Biochemists face the climate challenge
Everyone knows coral bleaching occurs when seawater gets hot. Biochemists ask: How?
Corals die when their photosynthetic algal symbionts experience heat stress and exude hydrogen peroxide, causing coral tissue to expel the algae. Thus, coral bleaching is a biochemical process that we can understand and engage with, imagining new solutions to climate changes that degrade our planet.
Submit an abstract
Abstract submission begins Sept. 14. If you submit by Oct. 12, you'll get a decision by Nov. 1. The regular submission deadline is Nov. 30. See the categories.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long embraced “One Health,” the concept that a healthy planet is required for human health. Recently, the National Institutes of Health launched their Climate Change and Health Initiative. Biochemistry is central to preserving the natural world and developing fully renewable building materials, novel foods and health care solutions.
This session will explore how the living world experiences changes in temperature, pH, salt, nutrients, desiccation and other conditions. The speakers will illuminate the cell and molecular mechanisms underlying coral symbiosis, thermal adaptations of marine organisms, temperature-dependent mutagenesis and transposition in the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, and the endocrine underpinnings of environmental influences on human health. This session is for the next generation of biochemists who will meet the climate challenge.
Keywords: One Health, thermal adaptation, symbiosis.
Who should attend: The next generation of biochemists who will save the planet.
Theme song: “Imagine” by John Lennon
This session is powered by the courage to face humanity’s greatest challenge.
Biochemistry and climate change
Asiya Gusa, Duke University
James A. DeMayo, University of Colorado–Denver
Yixian Zheng, Carnegie Institution for Science
Teresa Horton, Northwestern University
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition weekly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in Science
Science highlights or most popular articles
Guiding grocery carts to shape healthy habits
Robert “Nate” Helsley will receive the Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator in Lipid Research Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.
Quantifying how proteins in microbe and host interact
“To develop better vaccines, we need new methods and a better understanding of the antibody responses that develop in immune individuals,” author Johan Malmström said.
Leading the charge for gender equity
Nicole Woitowich will receive the ASBMB Emerging Leadership Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.
CRISPR gene editing: Moving closer to home
With the first medical therapy approved, there’s a lot going on in the genome editing field, including the discovery of CRISPR-like DNA-snippers called Fanzors in an odd menagerie of eukaryotic critters.
Finding a missing piece for neurodegenerative disease research
Ursula Jakob and a team at the University of Michigan have found that the molecule polyphosphate could be what scientists call the “mystery density” inside fibrils associated with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and related conditions.
From the journals: JLR
Enzymes as a therapeutic target for liver disease. Role of AMPK in chronic liver disease Zebrafish as a model for retinal dysfunction. Read about the recent JLR papers on these topics.