Personalized Protocols
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Vol. 18 / No. 6 / June/July 2019 THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY PERSONALIZED PROTOCOLS Mental health accommodations can help some succeed in the lab — but fi rst they have to ask JBC REVIEWS.pdf 1 2/22/19 4:12 PM JBC REVIEWS Stimulating analyses defining new directions in science Save yourself from a landslide of literature. Read JBC Reviews to get expert insights into recent findings, C ongoing controversies and unsolved M Y questions in biological chemistry. CM MY CY CMY K Download for free at jbc.org. CONTENTS NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2 26 44 EDITOR’S NOTE PERSONALIZED PROTOCOLS RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT Magazine life Mental health accommodations can e link between metabolism and aging help some succeed in the lab — 3 but rst they have to ask 46 NEWS FROM THE HILL ESSAY Advocating for more than money 34 Mental illness should not disqualify me 4 LISTENING TO KETAMINE 48 MEMBER UPDATE ESSAY 7 What I wish people understood about ... NEW MEMBERS 50 OUTREACH 10 University program inspires future scientists HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTEES 54 11 ANNUAL MEETING BIOCHEM, WITH A SIDE 26 Scenes from Orlando OF ADVOCACY 12 LIPID NEWS An ever-growing role for a tiny lipid 14 JOURNAL NEWS 14 Out tting T cell receptors for special combat 16 How do protein tangles get so long? 17 Cascading errors 44 50 18 Study shows long-term e ects of weight loss on the proteome 19 From the journals 24 A YEAR OF BIO(CHEMICAL) ELEMENTS Atomic Nos. 6 and 7 34 JUNE/JULY 2019 ASBMB TODAY 1 EDITOR’S NOTE THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Magazine life OFFICERS COUNCIL MEMBERS Gerald Hart Squire J. Booker By Comfort Dorn President Victoria J. DeRose Blake Hill Jennifer DuBois Audrey Lamb Secretary James M. Ntambi Toni M. Antalis Celia A. Shi er fter more than two years of cancer. ere were still recipes with Treasurer Takita Felder Sumter Kelly Ten-Hagen procrastinating, I got a library caviar, but there were also sloppy JoAnn Trejo EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS A card last month, and one of joes. e reality of food, in all its Robert S. Haltiwanger ASBMB TODAY EDITORIAL the rst books I checked out was complexity, turned out to be much Carla Koehler ADVISORY BOARD Ruth Reichl’s “Save Me the Plums.” more interesting than the airbrushed Co-chairs, 2020 Annual Rajini Rao Meeting Program Committee In case that name doesn’t ring a fantasy. Chair Cheryl Bailey Ana Maria Barral bell, Reichl has been the food editor And (to bring this back home), Chair, Education and Floyd “Ski” Chilton at the LA Times, restaurant critic I think that’s where magazines Professional Development Henrik Dohlman Committee Peter J. Kennelly for e New York Times and editor belong. Perched between the rst- Daniel Raben Beronda Montgomery of Gourmet magazine. Quite the draft-of-history breathlessness of Chair, Meetings Committee A. Maureen Rouhi dream career for anyone who likes newspapers and the weightiness of Sonia Flores Melissa Vaught Chair, Minority A airs Binks W. Wattenberg food. books, a good magazine can use its Committee Reichl also has written several theme (food, fashion, woodworking, ASBMB TODAY Susannna Greer autobiographical bestsellers, and biochemistry) as a prism for viewing Chair, Public Outreach Angela Hopp Committee Executive Editor this latest is about her stint at the complexities of the world that [email protected] Gourmet. Because I too am a theme inhabits. Matthew S. Gentry Comfort Dorn Chair, Public A airs Managing Editor magazine editor (admittedly on So as much as I love running Advisory Committee [email protected] a vastly di erent scale), I take a stories about amazing science, I have Sandra Weller Lisa Schnabel Chair, Publications Graphic Designer particular interest in her detailed a special fondness for stories about Committee [email protected] descriptions of the job, complete issues: sexual harassment, faculty Lila M. Gierasch John Arnst with quirky coworkers and diversity — or John Arnst’s article Editor-in-chief, JBC Science Writer [email protected] mystifying jargon. Coincidentally, on page 26 about accommodations A. L. Burlingame Editor, MCP Laurel Oldach years ago, I edited a short-lived for scientists with mental illness. Science Writter Nicholas O. Davidson [email protected] magazine that died because we Both kinds of stories really need to Editor-in-chief, JLR Ed Marklin didn’t sell enough ads — so I feel a run in tandem. If we don’t make Kerry-Anne Rye Web Editor Editor-in-chief, JLR [email protected] sad bond reading about Gourmet’s sure that students and early-career Allison Frick demise in 2009. researchers have what they need to Media Specialist [email protected] For most of its 69 years, succeed — be it time o for therapy Barbara Gordon Gourmet was a specialized appointments, noise-canceling Executive Director [email protected] publication, what some would headphones or a dog to raise call a niche product, tightly oxytocin levels — we will never see For information on advertising, contact Pharmaceutical Media Inc. at 212-904-0374 or [email protected]. focused on recipes and restaurants their potentially amazing science. (with a smattering of travel). And, cheesy as it sounds, the My grandmother sent me a gift more we understand the challenges subscription for a decade or so, in our world, the better our chance pre-Reichl, and I loved that escapist of making it better. quality. It was stodgy but soothing. www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday Under Reichl’s leadership, Comfort Dorn PRINT ISSN 2372-0409 Gourmet came out of its luxe-life ([email protected]) is the managing editor of ASBMB bubble, running articles about the Today. Follow her on Twitter Articles published in ASBMB Today re ect solely the authors’ views and not the o cial positions of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular horrors of sh farms or how the @cdorn56. Biology or the institutions with which the authors are a liated. Mentions of products or services are not endorsements. food industry tried to sabotage a scientist who linked trans fats to 2 ASBMB TODAY JUNE/JULY 2019 NEWS FROM THE HILL Advocating for more than money By Benjamin Corb hen I write about the actions of Congress, I often to support STEM scholarship programs, for example, we focus on appropriations and funding. And rightly know we can go to that member when we want to discuss W so. As glucose fuels the mitochondria in a cell, policies that will support the next generation of scientists. Congress’ support for federal science-funding agencies is year — for the rst time — our advocacy eorts fuels the engine that powers American leadership in have moved beyond Washington, D.C., to state capitals. research and innovation. So it’s no surprise that the 12 Studies show that state legislatures are more eective appropriations bills our legislators wrangle each year get at passing legislation than Congress, with some data the lion’s share of my ink. suggesting states are six times more But Congress can walk and successful at enacting laws than the chew gum at the same time. Hun- Like scientific federal government. dreds of bills are introduced every research, advocacy With that in mind, the year in both the House and the ASBMB public aairs team Senate, and only a small fraction is a long game. We recently worked with J.P. Sredzins- of those have a direct eect on need persistence ki, a Republican who represents funding the agencies we care about. and patience if we’re the communities of Monroe and In fact, people I talk to are often Sandy Hook in the Connecticut surprised when I tell them we spend going to see future House of Representatives and a at least half our time on Capitol successes. And like friend of mine, to draft legislation Hill talking about things other than working at the bench, supporting a state program to money for science. retain minority STEM students in Right now, the American our eorts include a lot public colleges and universities. We Society for Biochemistry and of trial and error. researched the issue, helped draft Molecular Biology public aairs the bill’s language and testied team is tracking more than 100 before a joint committee on higher pieces of legislation; these focus on topics such as sexual education in Hartford, Conn. e legislation received bi- harassment in science; rules partisan support and was passed out of committee before and regulations that dictate how federal advisory it stalled due to the estimated cost of implementation. committees (and review panels) operate; and a package We will review and modify the bill and then work of bills to improve science, technology, engineering and with Sredzinski to reintroduce it in the next legislative mathematics programs in higher education. You may session. While our proposal stalled (like 97% of bills in be familiar with that last bit from our spring advocacy Congress), we built new partnerships that will serve us campaign. well in the future. Many bills are introduced but don’t become law. Like scientic research, advocacy is a long game. We In the 115th Congress (January 2017 through January need persistence and patience if we’re going to see future 2019), some 13,000 pieces of legislation were introduced, successes. And like working at the bench, our eorts and only 3% (443) were enacted. e failure rate for include a lot of trial and error. legislation is high, but we learn a lot even from bills that never come to a vote. Benjamin Corb ([email protected]) is director of public Introduced legislation helps us identify which mem- affairs at the ASBMB.