| |
November 1, 2003
|
James Ntambi is the recipient of the 2004 Osborne Mendel Award given by the American Institute of Nutritional Sciences
This award recognizes Professor Ntambi's outstanding scientific
contributions towards understanding adipocyte differentiation and the
regulation of gene expression involved in lipid metabolism, and the
profound influence this work will have on the field of obesity research
in the coming years. A formal presentation of the award will take place
at the ASNS Awards Programin Washington, D.C., April, 2004.
|
|
|
October 1, 2003
|
COLLABORATION COULD HELP CHART THE PROTEIN UNIVERSE
The billions of proteins that compose life on Earth remain one of the truly
uncharted territories in the biological universe, due mainly to the
slow and arduous techniques their exploration requires.
Now, a research partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and a Japanese university and company aims to develop a technology that
may allow scientists to map the shapes and structures of proteins more
easily than ever before. The advance promises to help unlock the inner
workings of hundreds or even thousands of proteins, according to
UW-Madison biochemistry professor John Markley, leading to a better
understanding of protein-based diseases, and providing fundamental new
information about the building blocks of all living beings, from
bacteria to plants to people.
An agreement signed this week by the UW-Madison's Center for Eukaryotic Structural Genomics (CESG),
the university's patent management agency the Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation (WARF), Ehime University in Matsuyama, Japan, and the
Japanese biotechnology company Cell-Free Sciences of Yokohama,
formalizes an ongoing collaboration between these groups to refine a
powerful new system, created in Japan, for making the large quantities
of purified protein that biochemists need to solve protein structures.
Click here for more details...
|
|
|
September 2, 2003
|
Ron Raines receives an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award
Ron Raines has been named a 2004 recipient of the Arthur C. Cope Scholar
Award by the American Chemical Society. The Cope Scholar Award is given
to recognize and encourage excellence in organic chemistry, and
consists of $5,000, a certificate, and a $40,000 unrestricted research
grant. Raines has won several other national awards for his research on
protein chemistry/biology, including the 1998 Pfizer Award in Enzyme
Chemistry from the American Chemical Society and a 2001-2002 Guggenheim
Fellowship. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
|
|
|
September 1, 2003
|
Mouse Resists Diabetes
An engineered mouse, already known to be immune to the weight gain
ramifications of a high-calorie, high-fat diet, now seems able to
resist the onset of diabetes.
Click here for more details...
|
|
|
July 1, 2003
|
MOTHER OF ALL NMR MAGNETS TO BOLSTER UW-MADISON LAB
Now, with support from the National Institutes of Health, UW-Madison's National Magnetic Resonance Facility will be home to a machine capable of generating the largest NMR-quality magnetic field possible with current technology.
A $5 million award from NIH's National Institute of General Medical
Sciences paves the way for the fall deployment of an 11-ton,
900-megahertz NMR magnet that will position the lab to remain as one of
the top NMR research facilities in the world, says biochemistry
professor John Markley,
"This system will enable us to examine biological processes we haven't been able to attack before," Markley says.
Markley, who led the effort to bring this technology to Wisconsin, is
one of 36 researchers from around the country with grant funding from
the National Institute of General Medical Sciences who plan to use the
power of the new instrument to advance their research.
Click here for more details...
|
|
|
April 26, 2003
|
Dave Nelson nominated for an Alliant Energy Underkofler Teaching Award
In addition to the Distinguished Teaching Awards presented by the
University of Wisconsin-Madison each year, the UW System also
recognizes classroom excellence by way of its Alliant Energy
Underkofler Teaching Awards. This year, David L. Nelson, professor of
biochemistry, and Michael J. Smith, Robert Ratner Professor of
Industrial Engineering, are candidates from the Madison campus.
Click here for more details...
|
|
|
April 25, 2003
|
Judith Kimble receives 2002-3 Hilldale Award in the Biological Sciences.
The Hilldale awards are presented each year to four faculty members, one
from each faculty division, in recognition of a distinguished
contribution ot teaching, research, and extension/outreach while a
member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The
Hilldale Awards are made possible by the Hilldale Fund, which receives
income from the operation of the Hilldale Shopping Center. The funds
are used to support important University programs designed to advance
scholarly activity at the UW-Madison.
Hilldale Undergraduate Research Awards.
Grants from the Hilldale Foundation and the Wisconsin Legislature
provide $4,000 each to undergraduate students and $1,000 to the faculty
or staff supervisors to work in collaboration on research projects.
Federhart, Katherine, Margaret Clagett-Dame, Biochemistry
Keller, Melissa, Richard Amasino, Biochemistry
Riebau, Anne, Samuel Butcher, Biochemistry
|
|
|
April 24, 2003
|
George Phillips has received a Vilas Associate Award
The Vilas Trustees have made possible this form of recognition for faculty
in the Biological Sciences Division and will provide research support
during 2003-04 and 2004-05.
|
|
|
April 23, 2003
|
Marv Wickens has been appointed as the Max Perutz Professor of Molecular Biology
Marv Wickens has received a WARF-named Professorship: Max Perutz Professor of Molecular
Biology. Prof. Wickens research has always focused on how genes work in
animal cells. He has concentrated on events after DNA has been
transcribed into RNA, en route to being translated into protein. He has
analyzed both how mRNAs are born in the nucleus and how they are
controlled in the cytoplasm. He has served extensively with the
National Institutes of Health, as a member of the N.I.H. Center for
Scientific Review Advisory Committee, and as member and Chairman of the
N.I.H. Molecular Biology Study Section. He has been President of the
RNA Society, and served as an editor of several scientific journals. He
has mentored numerous talented graduate students and post-doctoral
fellows at U.W., and is deeply gratified by their own successes.
Max Perutz
A pioneer and founder of molecular biology, Max Perutz attended the
University of Vienna. In 1936, he moved to the University of Cambridge
to begin Ph.D. work with J.D. Bernal, and there established a
long-standing connection to the Cavendish laboratory. In 1962, he
founded the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Biology,
of which was chairman until 1979. There, he helped create an atmosphere
in which new ideas were welcome, and big problems exactly the right
ones to take on. The unique blend of creativity, colleagiality and
commitment, was pivotal in the birth of molecular biology, and led to
eleven Nobel Prizes. As a scientist, Perutz pioneered the use of X-ray
crystallography to study the structure of proteins. In 1953 he
developed a method to interpret the X-ray diffraction patters of large
molecules. Using that approach, he and his colleague, John Kendrew,
determined the first protein structures, those of hemoglobin and
myoglobin. For this work, they were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry. Dr. Perutz was a prolific and talented writer of popular
articles and book reviews, and is remembered not only for his science,
but for his interest in and warm support of the work of others. The
WARF Named Professorship awards are made possible by the impressive
research efforts of UW-Madison faculty and staff. Technology arising
from these research efforts is licensed by our patent management
organization, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), to
industry. Income from successful licenses is returned to the Graduate
School to fund a variety of research activities throughout the
divisions on campus, including these awards.
|
|
|
April 22, 2003
|
Everson Lecture in Biochemistry
Dr. Dawn Braseamle
Defining the Lipid Storage Droplet: Unique Proteins Associated with a Dynamic Subcellular Compartment
Click here for more details...
|
|
|
March 21, 2003
|
4th Annual Biochemistry egg drop - 3pm in the west atrium
Materials will be handed out on March 14th. Winners will be determined by
surviving all three drops, landing the closest to the target, and using
smallest number of items on the list.
This years' winners were from the Pike Lab. Second place went to the Friesen lab.
|
|
|
March 11, 2003
|
Topics in Medical Biochemistry - Biochemistry 550 - Colleen Hayes
Poster session in the west atrium - "Current advances in HIV/AIDS therapeutics
and research findings that may open up new avenues for alternative
approaches to treating HIV/AIDS" that may open up new avenues for each
of the 11 groups in the class would be presenting a recent paper on a
topic that touches HIV/AIDS therapeutics. This is a good opportunity to
be updated on how far along research in this important field has gone
in the last two years and how much more it would take to finally defeat
HIV.
|
|
|
February 26, 2003
|
Ivan Rayment received the WARF Mid-Career Award
Ivan Rayment has an international reputation in structural biology. In establishing a
state-of-the-art X-ray crystallography laboratory at Wisconsin, Rayment
has created a campus resource that also contributes to research
training and teaching.
KELLETT MID-CAREER AWARD
This award is intended to recognize and support mid-career faculty, five to
twenty years past their first promotion to a tenured position. The
Mid-Career award was created to provide needed support and
encouragement to faculty at a critical stage of their careers.
The Kellett Mid-Career awards are made possible by the impressive
research efforts of UW-Madison faculty and staff. Technology arising
from these research efforts is licensed by our patent management
organization, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), to
industry. Income from successful licenses is returned to the Graduate
School to fund a variety of research activities throughout the
divisions on campus, including these awards.
|
|
|
February 15, 2003
|
Marcia Moss Graduate Award
Kimberly A. Dickson was selected to receive the first Marcia Moss Graduate Award in Biochemistry.
|
|
|
February 14, 2003
|
Plant Pysiology cover
Leaf senescence is a developmental program in which nutrients are recycled
from leaves at the end of their lifespan. In annual plants, these
recycled nutrients often support seed development. In deciduous trees,
the nutrients can be stored in Autumn to support the growth of new
tissues in the Spring. Thus leaf senescence is of great practical value
to plants, and the cover photograph of a maple tree by Jordan Hall at
Indiana University illustrates the aesthetic value of this process. To
further understand this nutrient-recycling program at a molecular
level, Bhalerao et al. (pp. 430-442)
have studied, using microarrays, the changes in gene expression that
occur as leaf senescence is initiated in poplar trees. Their work
reveals a broad range of genes which, at the mRNA level, change in
expression during leaf senescence (image from Rick Amasino).
|
|
|
February 13, 2003
|
Predicting adult-onset diabetes
Fat cells may hold the key to predicting type 2 diabetes, a major cause of
kidney failure, limb amputations, blindness, heart disease and stroke.
The disease, also called adult-onset diabetes, affects 8 percent of
the U.S. population age 20 or older. While more than 80 percent of
diabetics are overweight, only 10 percent of obese individuals develop
the disease. Knowing your risk is a key to prevention.
Knowing what to expect: "Currently, we have no markers to tell who
among these overweight individuals is going to become diabetic," says Alan Attie,
a College biochemist who studies diabetes. A major study in 2001 showed
that people at risk for diabetes can delay the onset of the disease
with moderate changes in diet and exercise, according to Attie.
Click here for more details...
|
|
|
February 12, 2003
|
Second Annual Biochemistry Art Show Opens
Please join us in celebrating the talents of our peers
First Floor, Biochem Addition
Show runs through the end of March.
|
|
|
February 10, 2003
|
Paul Boyer Award for Outstanding PostDoctoral Studies in biochemistry
The 2003 Recipients will present their talks at 3:30 pm in B1118 Biochemistry.
Scott Michaels
Memories of winter: the central role of FLOWERING LOCUS C in the regulation of flowering time in Arabidopsis
Christian Eckmann
Mining for Gold - Cell Fate Decisions in the C. elegans Germline
Paul Delos Boyer
is a native of Provo, Utah where he graduated from Brigham Young
University in 1939. He was a graduate student in the UW-Madison
Biochemistry Department with Professor Paul Phillips and finished his
Ph.D. in 1943. After 17 years as a faculty member at the University of
Minnesota, he moved to UCLA where in 1965 he became founding Director
of UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute.
As a graduate student he
discovered the role of potassium as a co-factor for pyruvate kinase.
This was the first evidence for an alkaline metal cation participating
in enzyme atalysis. He continued studying enzymes throughout his career
and served as editor of the multi-volume treatise" The Enzymes". paul
is best known for revealing the binding change mechanism for ATP
synthasa involving a novel rotational catalysis.
Paul?s achievements have been recognizing in many awards: Nobel Prize
in Chemistry, 1997; Rose Award, American Society of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology; American Chemical Society Award in Enzyme Chemistry;
Honorary Doctorates-Stockholm, 1974; University of Minnesota, 1996;
University of Wisconsin, 1998. He is a member of the National Academy
of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Despite all the professional responsibilities Paul and his wife Lyda
find time for tennis, biking, golf, and building homes. They have
supervised construction and furnishing of three, giving Paul an outlet
for his carpentry skills.
|
|
|
January 14, 2003
|
Michelle Soltero has been chosen to receive this year's Sigrid Leirmo Memorial Award in Biochemistry
The award, provided by funds given in memory of Dr. Leirmo by her husband,
consists of $250, and will be awarded at the departmental poster
session on February 7. The award is designated for a graduate or
postdoctoral student who best exemplifies the spirit of Sigrid Leirmo,
who received her Ph.D. degree in the Department of Biochemistry in 1989
and was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of
Bacteriology when she died tragically in an accident in October 1990.
Dr. Leirmo was widely acknowledged among her fellow students and
colleagues both as a promising researcher and as an enthusiastic friend
and mentor. The award is to be given to a postdoctoral or graduate
student who displays clear promise as a research scientist. Most
importantly, the award is to be designated in appreciation of the
student's consistent willingness to contribute to the intellectual and
technical potential of his or her fellow students and colleagues
through selfless help of others.
Michelle Soltero,
who is a fifth year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Laura
Kiessling, should receive her Ph.D. degree in Spring Semester 2004. The
results of her research, which has been focused on the flavoprotein
UDP-galactofuranose mutase, are being prepared for publication.
Michelle was cited for her genuine interest in the work of others and
willingness to help them in an unselfish manner. She has been a member
of the Student Faculty Liaison Committee for all of her time in Grad
School, and instigated the very successful first annual Departmental
Art Show last year. She is currently planning the second annual art
show, and has been organizing the biennial Life Sciences Careers Day.
|
|
|