ASB M B Annual Meeting Highlights from the 2009
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2010 ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL 24-28. ANAHEIM AWAITS! hlights fr ig om H June 2009 t h e 2 0 0 9 A S B M B A n n u al Meeting American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ANNUAL REVIEWS A Nonprofit Scientific Publisher INSIGHTFUL ANNUAL REVIEW OF TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOCHEMISTRY Without a License, or Accidents Waiting to Happen, E. Peter Geiduschek RESEARCH IN • A Journey in the World of DNA Rings and Beyond, James C. Wang BIOCHEMISTRY Vol. 78 • JUlY 2009 • The Biochemistry of Disease: Desperately Seeking Syzygy, John W. Kozarich • Biosynthesis of Phosphonic and Phosphinic Acid Natural STARTS WITH Editor: Products, William W. Metcalf, Wilfred A. van der Donk • New Antivirals and Drug Resistance, Peter M. Colman • Multidrug Resistance in Bacteria, Roger D. Kornberg ANNUAL Hiroshi Nikaido • Conformational Pathology of the Serpins: Themes, REVIEWS Stanford University School Variations, and Therapeutic Strategies, Bibek Gooptu, David A. Lomas of Medicine • Getting a Grip on Prions: Oligomers, Amyloids, and Pathological Membrane Interactions, Byron Caughey, Gerald S. Baron, Bruce Chesebro, Annual Review of Martin Jeffrey • RING Domain E3 Ubiquitin Ligases, Raymond J. Deshaies, Biochemistry, in publication Claudio A.P. Joazeiro • Regulation and Cellular Roles of Ubiquitin- since 1932, sets the standard Specific Deubiquitinating Enzymes, Francisca E. Reyes-Turcu, Karen H. Ventii, Keith D. Wilkinson • Recognition and Processing of Ubiquitin- for review articles in biological Protein Conjugates by the Proteasome, Daniel Finley • Degradation of chemistry and molecular biology. Activated Protein Kinases by Ubiquitination, Zhimin Lu, Tony Hunter • The Since its inception, these volumes Role of Ubiquitin in the NFκB Regulatory Pathways, Brian Skaug, Xiaomo have served as an indispensable Jiang, Zhijian J. Chen • Biological and Chemical Approaches to Diseases of Proteostasis Deficiency, Evan T. Powers, Richard I. Morimoto, Andrew resource for both the practicing Dillin, Jeffery W. Kelly, William E. Balch • RNA Polymerase Active Center: biochemist and students of The Molecular Engine of Transcription, Evgeny Nudler • Genome-Wide biochemistry. Views of Chromatin Structure, Oliver J. Rando, Howard Y. Chang • The Biology of Chromatin Remodeling Complexes, Cedric R. Clapier, Bradley AVAILABLE ONLINE AT R. Cairns • The Structural and Functional Diversity of Metabolite-Binding HTTP://BIOCHEM.ANNUALREVIEWS.ORG Riboswitches, Adam Roth, Ronald R. Breaker • Genetic and Biochemical Analysis of Non-Vesicular Lipid Traffic, Dennis R. Voelker • Cholesterol Access this and all Annual 24-Hydroxylase: An Enzyme of Cholesterol Turnover in the Brain, David Reviews journals via your W. Russell, Rebekkah W. Halford, Denise M.O. Ramirez, Rahul Shah, Tiina Kotti • Lipid-Dependent Membrane Protein Topogenesis, William Dowhan, institution's subscription at Mikhail Bogdanov • Single-Molecule Studies of the Neuronal SNARE www.annualreviews.org. Fusion Machinery, Axel T. Brunger, Keith Weninger, Mark Bowen, Steven Chu • Mechanisms of Endocytosis, Gary J. Doherty, Harvey T. McMahon Personal copies available at a reduced • Motors, Switches, and Contacts in the Replisome, Samir M. Hamdan, rate. Institutional site license options Charles C. Richardson • Large-Scale Structural Biology of the Human available. Contact Annual Reviews Proteome, Aled Edwards • Collagen Structure and Stability, Matthew D. for details. Shoulders, Ronald T. Raines • The Structural and Biochemical Foundations of Thiamin Biosynthesis, Christopher T. Jurgenson, Tadhg P. Begley, Steven E. Ealick • Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer in Biology: Results from Synergistic Studies in Natural and Model Systems, Steven Y. Reece, Daniel G. Nocera • Mechanism of Mo-Dependent Nitrogenase, Lance C. Seefeldt, Brian M. Hoffman, Dennis R. Dean • Inorganic Polyphosphate: Essential for Growth and Survival, Narayana N. Rao, María R. Gómez- García, Arthur Kornberg • Essentials for ATP Synthesis by F1F0 ATP Synthases, Christoph von Ballmoos, Alexander Wiedenmann, Peter Dimroth • The Chemical Biology of Protein Phosphorylation, Mary Katherine Tarrant, Philip A. Cole • Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Receptor Signaling, Hugh Rosen, Pedro J. Gonzalez-Cabrera, M. Germana Sanna, Steven Brown • The Advent of Near-Atomic Resolution in Single-Particle Electron Microscopy, Yifan Cheng, Thomas Walz • Super-Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy, Bo Huang, Mark Bates, Xiaowei Zhuang Tel: 800.523.8635 (US/CAN) • Tel: 650.493.4400 (WORLDWIDE) • Fax: 650.424.0910 (WORLDWIDE) • Email: [email protected] contents JUNE 2009 ON THE COVER: The 2009 ASBMB Annual Meeting in New Orleans society news is over, but you can read 4 President’s Message highlights from the meeting throughout this issue. 6 Washington Update special interest 7 Scientific Funding Could Be a Prescription for U. S. Nascent Economic Woes Peptide- dependent Ribosome asbmb meetings Stalling. 12 Bask in the California Sunshine — 30 Reserve the Dates! 14 Biomedical Infrastructure in Chaotic Times 15 ASBMB’s New Orleans Evolution Symposium a Big Hit 16 Scenes from New Orleans 20 ASBMB 2009 Thematic Best Poster Awards science focus A look at some 32 Symposia Science of the science Highlights from the annual meeting. 32 departments 2 Letters to the Editor 8 News from the Hill 10 Member Spotlight 21 Lipid News 22 Education and Training 26 Minority Affairs 28 Career Insights 30 BioBits podcast summary This month’s podcast features a lecture resources by the 2008 ASBMB Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education winner Michael Scientific Meeting Calendar Summers. In the podcast, Summers talks about online only his HIV research, mentoring undergraduate students, and diversity in the sciences. To hear this and other podcasts, go to www.asbmb.org/Interactive.aspx. June 2009 ASBMB Today 1 letters to the editor A monthly publication of The American Society for tions on Apple computers in general” is Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Appreciation true in some cases but certainly not all. Officers Of course, one has to be careful of Office Gregory A. Petsko President Heidi E. Hamm Past President for Richards versions and file formats (.ppt versus Mark A. Lemmon Secretary Dear Editor: .pptx), which, as you point out, is true Merle S. Olson Treasurer I appreciated immensely the retro- on any platform. Council Members Dafna Bar-Sagi Alan Hall John D. Scott spective for Fred Richards composed by The other statement I found curious Joan A. Steitz Ann M. Stock James Staros. As a graduate student in was “...if you don’t know if your Mac- Kevin Struhl James A. Wells Adrian Whitty Fred’s department at Yale, so many of Book will be compatible with an on-site Ex-Officio Members the names mentioned in the article, and Ellis Bell projector...” I’ve been in this business Chair, Education and Professional of several of the additional contributors, for a while and cannot think of a single Development Committee Laurie S. Kaguni are familiar to me. Fred was a reader instance of this occurring. Chair, Meetings Committee on my thesis, a collection of chemical Frankly, I see resolution incompat- John D. Scott Chair, Membership Committee and kinetic studies designed to examine ibilities that seem difficult to resolve on Craig E. Cameron the nature of the contribution of the the PC side. Overall, I simply don’t think Chair, Minority Affairs Committee Joan W. Conaway horseradish peroxidase apoprotein to the Mac is any less capable than a PC in James H. Hurley its peroxidatic mechanism. At my thesis this regard. Co-chairs, 2009 Program Committee Ralph A. Bradshaw presentation, Fred made a sage observa- Although I thought that the discus- Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee tion about the oxidation states of amino sion on Mac versus PC was misleading, Toni M. Antalis Chair, Publications Committee acids that enabled me to analyze my thank you for the useful information in Herbert Tabor data in a more insightful manner than I Editor, JBC the articles regarding Google Docs. Ralph A. Bradshaw had otherwise considered. I, of course, A. L. Burlingame returned the favor by hitting the ball Sincerely, Co-editors, MCP Gregory S. Shelness Edward A. Dennis over his head at our annual faculty- Professor of Pathology Joseph L. Witztum Co-editors, JLR student softball game because he was Wake Forest University School of playing me much too shallow in center Medicine ASBMB Today Editorial Advisory Board Alex Toker field. Fred handled it with his typical Chair good humor; in and out of the lab, he RESPONSE Greg P. Bertenshaw Craig E. Cameron A. Stephen Dahms Irwin Fridovich was a first-class human being as well as a Thank you for your letter; you bring Jonathan Gitlin Richard W. Hanson distinguished scientist. Elizabeth A. Komives Bettie Sue Masters up some good points about moving Luke A. O’Neill Duanqing Pei Ira Weinryb presentations across platforms. Person- Carol C. Shoulders Robert D. Wells Gwynedd Valley, PA ally, I am a longtime Mac user, and so I ASBMB Today usually find it difficult to come up with Nicole Kresge Editor [email protected] complaints about them. But I think in Nick Zagorski Science Writer Mac and PC the area of presentations, Macs do have [email protected] a few weaknesses. I just got back from Nancy J. Rodnan Director of Publications [email protected] Incompatible? our annual meeting in New Orleans Barbara Gordon Executive Director Dear Ms. Crespi: and a smaller meeting in Palo Alto, and [email protected] As a longtime Mac user, I was a little I found that the biggest hurdle people Magazine