ASBMB names 2025 fellows

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology today announced that it has named 24 members as 2025 fellows of the society.

Designation as a fellow recognizes commitment to the ASBMB through a history of exceptional and sustained service to the society as well as accomplishments in research, education, mentorship, diversity and inclusion, advocacy and service to the scientific community.

The fellows were selected by the ASBMB Membership Committee, including Rick Page, associate vice president for research and innovation at Miami University and the Membership Committee chair, as well as Chi Fung Lee, assistant professor of cardiovascular biology research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the Membership Committee fellows task force chair.

“We are glad to welcome the 24 new ASBMB fellows in the 2025 class,” Lee said. “They have shown remarkable commitment to ASBMB through their sustained service, as well as impactful accomplishments in their professions of research, education, advocacy and service to the scientific community. We are honored to have these colleagues to represent ASBMB. We look forward to their continued contribution as role models and mentors to inspire members of ASBMB.”

This is the fifth year that ASBMB has named fellows. The society will recognize the 2025 class at its annual meeting, April 12–15, in Chicago. Learn more about the 2025 fellows below.

Ann Aguanno

Ann Aguanno is a professor of medical genetics and biochemistry and the chair of molecular sciences at the Medical University of the Americas in Nevis, West Indies. She is also professor emerita at Marymount Manhattan College. Aguanno previously studied the role of cyclin-dependent kinases in neurodegenerative diseases and insulin regulation. Aguanno also explored effective methods for training undergraduate biology researchers. She currently focusses on best pedagogical practices in medical education. She teaches medical genetics in the MUA medical school and general biology to master’s students in the premed program at MUA

She received the 2011 Council on Undergraduate Research Outstanding Biology Mentor Award and the 2016 Outstanding Science Faculty at MMC. She is a former ASBMB Educational and Professional Development Committee member and the former chair of ASBMB Student Chapters.

Aguanno was nominated by Quinn Vega, who is also a 2025 ASBMB fellow.

Ann Stock

Ann Stock is a distinguished professor at Rutgers University–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her research focuses on bacterial signal transduction and the molecular mechanisms that allow bacteria to elicit adaptive responses to changes in their environments, such as the gut.

Stock is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as an ASBMB Education Fellow. Stock was president of ASBMB from 2022 to 2024 and served on the Council, Finance Committee, Education and Professional Development Committee and the society's accreditation application review subcommittee.

Stock was nominated by Ann West.

Charles Samuel

Charles Samuel is a research professor and a distinguished professor emeritus of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His lab studies the role of interferon-inducible double stranded RNA–dependent enzymes during viral infection, with focus on the protein kinase R and the RNA adenosine deaminase 1.

Samuel has received a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award, an NIH MERIT Award, a Wellcome Professorship Award and a Humboldt-Forschungspreis in Biochemistry. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology.

A former associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Samual was nominated by Stuart Feinstein and ASBMB fellow F. Peter Guengerich.

Edward Eisenstein

Edward Eisenstein is a fellow at the University of Maryland Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, an associate professor at the university's Fischell Department of Bioengineering and associate director of the Agricultural Biotechnology Center. His team engineers poplar trees with new traits for use as improved feedstocks for the bioeconomy.

UMD named Eisenstein a faculty fellow and gave him the Student Competition Advisor of the Year Award for his work with the International Genetically Engineered Machine, or iGEM, competition team. He has served on the ASBMB Outreach Committee and Membership Committee and on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and has written articles for ASBMB Today. He is a member of the ASBMB Council.

Eisenstein was nominated by ASBMB fellow Peter Kennelly.

Gordon Hammes

Gordon Hammes is a distinguished professor emeritus of biochemistry at Duke University. His research focuses on understanding enzyme dynamics, conformational changes and reaction intermediates using biophysical methods, such as fast-reaction kinetics and fluorescence resonance energy transfer.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received national awards, including the American Chemical Society Award in Biological Chemistry and the ASBMB William C. Rose Award. The American Chemical Society established an annual lectureship bearing Hammes’ name in 2008.

Hammes was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Ann Stock.

Gregory Petsko

Gregory Petsko is a professor of neurology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on finding treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His honors include the Siddhu Award and the Martin J. Buerger Award from the American Crystallographic Association, the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, the Lynen Medal, the McKnight Endowment for Neuroscience Brain Disorders Award, a Guggenheim fellowship and the Max Planck Prize. In 2023, he won the National Medal of Science. Petsko was ASBMB president from 2008 to 2010.

He was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Ann Stock.

Hao Wu

Hao Wu is a professor of structural biology, biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. Her lab uses cryogenic electron microscopy and other biophysical methods to understand molecular complexes involved in innate immunity, including signalosomes and pore-forming complexes such as gasdermin D.

She is a member of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the Biophysical Society. Wu is a Pew scholar and received the National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award in 2015 and the ASBMB Bert and Natalie Vallee Award in Biomedical Science in 2024.

Wu was nominated by David Bernlohr.

Himadri Pakrasi

Himadri Pakrasi is a professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis. His research uses systems and synthetic biology to explore bioenergy production in cyanobacteria.

Pakrasi is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology. He was also named an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Munich University and a Wiley Fellow by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Pakrasi has served on the ASBMB Public Affairs Advisory Committee.

He was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Joseph Jez.

Jeremy Berg

Jeremy Berg is the associate senior vice chancellor for science strategy and planning at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His lab explores how zinc-containing proteins bind to DNA or RNA and regulate gene activity.

He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Berg’s service awards and honors include the American Chemical Society’s Public Service Award, the Biophysical Society’s Distinguished Service Award and the ASBMB Howard K. Schachman Public Service Award. He served as the president of ASBMB from 2012 to 2014.

Berg was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Ann Stock.

Joseph Provost

Joseph Provost is a professor and chair of the chemistry and biochemistry department at the University of San Diego. His research focuses on the role of transport proteins in cell motility and tumor progression. He served as chair of the ASBMB Student Chapters Committee for five years as well as on the Educational and Professional Development Committee and the Membership Committee.

He won the 2022 ASBMB Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education and has received many National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants. In addition, Provost has authored many articles in ASBMB Today.

He was nominated by ASBMB fellows John Tansey, Peter Kennelly, Pamela Mertz and Jennifer Roecklein–Canfield.

Joseph Jez

Joseph Jez is a professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis. His lab studies how environmental changes remodel biochemical pathways in plants at the molecular, cellular and organism levels with the aim of engineering these systems to address agricultural and environmental problems.

Jez is a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor and has received a Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellowship as well as the Arthur C. Neish Young Investigator Award. He has served on the ASBMB Public Affairs Advisory Committee and is an associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Jez was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Himadri Pakrasi.

Judith Klinman

Judith P. Klinman is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research explores fundamental aspects of enzyme mechanism, demonstrating the roles of hydrogen tunneling and protein scaffold energy transfer in enzyme action. She discovered a class of protein-embedded, quinone redox cofactors and elucidated the pathways that produce these structures as well as the antioxidant pyrroloquinoline quinone.

Klinman is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society as well as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. Her honors and awards include the Willard Gibbs Medal in Chemistry and the National Medal of Science. She won the ASBMB–Merck Award in 2007 and the Mildred Cohn Award in Biological Chemistry in 2015.

Klinman was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Ann Stock.

Judith Bond

Judith Bond is an adjunct professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her lab focuses on proteolysis and metalloproteases known as meprins.

In 1988, she received Virginia’s Outstanding Scientist Award. Bond is a former president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and served as ASBMB president from 2004 to 2006. She also served on the Membership Committee as chair of the ASBMB Fellows Program Subcommittee and as an associate editor for the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Bond is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was recently recognized as an Honorary Alumna of Penn State University.

Bond was nominated by ASBMB fellow Bettie Sue Masters.

Karin Bornfeldt

Karin Bornfeldt is a professor at the University of Washington. Her lab focuses on understanding the mechanisms of diabetes-accelerated atherosclerosis so that cardiovascular complications of diabetes can be treated or prevented.

Bornfeldt is a fellow of the American Heart Association. She has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and is an associate editor of the Journal of Lipid Research.

Bornfeldt was nominated by ASBMB fellow Kerry–Anne Rye.

Karin Musier–Forsyth

Karin Musier–Forsyth is an Ohio Eminent Scholar at the Ohio State University. Her lab investigates the RNAs and proteins involved in retroviral replication and translation fidelity mechanisms.

She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has won the Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Award and the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry. Musier–Forsyth was also awarded the William H. Kadel Alumni Medal for Outstanding Career Achievement from Eckerd College and the Diversity Enhancement Faculty Award from the College of Arts & Sciences at OSU. She is an associate editor for the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Musier–Forsyth was nominated by Michael Ibba.

Kayunta Johnson–Winters

Kayunta Johnson–Winters is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research interests are on F420 cofactor dependent enzymes, using steady state and pre–steady state kinetic methods.

She is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Service Leaders at UT-Arlington and has won Advisor of the Year for her mentorship of underrepresented students.  Johnson–Winters is the principal investigator of the UT System Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate initiative for mentoring early career scientists through the tenure and promotion process. In 2021, Johnson–Winters won a Silver EXCEL Award from Association Media & Publishing for her ASBMB Today essay, “Being Black in the ivory tower.” She served on the ASBMB Maximizing Access Committee and is now a member of the ASBMB Council.

Johnson–Winters was nominated by Lea Vacca Michel, Anne–Frances Miller and ASBMB fellow Squire Booker.

Martin Gellert

Martin Gellert is a distinguished investigator at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. His research explores the genetic rearrangement mechanisms of the immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes, which are essential for lymphoid cell development.

Gellert is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1985, he won the ASBMB–Merck Award and the Richard Lounsbery Award jointly with Thomas Maniatis for their seminal contributions to understanding the structure and function of DNA. Gellert served as president of ASBMB in 1993.

He was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Ann Stock.

Moshe Levi

Moshe Levi is the Chief Science Officer for Research and Development at Georgetown University Medical Center and is a professor of biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology. His research explores the role of nuclear hormone receptors and transcription factors in complications of obesity, diabetes and aging, mineral metabolism regulation and molecular imaging of lipids, inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolism and fibrosis.

Levi is a fellow of the American Heart Association, the American Society of Nephrology and the American Physiological Society. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and the American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology.

Levi was nominated by ASBMB fellows Charles Brenner, James Ntambi and Stephen Young.

Oleh Khalimonchuk

Oleh Khalimonchuk is a professor of biochemistry and the director of the Nebraska Redox Biology Center at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His lab uses yeast and mammalian cell and roundworm models to study the molecular bases of mitochondrial function and dysfunction as they relate to human disease and aging.

In 2016, Khalimonchuk received a junior faculty for excellence in research award from UNL. He has offered fellowships to Ukrainian scientists during the Russia–Ukraine conflict. He is a member of the ASBMB Meetings Committee and was named a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.

Khalimonchuk was nominated by Patricia Kane.

Quinn Vega

Quinn Vega is a professor of biology at Montclair State University. His research explores cellular signal transduction and the mechanisms by which cells respond to external environmental and biochemical clues by activating specific molecular signals and activating transcription of specific genes.

Vega received the College of Science and Mathematics Faculty Research Award and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Faculty Fellow Award from MSU. He has served on the ASBMB Membership Committee and the Education and Professional Development Committee and was previously the chair of the ASBMB Student Chapters.

Vega was nominated by Rachell Booth.

Steven McKnight

Steven McKnight is the distinguished chair in basic biomedical research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. His research uses biochemical, genetic and molecular biological approaches to study how genes are switched on and off in mammalian cells.

McKnight is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His awards and honors include the Welch Award in Chemistry, the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Monsanto Award from the NAS, the Eli Lilly Award from the American Society for Microbiology and the Newcomb Cleveland Award from the AAAS.

McKnight was president of ASBMB from 2014 to 2016 and was nominated by 2025 ASBMB fellow Ann Stock.

Suzanne Pfeffer

Suzanne Pfeffer is a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of inherited Parkinson's disease, with a focus on LRRK2 kinase and Rab GTPase phosphorylation. The Pfeffer lab also studies cholesterol transport and how mutations in this pathway cause Niemann–Pick C disease.

Pfeffer is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Society for Cell Biology. Pfeffer served as president of ASBMB from 2010 to 2012.

She was nominated by 2025 fellow Ann Stock.

Victoria Del Gaizo Moore

Victoria Del Gaizo Moore is an associate professor of chemistry at Elon University. Her research focuses on the role of mitochondria in disease and apoptosis. She is also interested in undergraduate teaching and learning in biochemistry and molecular biology, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Del Gaizo Moore is a former member of the ASBMB Education and Professional Development Committee as well as the Exam and Accreditation Subcommittee, where she has worked to refine the national accreditation exam. She also served as the co-chair for education and professional development programming at the 2019 and 2022 ASBMB annual meeting.

Del Gaizo Moore was nominated by ASBMB fellows Jennifer Roecklein–Canfield and John Tansey.

Jessie Zhang

Jessie Zhang is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Her lab studies the molecular mechanisms of the enzymes that govern the post-translational modification states of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II and their implication in transcription.

Her honors include the Margaret C. Etter Early Career Award from the American Crystallographic Association, the Professor of the Year from UT Austin and the Teaching Excellence Award from the National Science Foundation. Zhang is a member of the Meetings Committee and has served as a theme organizer for the ASBMB annual meeting multiple times.

She was nominated by ASBMB fellows Daniel Leahy and Matthew Gentry, 2025 fellow Kayunta Johnson–Winters and Zhong-Yin Zhang, Carl Wu, Wilfred van der Donk, Brian Strahl, Juan Mendoza, Philip A. Cole, Christian Whitman and others.