Member update: October 2019

Hartl wins Janssen award

Franz-Ulrich HartlFranz-Ulrich Hartl of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry won the 2019 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research along with Arthur Horwich of Yale School of Medicine.

The pair, who were honored with the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s Tabor Research Award in 2013 and the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2011, are known around the world for their pioneering studies of the cell’s protein-folding machinery.

“Drs. Hartl and Horwich combined their brilliant insights and elegant approaches to overturn the dogma of their day about the process of protein folding,” David Julius of the University of California, San Francisco, chairman of the selection committee, said in a statement. “Their studies revolutionized our understanding of how proteins achieve their shape and revealed how defects in this process may contribute to a variety of disorders ranging from metabolic to neurodegenerative diseases.”

The late Paul Janssen had a hand in developing more than 80 medicines, four of which remain on the World Health Organization’s list of essential drugs. Johnson & Johnson established the award in his name in 2004. ASBMB members who have won the Janssen award in the past include Nobel laureate Yoshinori Ohsumi (2016) and Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna (2014).

Hartl was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2011 and is a member of the editorial board for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Chewing gum project honored

Pictured with their winning poster are, left to right, Huntingdon Area Middle School students Shaelyn McGinnis, McKensie Klauss and Gracie HobbsCOURTESY OF DAN DRIESDan Dries of Juniata College presented an ASBMB Science Fair Award on May 10 to middle school students Gracie Hobbs, McKensie Klauss and Shaelyn McGinnis for their project Rinku Chewy, an eco-friendly solution to disposing of used chewing gum. When tasked with developing a project for their local science, technology, engineering and mathematics fair, the team wanted to combine an ecologically responsible product with outreach to their community. Rinku Chewy is a homemade organic chewing gum that, when returned to the company, is repurposed as filler for shoe soles. These shoes, produced using the revenue of their company, are distributed to the less fortunate. The three students of Huntingdon Area Middle School in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, wanted to appeal to their peers who, they noticed, often chew gum. The team also wrote and produced an anime ad to promote the product. “It’s so cool to win something this big!” Shaelyn said of the award.

In memoriam: Henry Koffler

Henry Koffler, president emeritus of the University of Arizona, died March 10, 2018 at age 95.

Koffler fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1940, arriving in Arizona at age 17. He attended the University of Arizona, where he met fellow student Phyllis Piersen; they were married for 71 years.

Trained in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Koffler joined the faculty at Purdue University, eventually becoming the head of the university’s division of biological sciences. His award-winning microbiology research focused on flagella, structures important for bacterial motility.

In one line of inquiry, Koffler and colleagues showed that flagellar enzymes from thermophilic bacteria are more heat-stable than flagella from their less heat-resistant relatives.

Beginning in 1975, Koffler took on increasingly senior administrative roles at the University of Minnesota and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He then served a nine-year term as president of the University of Arizona, his alma mater. Colleagues say his leadership was key to expanding the faculty, enabling technology transfer and establishing the University of Arizona’s reputation as a research university.

Among Koffler’s many honors were recognition as one of Purdue University’s Great Teachers, founding governorship in the American Academy of Microbiology, fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and knighthood in France’s Ordre de Palmes Académiques.

(This article was updated January 19, 2021 to correct the date of death.)

In memoriam: John Tymoczko

John Tymoczko, an emeritus professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, died May 26 of a heart attack.

Tymoczko taught at Carleton for 39 years starting in 1976 and is remembered warmly by generations of students. Laura Pogemiller Caron, a former student, wrote, “I think only John could make that intro material so engaging — and do it over and over. He really got a kick out of watching the lightbulb click every time a new class understood.”

His teaching extended beyond the Carleton campus; along with Jeremy Berg and Gregory Gatto, Tymoczko co-authored five editions of the classic textbook “Biochemistry” by Lubert Stryer used by college students across the country. Berg called Tymoczko “a thoughtful scholar and a very hard worker, always ready with a bad pun to lighten a discussion.”

Tymoczko is survived by his wife, Alison Unger, their son and daughter, and three grandchildren.

In memoriam: Leonard A. Sauer

Leonard A. Sauer, who spent most of his career as a research physician at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York, died April 15. He was 89.

Sauer attended high school in Schenectady, New York, but according to a published obituary, he is said to have skipped school often to play pool. He enlisted in the Army in 1948 and for almost four years was a member of the Signal Corps, which to this day manages communications and information systems.

When his military service ended, Sauer attended Cornell University and then earned his medical degree at the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. from the Rockefeller Institute in New York. He spent several years doing research at Yale University before joining Bassett in 1975.

During his career at Bassett, a teaching hospital now affiliated with Columbia University, Sauer published upward of 70 papers on cancer metabolism pathways and other topics.

He retired in 1996 and spent his later years fly fishing and woodworking at his home on the Bitterroot River in Montana, where he lived with his wife, Mimi, who survives him.

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