit.
Society News
ASBMB launches industry advisory group
July 20, 2020
A new group of members who work in industry are developing programs for academic scientists contemplating R&D — and for industrial researchers who want to give back.
Journal News
Proteomics reveals hallmarks of aging in brain stem cells
July 9, 2020
Early in adulthood, the brain regenerates lost myelin effectively, but remyelination falters with age. Researchers seek to understand why — and what the change may mean for people with multiple sclerosis.
Profile
Leadership on the cutting edge
July 6, 2020
Toni Antalis, the ASBMB’s new president, talks about reopening her lab after COVID-19 closures, how she’s repurposing anthrax toxins to fight cancer and the most interesting book she has read lately.
Stroopwafels
Summer food science
July 2, 2020
For those of you bound for a summertime holiday weekend, we dug into recent research on the yummy foods you might serve at a socially distant picnic.
News
Pivoting from carnivorous plants to COVID-19
June 3, 2020
UCI professor Rachel Martin leads a consortium, including most of her department, in a hunt for protease-inhibiting antivirals.
Journal News
A mechanism for remdesivir activity and a platform to test other antivirals
May 7, 2020
Researchers who showed that remdesivir blocks coronavirus polymerases report in JBC that a steric clash with a conserved serine mediates the effect.
Journal News
Review delves into proximity proteomics
April 20, 2020
Proximity-dependent biotinylation is a popular method for determining interaction partners of a protein of interest. A review in MCP introduces readers to the technique.
News
Slipping past the proofreader
April 10, 2020
The virus family that causes SARS, MERS and COVID-19 has an unusual ability to evade treatment. Can new drug candidates overcome it?
News
Using community-organizing skills to mobilize scientists against COVID-19
April 6, 2020
As scientists look for ways to help fight the new coronavirus, a group of grad students and postdocs create a database to connect volunteers with local health departments.
News
Researchers retool genomics labs to provide COVID-19 testing
March 30, 2020
The pipetting robots are already in place, but that doesn’t make it easy. Here's how academic laboratories are quickly pivoting to provide testing for the coronavirus.
Science Communication
Science communication in action: COVID-19 edition
March 23, 2020
Our science writers selected 10 examples of solid scicomm about the novel coronavirus.
Life in the Lab
'We are doers. We want to get involved.'
March 18, 2020
In a department that feels almost deserted, basic scientists join the COVID-19 effort.
News
What makes remdesivir a promising antiviral?
March 17, 2020
Clinical trials around the world are testing remdesivir, a nucleotide analog, for possible effects against the novel coronavirus. We asked some experts what makes the molecule interesting.
Feature
The magic isn’t the squid... The magic is the protein.
March 11, 2020
Some squids can produce a dazzling display of changing iridescence by manipulating the way light bounces off their skin. Researchers are learning that it all depends on the biochemistry of a protein called reflectin.
Profile
Start simple. It always gets more complicated.
March 10, 2020
From discovering a transporter to helping to move its inhibitors into the clinic, Paul Dawson has benefited from a tight focus on bile acid transport.
Journal News
Study sheds light on how a drug being tested in COVID-19 patients works
Feb. 27, 2020
As hospitalized COVID-19 patients undergo experimental therapy, research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry explains how the drug, remdesivir, stops replication in coronaviruses.
Journal News
Progesterone from an unexpected source may affect miscarriage risk
Feb. 25, 2020
Progesterone signaling is key to a healthy pregnancy. An Austrian team’s research suggests a link between recurrent miscarriage and disrupted progesterone synthesis.
Journal News
Finding neoantigens faster — advances in the study of the immunopeptidome
Feb. 21, 2020
Two papers in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics highlight advances in the study of the intracellular peptides presented at the cell surface for immune surveillance.
Education
A matter of degree
Feb. 18, 2020
Black biologists are more likely than any other group to earn a master’s degree before enrolling in a Ph.D. program. What accounts for this disparity?
Journal News
Do sperm offer the uterus a secret handshake?
Jan. 22, 2020
Why does it take 200 million sperm to fertilize a single egg? A female immune response is one reason. A molecular handshake may help sperm survive the bombardment.
Journal News
The proteome of the cave bear
Jan. 18, 2020
If a peptide mass spectrum is like a jigsaw puzzle, then a genome is the picture that researchers use to piece things together. But what do you do when there’s no picture to use as a guide?
Journal News
Taking the measure of glycans
Jan. 12, 2020
When Lorna De Leoz invited laboratories to participate in her glycomics study, she hoped for 20 responses. Instead, she was deluged by emails from around the world.
Journal News
JLR: Secrets of fat and the lymph node
Dec. 1, 2019
Some 20 years ago, Sander Kersten isolated a protein that acts as a control for how our bodies store or burn fat. Recently, he wrote in the Journal of Lipid Research about why loss of this protein can be fatal to mice.
Journal News
MCP: When prions are personal
Dec. 1, 2019
In a quest to cure the deadly protein folding disease that runs in his wife’s family, a researcher publishes a new assay for monitoring protein levels in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.
Journal News
From the journals: December 2019
Dec. 1, 2019
Chasing the structure of a histone’s N-terminus tail. Highlighting the role of lipids in mediating endoplasmic reticulum structure. Defining the components of a bacteria’s biofilm matrix. Researchers tackle these tasks and more in our latest roundup…
Award
Schaffer is motivated to pass on good mentoring
Nov. 1, 2019
The winner of the 2020/2021 Avanti Award in Lipids studies lipotoxicity, the means by which metabolic stress can harm cells.
Journal News
JLR: Lack of sleep affects fat metabolism
Nov. 1, 2019
Healthy young men feel less satisfied after eating a high-fat meal, and the lipids are cleared faster from their blood, when the men were getting only five hours of sleep a night, according to a Penn State study.
Journal News
MCP: This protein makes antibody drugs work
Nov. 1, 2019
Could differences in post-translational modifications to a natural killer cell receptor affect how well antibody therapy works for different patients? Glycoscience researchers at Iowa State investigate.
Interview
Meet Sean Davidson
Nov. 1, 2019
This associate editor of the Journal of Lipid Research talks to Laurel Oldach about his fascination with high-density lipoprotein and why he cringes when people call it “good cholesterol.” Also, his love of competitive cycling.
Feature
Biochemistry of a burger
Oct. 1, 2019
Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown gave up his position as a Stanford professor to change the world by eliminating meat — but he’s using his scientific training to make a beefy-tasting plant-based burger.
Journal News
JBC: Researchers link new protein to Parkinson’s
Oct. 1, 2019
In the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a Japanese team writes about their finding that a protein called MITOL, not previously linked to Parkinson’s disease, may be involved in disrupting the destruction of damaged mitochondria.
Feature
International collaborations
Sept. 1, 2019
Pramod Mahajan, a Drake University pharmacy professor, used skills he learned in business to sell the school’s faculty on a program that sends Iowa students to learn about medicine and research in rural India.
Society News
Support for women in BMB
Sept. 1, 2019
The society’s newest committee gathers a group of “mighty women” to promote policies of gender equity and recognize individuals who are committed to advancing the careers of women in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Journal News
JLR: What controls cholesterol biosynthesis?
Sept. 1, 2019
In the Journal of Lipid Research, Liang Chen and colleagues at Wuhan University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences report that several metabolites, including lanosterol, can affect the activity of two cholesterol biosynthesis enzymes.
Journal News
MCP: Special issue on multiomics
Sept. 1, 2019
This issue of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics dives into new approaches in systems biology with 16 articles that explore ways to combine data from two or more omes.
Journal News
JLR: A fatty liver drug? Not so fast
Aug. 1, 2019
The researcher who discovered sphingosine-1-phosphate publishes a study highlighting the complexities of signaling by this enigmatic lipid — and shows that targeting it may not fix fatty livers as easily as researchers had thought.
Journal News
Huntingtin through a multiomic lens
Aug. 1, 2019
A study shows that the mutant protein that causes Huntington’s disease can alter the binding properties of another protein, perhaps accounting for some of the mutation’s far-flung cellular effects.
Jobs
By the numbers: Career prospects in the life sciences
Aug. 1, 2019
With employment numbers collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and data from two National Science Foundation surveys, we chart career prospects in the life sciences.
Journal News
JBC: How bacteria build efficient photosynthesis machines
Aug. 1, 2019
In the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a Canadian research team reports on how cyanobacteria finesse one of the most wasteful steps in photosynthesis by boosting the efficiency of a critical enzyme called Rubisco.
Feature
Setting sail in a startup
Aug. 1, 2019
Sometimes an academic believes in their research so much that they take the plunge to found a company.
Journal News
JLR: Cascading errors
June 1, 2019
In a paper in the Journal of Lipid Research, a team led by Konrad Sandhoff offers a clue as to why certain complex lipids, called gangliosides, accumulate even in lysosomal storage diseases that don’t affect ganglioside metabolism directly.
Journal News
MCP: Study shows long-term effects of weight loss on the proteome
June 1, 2019
Swiss researchers analyzing patient plasma from an obesity study saw a dramatic, lasting drop in inflammatory signaling and an increase in lipid metabolism soon after weight loss.
Defying Stereotypes
Biochemist wins pageant crown
June 1, 2019
Camille Schrier, a doctoral candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University’s school of pharmacy, won the 2019 Miss Virginia competition after doing a chemistry experiment on stage in the talent portion of the competition.
Journal News
JBC: How do protein tangles get so long?
June 1, 2019
Researchers at The Ohio State University report that tau protein filaments can join end-to-end to create one filament hundreds of nanometers long.
Journal News
JBC: Bacterial drug synergies hide in plain sight
May 1, 2019
While on the hunt for a molecule with therapeutic potential, researchers made a sweeping discovery: Every bacterial strain that produces the drug rapamycin can make a second compound that enhances rapamycin’s effect.
Feature
Harmonizing lipidomics
May 1, 2019
For a lipid to be useful in the clinic, researchers must agree on its identity and on how much of it to expect in a healthy person. Lipidomics researchers are working toward such agreements, and this field-wide effort, as chronicled by Laurel Oldach…
Journal News
MCP: Catching ovarian cancer when it’s curable
May 1, 2019
In the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, researchers in Israel report that by isolating microvesicles from uterine fluid and comparing thousands of proteins, they have developed a diagnostic tool for a cancer that’s often discovered too late …
Journal News
JLR celebrates diamond jubilee
May 1, 2019
The Journal of Lipid Research marks its 60th
year of publication by inviting more than 50 researchers to share updates on
their work in a series of review articles.
Journal News
MCP: Proteogenomics researchers find causes of immune disease
April 1, 2019
With samples from patients in four countries and a novel database on the neutrophil proteome, scientists at universities in Munich and Berlin diagnosed two children with severe congenital neutropenia using mass spectrometry-based proteomics after ty…
Journal News
JLR: 'Almost like a Velcro ball'
April 1, 2019
In a genetic study of the HDL proteome, a team from the Oregon Health and Sciences University showed that a complex mixture of heritable and environmental factors drives variation in protein makeup of HDL particles.
Journal News
JBC: A change in labs reveals a key to cataract formation
April 1, 2019
When Harvard postdoc Eugene Serebryany moved to a new lab, he had trouble replicating the results of his lens crystalline protein experiments. Figuring out what changed led to a discovery described in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Interview
Meet Jean Schaffer
April 1, 2019
The cardiologist decided early in her career that she wanted to pursue research.
Journal News
JLR: Study sheds light on function of mysterious PCSK9 mutation
Feb. 1, 2019
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco publish an investigation in the Journal of Lipid Research into why experiments on this protein give different results in a test tube than they do in liver cells.
Journal News
JLR: A close-up of nascent HDL formation
Jan. 1, 2019
Increasing reverse cholesterol transport may be a way to reduce heart disease, and a paper in the Journal of Lipid Research gets a step closer with an advance in our understanding of how a carrier of lipids, including cholesterol, is formed.
Interview
How to patent an antibody
Jan. 1, 2019
Charles Craik explains how the patenting process works in academia and how a recent legal challenge could change the landscape
Feature
The antibody patent question
Dec. 1, 2018
Can a drug company own every monoclonal antibody in a class — even the ones they don’t know about?
Journal News
JLR: A close-up of the lipids in Niemann–Pick disease
Dec. 1, 2018
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago describe in the Journal of Lipid Research how they used mass spectrometry imaging to map the lipid accumulation that leads to neurodegeneration and early death in this rare genetic disorder.
Journal News
MCP: A royal legacy
Dec. 1, 2018
In a paper in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, a Viennese team with honeybee heritage studies sugar modification in royal jelly, an important food for queen bee larvae.
Journal News
From the journals: December 2018
Dec. 1, 2018
How early screening can help cure a rare genetic disease in newborns. The connection of genes, brains and immune cells in a risk factor for obesity. The difference between white and brown fat cells. Read about this research and more in our roundup o…
Journal News
JLR: Which oil is best for your health?
Nov. 1, 2018
A network meta-analysis extracts insights from multiple studies on how dietary fats affect blood lipids. Not surprisingly, oils from seeds are the best choices for good health.
Journal News
MCP: Sperm-quality study updates advice for couples
Nov. 1, 2018
Recent research indicates that the longer sperm exist, the more vulnerable they are to DNA damage by reactive oxygen, which could harm their ability to form a viable embryo.
Journal News
From the journals: November 2018
Nov. 1, 2018
Using mass spectrometry to learn how a flexible fish evolved. Finding the anti-addictive enzyme in an African shrub. Tracing how cholesterol contributes to macular degeneration. Read about this research and more in our roundup of recent papers fro…
Journal News
JLR: Spectroscopic studies scrutinize links between liver disease and mitochondria
Oct. 1, 2018
Two recent studies offer new insight into how mitochondrial dysfunction is related to the onset and progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a precursor to nonalcoholic steatohepatosis, or NASH.
Journal News
MCP: Zika’s cellular neighborhood
Oct. 1, 2018
University of Toronto researchers report in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics that studying how Zika interacts with host cells can provide insight into how the virus escapes immune signaling and proliferates in the human body.
Diversity
Women in science take on sexual harassment
Sept. 1, 2018
As the #metoo movement reaches research labs, activists are asking universities, funding agencies and scientific
societies to do more about science’s sexual harassment problem.
Journal News
MCP: Guidelines for reporting complex spectra
Sept. 1, 2018
The editors of the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics want feedback on their proposed guidelines for proteomics studies that use data-independent acquisition to collect tandem mass spectrometry data.
Journal News
JLR: Finding the structure of a lipid that keeps our tears clear
Sept. 1, 2018
Researchers in Australia write in the Journal of Lipid Research about their pursuit of the structure of a key long-chain lipid that keeps our tear film from evaporating on our eyes.
Journal News
MCP: Just drops of viper venom pack a deadly punch
Aug. 1, 2018
Brazilian scientists write in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics about characterizing the structure of sugar molecules that modify proteins in the venom of lancehead vipers.
Journal News
JLR: Medical detectives, linked by a PubMed search
Aug. 1, 2018
Doctors in Israel were treating a baby with an ultra-rare myelin deficiency. Researchers in Japan had studied the mutation that caused it. A paper in the Journal of Lipid Research describes how they were brought together.
Feature
An entrepreneur fights disease on the ground
Aug. 1, 2018
Educated as a research scientist, Paula Fernandes started a company to solve quality problems in the clinical lab and train healthcare workers around the world.
Journal News
From the journals: August 2018
Aug. 1, 2018
Why are people with chronic kidney disease at high risk of heart failure? Can a pathogen avoid a host antibody by grabbing it? Why do some cancer cells love sugar and eschew fiber? Read about these topics and more in our roundup.
Jobs
National labs offer options for science careers
Aug. 1, 2018
Two Ph.D. scientists — researcher Tom Metz and writer Mollie Rappé — talk about how they landed where they are and what it’s like working in the national laboratory system.
Journal News
MCP: Real-time proteomics may speed cancer surgery
June 1, 2018
A paper in Molecular &Cellular Proteomics describes the SpiderMass, a device that uses mass spectrometry to look for cancer markers in living tissue during an operation.
Journal News
JLR: What can a tasty milkshake teach us about the genetics of heart disease?
June 1, 2018
Researchers studied patients' response to a cholesterol medication by sequencing genes and measuring fat and lipoproteins in the blood of study subjects who drank high-fat shakes, according to a paper in the Journal of Lipid Research.
Journal News
From the journals: June/July 2018
June 1, 2018
What can proteomics teach us about dying cancer cells? Why do some bacteria survive contact with copper? What happens when brown fat cells turn white? Read about these topics and more.
Feature
Collaboration born at a poster session
June 1, 2018
How two grad students met at a conference, cooked up a study and cracked at puzzle at the heart of Lyme disease treatment.
Feature
The gut-brain connection
May 1, 2018
The various symptoms of Parkinson’s all stem from the aggregation of a misfolded protein,
alpha-synuclein, and new research focuses on disrupting this process by figuring out how a bug lurking in the gut microbiome affects the brain.
Journal News
JLR: Gene therapy shows promise for deadly childhood disorder
May 1, 2018
Sandhoff disease disrupts function of an enzyme that breaks down complex lipids. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health used patient-derived organoids to study how the disturbed enzyme affects early development.
Journal News
MCP: Keeping tabs on protein variants
May 1, 2018
Researchers describe a new approach to determining the lifespan of many proteins, and their alternative isoforms, by combining two labeling techniques, SILAC and TMT.
Journal News
From the journals: May 2018
May 1, 2018
Is there a way to kill fat cells to make weight loss last? What’s the significance of cholesterol efflux capacity levels in octogenarians? Read about these topics and more in our roundup of recent papers from the Journal of Biological Chemistry, t…
Journal News
From the journals: April 2018
April 1, 2018
Which fats make a healthier mouse? How can you ensure sperm have both heads and tails? Read about these topics and more in our
roundup of recent papers from ASBMB journals.
ASBMB Annual Meeting
Journal names winners of 2018 Tabor awards
March 1, 2018
The ASBMB annual meeting in San Diego in April will feature five special Spotlight Talks by the winners of the Journal of Biological Chemistry/Herbert Tabor Young Investigator Awards.
Journal News
From the journals: March 2018
March 1, 2018
Eczema lotion inspired by babies’ skin. Steps toward accessible vaccines. How staph bacteria steals iron. Read about these topics and more.
Award
HIV researcher wins Tabor award
March 1, 2018
Koree Ahn recognized for studies of synergy between HIV entry inhibitors.
Member News
Who is Herbert Tabor?
March 1, 2018
From 1971 to 2010, he served as editor-in-chief for the Journal of Biological Chemistry, overseeing its expansion from 1,000 to 4,500 published articles per year and its transition to online publication.
Award
Imaging paper earns chemist a 2018 Tabor award
March 1, 2018
Richard Karpowicz Jr. peers into neurons to study seeding of alpha-synuclein.
Award
Neuropharmacologist earns Tabor award
March 1, 2018
Maria Fe Lanfranco selected for engineering novel mutant dimers.
Award
Iron metabolism work wins Tabor award
March 1, 2018
Nathan B. Johnson, a nutritional biochemist, picked for paper on tuning iron levels.
Award
Tabor award for bacterial colony work
March 1, 2018
Catherine Back honored for studies of oral pathogen that infects heart.