A NEW ANGLE Discovery of a Mutation in a Rare Pediatric Brain Tumor Gives Researchers New Targets to Go After for a Cure Submit Your Next Paper to an ASBMB Journal!
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Vol. 14 / No. 6 / June/July 2015 A NEW ANGLE Discovery of a mutation in a rare pediatric brain tumor gives researchers new targets to go after for a cure Submit Your Next Paper to an ASBMB Journal! When you submit a paper to an ASBMB ASBMB journal special features: journal, you can expect: • Customized eTOC alerts • Thorough, constructive reviews by scientists • Explore the Editorial Board • Affordable publication charges (*FREE color) • Meet new Associate Editors • Peer reviewed papers published the day of • Read Collections including: Reflections, acceptance Minireviews and Thematic Series *ASBMB has eliminated color figure fees for Regular ASBMB www.asbmb.org/publications members publishing as corresponding authors. CONTENTS NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2 18 29 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE A NEW ANGLE GENERATIONS The straight-jacket 29 Temptation of hypothesis-driven research 24 30 The truth goes only so far MEET SVETLANA LUTSENKO 5 32 NEWS FROM THE HILL 27 HOBBIES Young scientists advocate Something is fishy in the dean’s office! for research funding on the Hill DEFYING STEREOTYPES “So, a biochemist walks 6 into a comedy club …” 33 MEMBER UPDATE EDUCATION 18 33 Playing games to learn Chief science 35 Empty bench syndrome 7 correspondent Rajendrani RETROSPECTIVE Mukhopadhyay reports on an important advance 36 Richard Nelson Perham in the study of a pediatric OPEN CHANNELS (1937 − 2015) brain cancer that has always been unbeatable. 8 29 LIPID NEWS Development of lipids and lipid 16 analogues as potential drugs 11 TOOLKIT All about ELISA 32 12 NEWS 12 Let’s talk about aphasia 27 13 JOURNAL NEWS 13 A look at the Tat system 14 Study outlines how inadequate vitamin E can cause brain damage 15 The promise of personalized nutrition 16 An unexpected finding in prehistoric bison bones JUNE/JULY 2015 ASBMB TODAY 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY The straight-jacket OFFICERS COUNCIL MEMBERS Steven McKnight Natalie Ahn of hypothesis-driven President Squire J. Booker Karen G. Fleming Jeremy M. Berg Gregory Gatto Jr. Past President Daniel Leahy Anjana Rao research Karen Allen Secretary Jared Rutter Brenda Schulman By Steven McKnight Toni Antalis Michael Summers Treasurer ASBMB TODAY EDITORIAL EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS ADVISORY BOARD he advancement of biomedical this latter kind of research follows the Dorothy Beckett Charles Brenner research requires both leaps of concepts of inductive inquiry (I2). Mary Roberts Chair discovery and the steady progress Central to the utility of the I2 form Co-chairs, 2015 Annual Michael Bradley T Meeting Program Floyd “Ski” Chilton that separates one leap from another. of biomedical research is the defini- Committee Cristy Gelling Leaps are universally unanticipated; tion of a phenomenon. Here is an Peter J. Kennelly Peter J. Kennelly no one ever wrote them as specific example of a phenomenon of interest. Chair, Education and Rajini Rao Professional Development Yolanda Sanchez aims in National Institutes of Health During hibernation, the core body Committee Shiladitya Sengupta grant applications. Gradual transitions temperature of ground squirrels goes Daniel Raben Carol Shoulders are the opposite. They are the essence from 37°C down to 4 – 5°C. Perplex- Chair, Meetings Committee ASBMB TODAY of what we write as the specific aims ingly, with robust periodicity, hiber- Takita Felder Sumter of our grant proposals. Gradual transi- nating ground squirrels warm back up Chair, Minority Affairs Angela Hopp Committee Executive Editor, tions fit hand-in-glove with hypothe- to 37°C around once every 10 days [email protected] Thomas Baldwin sis-driven research. (2). These brief periods of warming Lauren Dockett Chair, Outreach Committee Managing Editor, I lament that, as presently con- are called interbout arousals. What is Bob Matthews [email protected] structed, the NIH system of funding the utility to the hibernating ground Chair, Public Affairs Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay science is locked into the straight- squirrel to periodically warm up for Advisory Committee Chief Science Correspondent, jacket of hypothesis-driven research. about a day? Kathleen Collins [email protected] Chair, Publications Valery Masterson It is understandable that things have To me, this is a cool phenom- Committee Designer, evolved in this manner. In times of enon. Interbout arousals are almost [email protected] Martha J. Fedor Lauri Pantos tight funding, grant reviewers find it perfectly periodic, and they entail Editor-in-chief, JBC Manager of Publications easier to evaluate hypothesis-driven re- profound changes in body tem- Herbert Tabor Technology, [email protected] search plans than blue-sky proposals. perature. Instincts tell me something Co-editor, JBC Ciarán Finn The manner in which the system has quite important is taking place when A. L. Burlingame Web Publication Assistant, Editor, MCP [email protected] evolved has forced scientists to per- hibernating animals warm up briefly Barbara Gordon Edward A. Dennis form contractlike research that grant like clockwork. As cool as this science Executive Director, Joseph L. Witztum [email protected] reviewers judge to be highly likely to is, it is hard to distill it down to a set Co-editors, JLR Allison Frick succeed. In financially difficult times, of measurable, specific aims. Sure, Media Specialist, more risky scientific endeavors with one can say that it would be useful [email protected] no safely charted pathway to success to do some cataloging — measuring For information on advertising, contact Pharmaceutical often get squeezed out. metabolite fluctuation as a function of Media Inc. at 212-904-0374 or [email protected]. We all recognize the formula and hibernation and entry and exit from nature of hypothesis-driven research; interbout arousals. Sure, one might we describe it over and over in the hope then to garner some clues that thousands of grant applications we might lead the way out of the woods www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday PRINT ISSN 2372-0409 write and submit for review by the But it is hard to say exactly how the Articles published in ASBMB Today reflect solely NIH each year. But how should we science would unfold in the context of the authors’ views and not the official positions of describe the riskier blue-sky research the hypothesis-driven form of research the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology or the institutions with which the authors that our granting agencies tend not to we are now forced to perform. As are affiliated. Mentions of products or services are favor? I have written about this topic nebulous as it might seem, my predic- not endorsements. before (1), and I have suggested that ©2015 ASBMB 2 ASBMB TODAY JUNE/JULY 2015 tion is that a talented and dedicated ES cells divide more rapidly than any is neuron death enacted? scientist would have a good chance of cancer cell – almost as fast as micro- I can think of hypotheses with making cool discoveries if offered the bial organisms, such as yeast. Why do which to begin investigation of these chance to pursue this research for the ES cells divide so rapidly, and how is phenomena, but most such hypoth- duration of a typical R01 grant from hypermitotic drive facilitated? I also eses would be highly biased owing to the NIH. find it fascinating that prototrophic the extreme limitations of my knowl- Were it up to me, and it is clearly strains of yeast (AKA wild type, native edge of ES cell growth, yeast metabo- not, I would demand that NIH grant or nondomesticated), when grown lism or hippocampal neurogenesis. applications start with the descrip- under nutrient-limiting conditions in This being the case, it would be folly tion of a unique phenomenon. When a chemostat, enter into an incredibly to submit NIH grant applications in I say unique, I mean unique to the robust and periodic metabolic cycle. search of funding to support research applicant. The phenomenon may have What is the physiologic utility of on these topics. As mentioned above, come from the prior research of the this metabolic cycle, and what is the it is not up to me to guide the NIH applicant. Alternatively, the phenom- underlying regulatory logic control- on how to spend its funds. On the enon may have come from the ap- ling it? Finally, the vast majority of other hand, we live in a country that plicant’s unique observation of nature, newly formed neurons born daily is highly protective of freedom of medicine or the expansive literature. in the adult mouse brain die along speech. With that in mind, I happily Phenomena abound. One of the pathway toward differentiation offer the thesis outlined in this essay several that have intrigued me over and ultimate wiring into the central and close with Albert Einstein’s iconic the past decade is the speed of mouse nervous system. Why do so many of quote: “If we knew what we are doing, embryonic cell duplication. Mouse the cells die, and by what mechanism it would not be called research.” Steven McKnight (steven. REFERENCES [email protected]) 1. McKnight, S.L. Cell 138, 817 - 819 (2009). is president of the American 2. Carey, H.V. et al. Physiol. Rev. 4, 1153 - 1181 (2003). Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and chairman of the biochemistry department at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. JUNE/JULY 2015 ASBMB TODAY 3 SAVE the DATE Over 26% of attendees in 2014 made a scheduled spoken presentation. Submit an abstract by August 4 to be considered for a speaking spot: • Minisymposium Standard Talk (15-minute talk, 5-minute Q&A) • Minisymposium Lightning Talk (5 minute talk, 1-2-minute Q&A) • Microsymposium Talk (5-minute talks with electronic posters) The meeting’s arc will follow the integration of cell biology across diverse fields, scales, and structures into newly relevant scientific disciplines.