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JANUARY 2004 www.asbmb.org Constituent Society of FASEB AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY ALSO IN THIS ISSUE AwardAward HonorsHonors SunneySunney Chan'sChan's CommitmentCommitment toto YoungYoung ScientistsScientists PagePage 1212 FASEB President Says Meeting with Cheney ‘Very Encouraging’ Page 4 “A“A MolecularMolecular ExplorationExploration ofof thethe Cell”Cell” ASBMB Annual Meeting and 8th IUBMB Conference JuneJune 12-16,12-16, 20042004 Boston, Massachusetts IUBMB/ASBMB 2004 CALL FOR PAPERS MAILED ABSTRACT DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 11, 2004 www.BioScience2004.org 18–22 July 2004 SECC Glasgow, UK THE life science meeting of 2004! SECOND CIRCULAR NOW AVAILABLE! The 2nd circular contains full details of the Preliminary Scientific Programme, Poster POSTER ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Presentations, Oral Communications, Research FRIDAY 23 APRIL 2004 Colloquia, Education Workshops and Satellite Meetings as well as details of the Social EARLY REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Programme and general meeting information. TUESDAY 18 MAY 2004 To receive a copy of the second circular, e-mail [email protected] Focus topics for the meeting: Board Tourist asgow & Clyde Valley Registration Fees: ● Lipids, Rafts and Traffic ● Structure Related to Function: ● Biochemical Society and Nutrition Society Molecules and Cells full members – £190 ● Signalling Outwards and Inwards ● Student members of Biochemical Society ● Genes: Regulation, Processing and Interference and sister Societies – £65 ● Energy: Generation and Information ● BioScience Federation and RSC members – £250 ● Ethics, Education and Employment ● Non-members – £350 Biochemical Society Annual Symposium Please note: the registration fees will increase after Lipids, Rafts and Traffic 18 May 2004. For further information or to be placed on the Plenary Speakers: mailing list, visit: www.BioScience2004.org or ● Roger Y. Tsien (Howard Hughes Medical Institute e-mail: [email protected] La Jolla, CA, USA) – Opening Lecture ● Stephen O'Rahilly (Cambridge, UK) BioScience2004, c/o Portland Customer Services, ● Tony Pawson (Toronto, Canada) Commerce Way, Colchester CO2 8HP, UK ● Chris Dobson (Cambridge, UK) Tel: +44 (0) 1206 796351 – The EMBO Lecture Fax: +44 (0) 1206 799331 ● Karen Vousden (Beatson Institute, Glasgow, UK) e-mail: [email protected] ● Graham Warren (Yale, New Haven, CT, USA) Supported by the Biochemical Journal – Logo images courtesy of Daan van Aalten, Julie Ahringer, Malcolm Bennett and Cathy Torgler. Meeting supported by the Greater Gl Meeting supported by the Greater Malcolm Bennett and Cathy Torgler. Logo images courtesy of Daan van Aalten, Julie Ahringer, promoting international scientific communication www.BioScience2004.org www.asbmb.org AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY JANUARY 2004, Volume 2, Issue 10 features 2 Christopher Reeve Receives Public Service Award 3 Just What Are the Effects of Low-Dose Radiation 6 NIH Meeting Focuses on Digital Biology 7 NHGRI Selects Sequencing Centers 8 Common Genetic Damages in Non-Diving Cells Lead to Creation of Mutant Proteins 2 9 ASBMB Minority Affairs Committee: Past and Present 10 Steven Almo to Receive ASBMB-AMGEN Award 4 FASEB President 12 William C. Rose Award Honors Sunney Chan Says Meeting with Cheney ‘Very 14 ASBMB Meeting Preview Encouraging’ 17 Cancer Biologists, Cardiologist Take New Look at Aggressive Tumors 18 Enzyme Key to Fungus’s Ability to Breach Immune System 20 Bone Marrow/Brain Cell Fusion May Repair Brain Damage departments 4 News From the Hill 12 6 NIH News 18 Members in the News 22 Biotech Business 24 Calendar BRONZE AWARD WINNER 2004 ASBMB Today is a monthly publication of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Christopher Reeve Receives Officers Bettie Sue Masters President Judith S. Bond President-elect Public Service Award Albert E. Dahlberg Secretary Kenneth E. Neet Treasurer hristopher Reeve has received Thomas Blumenthal Councilor the 2003 Mary Woodard William R. Brinkley Councilor C Lasker Award for Public Ser- Lila M. Gierasch Councilor Frederick P. Guengerich Councilor vice in Support of Medical Research William J. Lennarz Councilor and the Health Sciences. Alexandra C. Newton Councilor “Instead of bowing to a sudden, life- Merle S. Olson Councilor Peter J. Parker Councilor altering injury, he mustered his inter- William L. Smith Councilor nal resources and exploited his Non-Voting Members connections to advance research that George M. Carman targets spinal cord repair,” stated the Chair, Meetings Committee Lasker Foundation. “Reeve has John D. Scott Alexandra C. Newton informed himself about the scientific Julio Celis as well as political aspects of his mis- Co-chairs, 2004 Program Committee sion; this approach, along with his role Marion H. O’Leary J. Ellis Bell as a public figure, have earned him Co-chairs, Education and Professional unique status with researchers, law- Development Committee makers, and private citizens alike. Christopher Reeve, victim of a catastrophic William R. Brinkley Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee Although he must endure the physical spinal column injury in 1995, will receive the Peter A. Rubenstein and emotional hardships of living in a 2003 Mary Woodard Lasker Foundation’s Chair, Publications Committee body that is largely immobile, he is far Award for Public Service in Support of Medical Phillip A. Ortiz Chair, Minority Affairs Committee from paralyzed.” Research and the Health Sciences, the Founda- Herbert Tabor In 1995, an equestrian accident para- tion announced in early December. Mr. Reeve Editor, JBC lyzed Reeve from the shoulders down. was active in lobbying and testifying before Ralph A. Bradshaw Editor, MCP Unable to breathe without the help of Congress on behalf of the doubling of the NIH Edward A. Dennis a machine, Reeve confronted a new budget in five years. In part because of his Editor, JLR life. Within months of his injury, efforts, the NIH budget grew from $12 billion in Editorial Advisory Board Reeve joined the Board of Directors of 1998 to nearly $25 billion in fiscal 2002. In Irwin Fridovich the American Paralysis Association 1996, Mr. Reeve and his wife Dana established Richard W. Hanson (APA), and less than a year later the Christopher Reeve Foundation; now known Bettie Sue Masters became its chair. as the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, Evan J. Sadler Robert D. Wells In 1996, Reeve and his wife Dana which in 2003 awarded almost $7.4 million in established the Christopher Reeve grants for neuroscience research and more than Foundation; in its first year of opera- $620,000 in Quality of Life awards. Comments tion, it raised $750,000 for the APA as Please direct any comments or questions concerning ASBMB Today to: well as groups dedicated to quality of injury and other central nervous sys- life issues. In 1999, this foundation tem disorders; the organization also John D. Thompson Editor, ASBMB Today merged with APA, the name was allocates a portion of its resources to 9650 Rockville Pike changed to the Christopher Reeve grants that improve the quality of life Bethesda, MD 20814-3996 Phone: 301-634-7145; Fax: 301-634-7126 Paralysis foundation (CRPF), and Reeve for people with disabilities. In 2003, E-mail: [email protected] continued to serve as chairman of the the foundation awarded almost $7.4 million in grants for neuroscience For information on advertising board. CRPF funds research that paves contact FASEB AdNet at 800-433-2732 the way toward treatments and cures research and more than $620,000 in ext. 7157 or 301-634-7157, or for paralysis caused by spinal cord Quality of Life awards. email [email protected]. 2 ASBMBToday JANUARY 2004 Just What Are the Effects of Low-Dose Radiation? hether there is a safe dose of most delicate stage of life. Zebrafish were Dr. Dynan, principal investigator on radiation is a question that used because, as a vertebrate, they share the new $750,000, three-year grant, has W scientists at the Medical Col- many developmental and anatomical been studying how cells respond to radi- lege of Georgia are seeking to answer. features with humans, yet the embryos ation that can break one or both strands There has long been experience with develop completely outside the mother, of the double-stranded DNA, leading to the effects of high-dose radiation; what are optically transparent, and are cell death, successful cell repair or misre- is not known is the effect of long-term, amenable to genetic and molecular pair that may result in cancer. low-dose radiation such as we are sub- manipulation. Plans for MCG’s cancer The researchers are exposing zebrafish ject to every day. Key issues still unex- research building include an expanded embryos—which grow outside the plored are whether the low levels of zebrafish facility to support the search mother and have developed, function- radiation all around us–even inside us for other genes, such as those that pre- ing organs within three days–to levels of in unstable forms of common elements dispose people to colon cancer. radiation that mimic what humans rou- such as potassium and hydrogen–cause Ionizing radiation–which has shorter, tinely receive. A high-powered micro- problems and exactly what genes and more powerful wavelengths than visi- scope enables them to look inside a live proteins in the body help repair and, ble or ultraviolet light–undoubtedly is embryo and mark specific brain cells more importantly, prevent damage. strong enough to break apart chemical with a fluorescent dye to see if the num- Armed with a grant from the U.S. bonds in the body, including DNA, says bers change after irradiation. They also Department of Energy, the scientists are ASBMB member William S. Dynan, plan to document double-strand breaks using the rapidly developing zebrafish Biochemist and Chief of the Program and repairs within single cells. embryo to study the effects of low doses in Gene Regulation at the Medical Col- “We want to know what bad things of radiation–the kind many people lege of Georgia Institute of Molecular happen to an early embryo both at the encounter daily–during the earliest and Medicine and Genetics.