A Magazine | The School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Issue 10, 2017 MCB
TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS TRANSFORM BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY IN NEUROSCIENCE
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Fifty-three years ago, Bob Dylan released the song “The Times They Are a Changin’.” Today, times are indeed different at the University of Illinois. Many of you know that I earned my Ph.D. in Physics in the College of Engineering here, matriculating in 1970. This was the height of the VietnamWar and the draft took several fellow graduate students – some not returning, while others were forced to change from experiment to theory due to loss of multiple limbs. Those were polarized times, and they remain so. The campus is putting in place financial models that call for a reduced reliance on the State for resources. Despite these challenges, MCB remains a bright and shining jewel. Campus resources are committed to two exciting academic projects: A new Carle-Illinois College of Medicine and a cross-campus Siebel Design Center. MCB will play important roles in these and other initiatives. The School of MCB is on solid financial ground, with high demand for the MCB major and undergraduate enrollments limited only by the availability of instructional space. The research prowess of MCB faculty has translated into MCB Dr. Stephen G. Sligar leading in the receipt of external funding from the National Institutes of Health, the main source of the United States investment in health related research. That said, we increasingly rely on support from our alumni and friends, as demonstrated in several articles in this issue of the MCB Magazine.
I believe one of the benefactors represented in this issue deserves a special comment. As described, Dr. Kris Jenner provided an endowed professorship in my name. It is highly unusual to recognize a currently appointed individual with this honor. While Dr. Jenner is well known to the University of Illinois as a quarterback in the early 1980s, I was blessed with having him as an undergraduate researcher in my laboratory. Not only an excellent athlete and an "A student," he was a dedicated independent scientist. He continued his outstanding level of accomplishment through a Marshall Scholarship, earning a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Oxford, followed by an M.D. from Johns Hopkins and subsequent transition to leadership in the investment community. Although the details escape me, he credits me with advice I provided during various times in his career path. This is one example of the real rewards of being an educator: Seeing one’s "children" succeed at the highest level. Most often we do not realize the influence we are having on our students, and it is only decades later when they come forward that we are reminded of the benefits of choosing academe as a profession.
This will be my last introduction to the MCB Magazine. I have been Director of the School for 10 years, and I believe that administrative positions need to change in order to bring new thoughts, directions, and visions to the forefront. I have been fortunate to have enjoyed over 40 years of continuous NIH funding for my own research, and was recently awarded a type of grant that guarantees at least five additional years of support for my entire laboratory, with the important benefit that I can work across a broad spectrum of endeavors without being limited by individual specific aims. I have also accepted a role in the new Carle-Illinois College of Medicine in delivering an advanced “capstone” course to medical students that integrates what they have learned in the basic medical sciences with fundamental engineering and clinical concepts to realize a system-wide understanding of the mechanisms of disease. Hence, while missing the role as Director after August, I look forward to making a continuing contribution to the excellence that is Illinois and the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Stephen G. Sligar
2 MCB TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 Letter from the Director, Stephen G. Sligar
4 Technological Breakthroughs Transform Biological Inquiry in Neuroscience By Deb Aronson 9 Private Funding Provides Scholarships 10 Dr. Brenda Wilson: Turning the Tables on Toxins By Deb Aronson 12 Unassailable Strength: Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology Finds Strength in Collaboration By Doug Peterson 14 MCBees Help Provide Student Support, Recruit, & Share the Joy of Science By Elizabeth Innes 17 James Spudich: Pioneering Discoveries on Molecular Motors By Doug Peterson 18 Keith Westcott: Collegial Environment Set Alumnus up for Success By Brian Wallheimer 19 Martin Frank: Illinois Alumnus Makes Lasting Mark in Physiology By Brian Wallheimer 20 Laura Niklason: Growing Blood Vessels in the Lab By Doug Peterson 21 Deborah Paul: GIVE to Unconventional Wisdom: Spotting HIV in the Blood By Doug Peterson 22 Milan Bagchi: Deborah Paul Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology By Dave Evensen and Steph Adams
23 Susan Martinis: Stephen G. Sligar Professorship By Aaliyah Gibson and Steph Adams 24 In Memorium: Susan Lindquist Klaus Schulten 26 List of Recent Graduates
MC B is published by the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology MCB Director Development MCB Communications Office Stephen G. Sligar Trent Blythe 393 Morrill Hall, MC-119 505 South Goodwin Avenue Managing Editor Trent Reed Urbana, IL 61801 Steph Adams Joan Tousey Additional Editing Photography phone | 217.265.6594 fax | 217.265.6595 Judith Lateer Steph Adams L. Brian Stauffer [email protected] Thompson • McClellan www.mcb.illinois.edu
Produced by the MCB Communications Office for the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology. The University of Illinois is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.
Printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink. 12.038 TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS TRANSFORM BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY IN NEUROSCIENCE
4 MCB By Deb Aronson
The infinitely complex workings of the of rapidly and cheaply sequencing human because their input controls the firing of human brain have intrigued researchers for genomes led to the development of technologies neurons. centuries. Our understanding of its workings that allow people like me to sequence RNAs (the One of the projects her lab is focusing on have been limited, not by our curiosity, but by expressed products of DNA),” says Ceman. now has to do with the effects of silencing a our tools. Now, with the growth of new “Those RNA sequences give insight into cell neuron. When a neuron stops receiving molecular biology and genomics approaches, big function. For the first time ever, scientists can stimulus, it up-regulates its excitability. data, and engineering advances that improve sequence RNA to uncover previously unknown “If I were a neuron and I’m not firing, I’m imaging, researchers are making advances they regulatory events that affect protein expression in worried (if I’m not receiving any stimulus),” could only dream of even a few decades ago. specific cell types like neurons and fascinating says Chung. “I’m not doing my job. I adjust to “Technological breakthroughs have begun to tissues like brain.” up-regulate, to fire more. So after the blockade, transform neuroscience,” says Catherine This means Ceman can study what happens now the neuron is more sensitive.” Christian, assistant professor of molecular and when the Fragile X protein is turned on or This is just what homeostatic plasticity is integrative physiology. suppressed and also what happens downstream, supposed to do. However, if the nerve is MCB faculty members are deeply involved in when the protein is formed. Recently, for silenced for an extended time, then the neurons all aspects of these efforts, working closely with example, she has demonstrated that a novel become hypersensitive and homeostatic faculty in chemistry, physics, the Beckman helicase, mov10, is recruited to an RNA that plasticity becomes maladaptive. Institute, and elsewhere. Some MCB researchers FMRP commonly binds to. The helicase then Chung’s hypothesis is that if homeostatic choose to focus on a specific protein to learn unwinds it, enabling it to make the protein. plasticity does not work properly then it will how it interacts within the system; others try to Aided by the use of improved precision of lead to disease, such as epilepsy. Chung’s lab is look at the big complicated system in its entirety. mass spectroscopy in this project, she could making progress uncovering the molecular more easily identify molecules by their mass on players. Stephanie Ceman: an increasingly fine scale. Using gene-expression profiling and micro- RNA Sequencing The story just becomes more and more array analysis of those genes affected when a complicated, but that energizes Ceman. neuron is blocked, the Chung lab found genes “Complexity drives ingenuity,” she says. that encode potassium ion channels were Stephanie Ceman, “highly represented.” This makes sense given associate professor of cell Hee Jung Chung: the role potassium ion channels play in neuron and developmental function. Chung’s hypothesis is that when a biology, started out Genome Wide Sequencing, neuron is silenced, the transcription of wanting to understand Micro-array Analysis potassium ion channels is reduced. With few the molecular basis for potassium channels to inhibit excess electrical intelligence. By studying Like Ceman, Hee Jung activity, the neurons will now fire in an Fragile X, a type of Chung, assistant uncontrolled way. Using both gene analysis and cognitive impairment professor of molecular electrophysiology, Chung found this to be the caused by a single missing gene, she thought she and integrative case not just for potassium ion channels on the had a relatively simple model, the missing gene physiology, looks at a axon, but in all regions of the neuron. codes for FMRP, a protein that binds to RNA. disease model to see what Chung’s next step is to study the effects of FMRP is highly expressed in neurons, but what she can discover about homeostatic plasticity in vivo . Her lab has does this protein do? Like so many things in how the brain works. In created a model, using chemical tools, by which biology, the answer turned out to be complicated. her case, Chung studies specific neurons in a mouse brain can be In this case, that is because FMRP binds to epilepsy. silenced or stimulated at a specific time. She can about four percent of all brain RNAs. That “Better understanding of the pathogenesis of observe those neurons by tagging them with means that the protein helps regulate the epilepsy is critical to develop novel therapeutic green fluorescent protein (GFP) and using a translation of numerous RNAs; not so simple interventions and early diagnostics for epilepsy,” comprehensive gene expression array to figure after all. Helped by next generation sequencing, says Chung. out what genes are affected, all of which will Ceman, undaunted, has been helped able to Epilepsy is a broad term for when neurons help her team understand structural changes sequence those RNAs. misfire chaotically, causing seizures. For Chung, that might be implicated in some forms of “Probably the bottom line is that revolutions and for most epileptologists, the gateway to epilepsy. in sequencing that were driven by the challenge understanding is through the ion channel
SSCCHHOOOOLL OOFF MMOOLLEECCUULLAARR AANNDD CCEELLLLUULLAARR BBIIOOLLOOGGY Y 56 Catherine Christian: Research has shown that glia are like the Experimentally, she is “putting those (light- Chemogenetics, housekeepers and interior designers of the brain. sensitive) proteins in astrocytes, then triggering They remove and recycle neurotransmitters, them and watching how the astrocytes affect Optogenetics and UV including GABA (an inhibitor) and glutamate GABA transmission on nearby neurons. Uncaging (an excitatory molecule), and buffer ions to Interestingly, we see different effects depending maintain proper concentration around the on brain area,” says Christian. While Ceman and neurons. “These findings support the emerging model Chung have focused on However, research has been impeded by the that not all astrocytes are the same and synapses, one of the areas lack of techniques to study the glia. emphasizes that it’s really important to look at Catherine Christian, “Astrocytes have been underappreciated things in different brain areas,” she adds. “That assistant professor because it is hard to manipulate their function is especially important in clinical application.” of molecular and without also affecting neuronal function,” says One drawback to optogenetics is that the integrative physiology, Christian. experimenter has to put a light fiber in the brain, is investigating involves astrocytes, those “other” Breakthroughs such as optogenetics, which is invasive. So Christian’s lab also is using cells in the brain. It was thought for a long time chemogenetics and UV un-caging, are enabling chemogenetics, in which cells can be excited or that astrocytes, or glia, were merely the glue researchers to selectively manipulate very suppressed using chemical means. This holding the neurons in place. It turns out they specific cells, says Christian. In optogenetics, procedure is noninvasive and the chemicals can have their own role to play. Thanks to new different wavelengths of light can activate or cross the blood-brain barrier, making technologies, that is changing. inhibit cells of interest because the cells are chemogenetics ideal for Christian’s work and “Research in the last 10 or 15 years has engineered to contain a light-sensitive protein. enabling her to manipulate the action of brain shown that astrocytes play major roles in Using optogenetics on astrocytes, Christian is cells in real time. modulating synaptic transmissions,” says looking at how astrocytes regulate GABA “One can always fix and stain brain tissue to Christian transmission in the hippocampus. see connections between the cells, but what
Other MCB faculty doing research in neuroscience
Rhanor Gillette (MIP) Graham Huesmann (MIP) Mark Nelson (MIP) One way to understand something As an MD/PhD student at Illinois, Using weakly electric fish — fish that use complex is to begin with something Huesmann studied how caspase -3, electricity to sense their environment, but simple. Gillette discovered a basic normally associated with killing off not for protection or predation— Nelson decision-making circuit in the sea slug neurons, helps make new memories. Now seeks to understand how these creatures’ Pleurobranchae that involves a cost- Huesmann, who also works at Carle neurons acquire and interpret information benefit analysis. It’s possible that Hospital, is looking for a biomarker for about their environment. Nelson looks at understanding this circuit will provide seizures and also using magnetic the brain from a computational, or insight into the same or similar decision resonance elastography, a novel imaging information-processing perspective, rather making in higher level animals, and it technique, to identify good candidates for than a cellular or molecular approach. indicates that the slug nervous system is epilepsy surgery. more complex than previously thought. Erik Procko (BIOCH) Xin Li (CDB) Can we determine the effects of tens of Claudio Grosman (MIP) How does the brain develop, in all its thousands of mutations, before those “In order to understand the whole we need complexity? Li has shown that time is a mutations are even discovered in a human to understand the parts,” says Grosman, factor; that the expression of certain patient? By combining technologies for who uses single molecule approaches to neural types is at least partly dependent on protein evolution with modern sequencing, understanding ion channels, which are temporally expressed transcription factors. Procko catalogs mutations of neuronal fundamental to the nervous system. Using Her work now is to characterize the receptors and transporters on a massive the patch-clamp technique, Grosman molecular basis for controlling that scale. Protein mutagenesis is starting to studies why individual ion channels let some sequential process. use Big Data methods to explore human ions through and not others, for example. genetic diversity as it relates to disease and pharmacology.
6 MCB these techniques allow us to do it in live tissue GABA receptors are modulated by local factors, connections in the brain’s auditory system. and see the connections as they are working and how this is specific to certain brain regions,” He is hoping that by uncovering the brain’s functionally.” says Christian. microstructural connections he can determine A third technique that is being used quite when an auditory malfunction is due to a successfully in Christian’s lab involves ultraviolet Dan Llano: Optogenetics molecular or structural problem or something (UV) uncaging. In this case a desired molecule, else entirely. such as a neurotransmitter, is chemically Llano uses high-resolution optical stimulation, attached to another molecule (“cage”) by a UV- Dan Llano, assistant or optogenetics, which enables researchers to sensitive bond. When a shot of UV light, such as professor of molecular use lasers to stimulate or inhibit specific neurons from a laser, is applied to a tissue bathed in a and integrative and, thus, see the connections those neurons solution containing the caged neurotransmitter, physiology, like Chung, is make. He keeps brain slices alive for this releases the neurotransmitter so that it can investigating plasticity 8-12 hours and studies how the individual then bind to receptors in nearby cells. gone bad as he works to circuits are connected by using lasers to activate For example, by tagging GABA, an inhibitory elucidate the micro- small groups of neurons. Like Christian, Llano transmitter, Christian can move the molecule to structure of the brain in also uses UV uncaging techniques for this work. a certain part of the neuron, uncage it, and see the auditory region. In his case, Llano’s model “We have so much to learn about the how GABA affects the receptors expressed on has to do with cochlear degradation with aging. organization of any brain system,” he says. different parts of the cell. As the auditory system ages it can receive wrong “For me, the big question is how one (brain “We can also prepare small pieces of neuron information or new information (like tinnitus, sub-structure) communicates with another. If membranes that contain GABA receptors and which is both wrong and new) and it can lose we can figure out how to label individual sub examine the response to GABA uncaging when the ability to focus on a specific stream of sound, populations of neurons we can answer this these receptors are placed in different areas of a for example, in a crowded room. Llano is question.” brain slice, which allows us to look at how interested in how those deficits affect
Lisa Stubbs (CDB) Phyllis M Wise (MIP) Jonathon Sweedler (MIP affiliate) Only 5-10 percent of the genome codes for Wise’s work in the role of estrogens in the Sweedler specializes in developing genes. The rest, once called “junk DNA,” brain suggests that subtle changes, as the analytical measurement techniques, many regulates the expression of those genes. central nervous system ages, begin early and of which are unique to his lab. The focus of This is where Stubbs, using mice, focuses can contribute to changes in ovarian Sweedler’s work is cell-to-cell signaling in her efforts. Among her projects is one function. Her data suggest that estrogens the central nervous system because that is investigating whether common social play a big role in the cerebral cortex, the basis for behavior, learning, and responses and behaviors among various attenuating and delaying neural death, and memory. His work characterizes what animals are regulated by highly conserved inducing neurogenesis after stroke. Her data molecules are in what cells and networks, molecular mechanisms. further suggest that these functions are and how they change depending on the mediated by estrogen receptors. activity of the neural network, the animal’s Nien-Pei Tsai (MIP) behavior, or the presence of drugs. Using mice with Fragile X Syndrome, Tsai Kai Zhang (BIOCH) is studying the molecular and cellular Can we tackle the signaling codes during Ed Roy (MIP affiliate) mechanisms of synapse development, embryonic development and use that If the body’s own immune system could be which is implicated in several information to rescue damaged neurons activated against brain tumors, it would be neurodevelopmental disorders. He is resulting from neurological diseases or both potent and precise. The trick is to investigating the possibility that there is injury? Combining genetic and protein reliably activate that system. The Roy “unique and parallel crosstalk between engineering, live-cell imaging and group works on that problem, focusing on protein synthesis and degradation” when it optogenetic technologies, Zhang modulates T-cell mediated immunotherapies. comes to synapse development. growth factors-mediated signal transduction during cell differentiation and embryonic development.
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 7 Thomas Anastasio: Process Meseguer, professor of computer science, and Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), a Algebra Analysis in Biology others, Maude can model complex and dynamic collaborative, public-private research initiative multi-parameter systems. announced by the Obama administration in “I like Maude because she is extremely 2013. Other MCB powerful, and she was developed here in the Gillette leads a BRAIN project based on a researchers are working computer science department. I was able to get noninvasive real-time imaging method to understand neural help from her developers when I was first developed by her collaborator, Gabriel Popescu, systems as the learning.” associate professor of electrical and computer complicated and messy Among his many projects, Anastasio has built engineering. The challenge is to image sub- networks that they are. several models for neurodegeneration using cellular dynamics in tissue that is dense and has Until very recently Maude. Most recently, he looked at the effect of a high refractive index. This project also involves researchers could only hypoxia as a trigger for beta-amyloid high-resolution measurements of imagine attempting to perform these kinds of accumulation in the brain. neurotransmitter release and stimulation by analyses. “There is a great deal of experimental and biocompatible flexible electrodes, technologies Thomas Anastasio uses computer modeling clinical evidence showing that loss of blood flow developed by Jonathan Sweedler, professor of to address what he calls the brain’s “extreme to the brain, which causes brain hypoxia, can chemistry, and John Rogers, professor of complexity,” and harnesses large quantities of increase the rate of production of amyloid-beta,” materials science and engineering, respectively. data in the service of a predictive model. says Anastasio. The second BRAIN project involves using “Big data approaches (e.g. gene chip analysis) This model is one of several he has built. chemical techniques to analyze composition of will tell you that a thousand different things are “Alzheimer’s, like all neurodegenerative cells in the parts of hippocampus where learning potentially important in the functioning of some diseases, is highly multifactorial,” he says. All of takes place. Using Raman Spectroscopy neural system, and even if you verify a few his Alzheimer’s models offer “therapeutically combined with mass spectrometry, Rohit hundred of those you still end up with a very, relevant predictions in terms of drug Bhargava, professor of bioengineering, and very complicated set of interactions,” says combinations that would be more effective than Jonathan Sweedler, professor of chemistry, are Anastasio. “And you can look at the complicated single drugs for reducing amyloid-beta-induced working to measure the vibrational spectra in a diagram depicting those interactions, and there’s inflammation or synaptic plasticity impairment or cell and then use that to identify the no way you could figure out what is going on. for reducing amyloid-beta accumulation itself.” comprehensive chemical profiles of cells and We have to address this complexity Whenever someone has had a brain trauma brain tissue. Gillette’s lab provides the essential computationally.” or major surgery, for example, the hypoxia functional data that are coupled with these high- Anastasio, associate professor of molecular model predicts that a combination of NSAIDs resolution chemical signatures. Their work will and integrative physiology, instead takes “factors and a drug that blocks Hypoxia Inducible produce a kind of “functional chemical we know experimentally are involved and try to Factor, HIF, should reduce the rate of histology” of the brain, she says. pull all those together. My whole raison d’être in accumulation of beta-amyloid in the brain. “We can do this because we’re at Illinois,” science is to take concepts and techniques from The next step is to find a bench scientist to says Gillette, professor of cell and development more technical areas such as math, computer test his model and provide results that he can biology. “All our progress is because of science, and engineering and bring them to then incorporate back into the model. technology,” she adds. biology. As a computational neuroscientist, that’s Funding for much of Gillette’s work is why I was hired here. That’s what I love to do.” Martha Gillette: Noninvasive through various BRAIN initiatives. One of the Anastasio has most recently borrowed most compelling aspects of BRAIN is that the techniques such as process algebra and a Computational and Chemical various federal agencies involved are investing in declarative computer language known as Maude Imaging a diversity of projects. This is, says Gillette, from computer science. Another way to because “they understand there is no guarantee “Imperative computer languages are used to confront the complexity, where the next breakthrough will come from.” n write programs that execute statements in a pre- says Martha Gillette, specified order along a single pathway,” says professor of cell and Anastasio. “Declarative languages, in contrast, developmental biology are used to write programs that can execute and director of the statements in all possible orders, thereby neuroscience program, is elaborating the pathways of all possible orders of through large, multi- statement executions.” investigator projects such as the BRAIN Maude is one of only a few declarative Initiative (Brain Research through languages, says Anastasio. Developed by Jose
8 MCB Private funding continues to provide a large number of scholarships to both domestic and international students.
The School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) is a pivotal The James R. Beck Fellowship in Microbiology, established by an center for biomedical research on campus, and our program attracts more alumnus from Indianapolis, will partially support four graduate students funding than any other unit in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. this year. The students benefit from the support, as well as the faculty Our energetic, top-notch graduate students and faculty, and high caliber who host the students in their labs. research projects have a strong reputation for producing results worthy of “Private donations allow graduate students to pursue independent further external funding. projects of their own design,” says Assistant Professor of Microbiology However, the stagnation of federal funding over the last decade has led Thomas Kehl-Fie, an advisor to a graduate student who received the to extreme competitiveness for government-funded research in the United James R. Beck Fellowship. “It allows labs to explore new and exciting States. In particular, there are increasing concerns that science will suffer, avenues of research.” as more risky and exploratory projects are less likely to get funded. Private donations take many different forms. One type of private Although the University of Illinois is a state-funded institution, state funding comes from deferred gifts, such as the June Aprille Fellowship, revenues are only responsible for approximately 12 percent of the total which was incorporated into Dr. Aprille’s estate planning to support operating budget. The gracious support from our alumni and graduate scholarships in the future. philanthropists helps fill this financial gap, enabling faculty and students to Other funds have been set up by alumni trainees as a tribute to a continue with their excellent research. professor. For example, the C. Ladd Prosser research award’s A number of scholarships and fellowships are available within MCB, accumulated interest has supported annual awards to recognize and the opportunities continue to grow every year, as well as the number outstanding student researchers in Molecular and Integrative Physiology of graduate students receiving these awards. laboratories since 2012. “Our alumni have provided enormous opportunities for MCB and our "The Prosser award has given me a great opportunity to expand my students. For example, the Westcott Biosciences Fellowship attracts top research and knowledge of neuroscience, which includes providing me students to fuel our graduate program. In addition, alumni and colleagues with support to attend a Computational Neuroscience course," says have endowed graduate fellowships in honor of former faculty, including Ekaterina Gribkova, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Daniel Llano. Professors Lowell Hager, Gregorio Weber, and Herb Carter,” says Susan Howard Ducoff, the late professor and eminent radiobiologist in MIP, Martinis, Sligar Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry. and James E. Heath, a former Head of MIP, set up fellowships in their Undergraduates have also greatly benefited from the generosity of own names to support best senior thesis and excellent Teaching alumni, such as William Jackson and Kris Jenner, who provide summer Assistants, respectively. research fellowships, allowing young scientists to have early experience in Molecular and Integrative Physiology is able to support the research, a lab. teaching and travel awards of several students each year through the “These alumni-supported research opportunities for our Department’s annual fund, an accumulation of gifts from a number of undergraduate and graduate students are important first steps in their alumni and friends to MIP. careers and have great impact in their long-term success,” says Dr. “Funds donated by alumni and friends of MIP are critical for Martinis. maintaining the excellence of our graduate program,” says Milan Private funding can help launch careers when federal funding is not Bagchi, Deb Paul Professor and Head of MIP. “We use these funds to available, particularly for students from international countries. The support the travel of our graduate students to national meetings to National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation present their work and to purchase shared equipment to improve support only domestic students, and a large number of distinguished departmental research infrastructure.” international researchers are often unrecognized by these government Private donations not only provide excellent opportunities, but they agencies. also carry the prestige of being associated with the names of prominent Amruta Bhate, a fifth year biochemistry graduate student from India scientists and alumni supporters who have made lasting contributions in who is ineligible for NIH or NSF funding, received the Herbert L. Carter their fields. In a competitive postdoctoral market, this funding elevates Research Fellowship, which includes a full year stipend and tuition waiver. those who have excelled among their peers. “By receiving the fellowship, my tuition and stipend is covered for a full For further information on how to establish a scholarship, fellowship, year. I do not have to work as a Teaching Assistant, and this frees up a lot or award to benefit students in MCB, please contact Trent Reed, more time for my work: research, literature search for a review, and the job Assistant Director of Development at [email protected] or Trenton search. It is a prestigious fellowship, which helps boost my resume as Blythe, Associate Director of Advancement at [email protected]. To well,” she says. support existing funds, visit mcb.illinois.edu/giving. n
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 9 Brenda Wilson: Turning the Tables on Toxins
By Deb Aronson
What do you do if you love figuring out how “I’m not happy with waiting “I’m not happy with waiting things out,” says things work and you want to do something things out. I want to Wilson. “I want to accelerate the recovery from useful? In Brenda Wilson’s case you spend your paralysis.” career figuring out how to outwit toxins. accelerate the recovery But, in order to do this, Wilson needed to “Toxins can be really bad,” says Wilson, know how the toxin gets inside the neuron in the professor of microbiology. “But we’re trying to from paralysis.” first place. harness them for good. We’re taking a lesson “How are these guys getting across the cell from the toxins themselves.” Wilson’s lab works, muscles, it results in a “floppy baby” syndrome, membrane?” she says. “What are the factors that among other things, to elucidate the structure as Wilson puts it. These toxin-producing bacteria allow it to get inside the neuron to cause and function of bacterial toxins, to understand are found in the environment as dormant spores. paralysis?” how they interact with host cells, and to develop Generally, these spores are harmless as they Once this was figured out, they had to find a post-exposure toxin therapeutics. travel through the gut of an adult, but babies way to neutralize the toxin once it was already Wilson’s group has studied both neurotoxins have slower digestive tracks — and are missing inside the neuronal cell. (caused by pathogens like Clostridium botulinum ) some of the protective gut microbes that adults “The hard part then is getting the toxin and dermonecrotic toxins (caused by pathogens have, such as the “good” bacteria that do not inhibitor inside the neuron,” says Wilson. “That like Pasteurella multocida ). produce toxins, but instead help in digestion of is the holy grail. You can bring things to the Toxin-mediated diseases can be prevented food and compete with “bad” toxin-producing neuron; you can bind things to the surface of the with vaccines, of course. Children are vaccinated bacteria. The conditions in the infant’s gut give neuron, that’s easy, but if you’re going to try to against the most notorious of these diseases: the ingested spores a chance to germinate and block the activity of the toxin you have to get diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. But diseases grow and produce the neurotoxin that causes inside the neuron.” caused by most other toxin-producing botulism. One common place where spores are Happily, Wilson’s lab has now found a way to pathogens, while potentially devastating, are rare found is honey; this explains the common enable the protein toxin itself to deliver the enough that it doesn’t make sense, financially or warning against feeding infants honey. inhibitor cross the cell membrane and get inside logistically, to vaccinate an entire population Although there is an effective antibody-based the neuronal cell. Her group has successfully against that pathogen. antitoxin to botulism, it only prevents further created a therapeutic approach they call One of Wilson’s goals is to understand the paralysis by blocking toxin binding to cells; it “bacterial toxin inspired drug delivery” or structure and function of the toxins in order to can’t neutralize toxins already in the nerve cells. BTIDD (pronounced “Beat It”). Using BTIDD develop better post-infection therapeutics. Take That means even with the antitoxin, the patient principles they can create designer drug- the case of the botulinum neurotoxin. Growing must be put on a ventilator and fed intravenously translocators that cross the lipid membrane of Clostridium bacteria produce the neurotoxin. until the toxin clears the body. That can take virtually any targeted cell. While there are fewer than 150 cases per year in many months and the developmental delays can “The project was hard because the protein the United States, 70 percent of them occur in be severe for infants. Even adults who get toxin is big [which makes it harder to find which babies. Because the neurotoxin paralyzes botulism sometimes have to relearn to walk. tiny part of the protein changed to enable it to
10 MCB The Wilson Lab: Dr. Mengfei Ho (research assistant professor), Sarah Bounab (MCB undergraduate student), Brenda Anne Wilson (professor), Dr. Melissa Pires-Alves (senior scientist), Nathan C. Clemons (microbiology PhD graduate student), Libby E. Haywood (microbiology PhD graduate student), J. Robin Dean (MCB undergraduate student) Sitting in front: Kimberly Nalley (MCB undergraduate student), Mathias Morales (MCB undergraduate student) cross the membrane], and it’s hard because it “We stole the toxins’ strategy elucidated, but that only motivates Wilson more. turns out host proteins are also engaged and a and can now use our Dermonecrotic toxins are uniquely threatening; few other cellular things are going on,” says there is evidence that exposure to them may, Wilson. But Wilson’s team remains energized by understanding of how it many years down the road, lead to cancer. The their progress. works as a tool for solutions Helicobacter pylori bacterium is one documented “For a long time the major thrust had been example in which infection by this toxin- figuring out how these toxins work. Now we to the drug-delivery problem. producing pathogen can lead to gastric cancer. know how they work and how to identify their Of course, in the world of the wily toxin, targets,” she says. We know enough now that nothing comes easy. Each toxin has its own And with BTIDD they’ve got a handle on we can actually start working idiosyncrasies, says Wilson, particularly when it Wilson’s “holy grail” as well. comes to binding and crossing the target cell “We stole the toxins’ strategy and can now use on targeted delivery of membrane. The dermonecrotic toxin is no our understanding of how it works as a tool for therapeutics.” exception. solutions to the drug-delivery problem,” she “Every time we get a new toxin we realize ‘oh, says. “We know enough now that we can actually it’s not quite the same way in this case,’” says start working on targeted delivery of force,” as Wilson says, but her hope is that Wilson, her face lighting up at the prospect of a therapeutics.” within another five or ten years they’ll “be able new challenge. n Her group has even been able to modify their to use BTIDD routinely in animals and even designer translocator so that it can enter HIV- start doing some trials.” infected cells. Using green fluorescent protein In addition to neurotoxins, Wilson has always (GFP) as a colored tracking tag, they been quite interested in other large protein demonstrated that they can successfully deliver toxins, such as the “dermonecrotic” toxins. the GFP cargo into the target cell, as well. These toxins are not as well understood; even Research projects take a lot of time and “brute their crystal structures aren’t completely
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 11 Unassailable Strength Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology Finds Strength in Collaboration
By Doug Peterson
Over a year ago, Satish Nair, director of the Center for Biophysics and Biology has always made its home in the School of Molecular and Cellular Quantitative Biology, received a call from Arthur DeVries, retired professor Biology. The original idea of the center was proposed back in 1978 when of animal biology. DeVries, well known for discovering “antifreeze Antony Crofts was recruited from the University of Bristol and appointed proteins” in Antarctic fish, wondered if Nair was interested in working with to lead the biophysics division in the Department of Physiology. him to delve deeper into the protein’s unique qualities. The Center became a formal manifestation of a “super highway” The antifreeze protein prevents fish in the Antarctic from freezing, but already existing between the departments of physics and the biological researchers did not fully know how it worked, Nair says. He joined the sciences in MCB through Professors Gunsalus, Hager, and Weber in effort, and over the past year they have learned that this prism-like protein Biochemistry and Professors Frauenfelder, Debrunner, and Munck in allows water molecules to bind to its sides, disrupting the formation of ice Physics. Graduate students began to flow freely between both sides of lattices in the fish’s blood. Green Street, which separates the Colleges of Engineering and Liberal This collaboration is a typical example of the kind of multidisciplinary Arts/Sciences. The current Director of MCB, Professor Stephen Sligar, is efforts that pop up routinely in the University of Illinois Center for a Ph.D. physicist who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1975 Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, says Nair, who became director in the and has held positions in the Department of Biochemistry, Department of summer of 2016 after serving as interim director for a year. Chemistry, and the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology. Collaboration is built into the center’s DNA. Over the course of the next two decades, as interest in biophysical areas “On any given day, someone might knock on your door and say, ‘Do continued to expand on campus, multiple proposals for establishing an you have a few minutes? Let’s talk a little bit about science,’” Nair says. independent center were put forth. After several years of negotiations, the “That might spin off into something that becomes a long-term project.” present structure of the center became reality under Colin Wraight's Established in 1996, the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative leadership.
12 MCB The biological revolution of the 1990s, with the major strides in gene between lipids and membrane proteins—a key interaction in the blood- sequencing, also helped to spur the creation of this new center. clotting process. “The artificial barriers that people put up between fields started to “If you have three people who are world experts and they’re all disappear at that time,” Nair says. “You had a lot of professors trained in focusing on the same thing, and they’re on the same campus, that is classical physics wanting to move into biology, and you had biologists ideal,” Nair says. wanting to expand their research into other disciplines as well.” Originally known as the Center for Biophysics and Computational Although the Board of Trustees did not approve the center until 1996, Biology, Nair says that “Quantitative” was officially added to the name its roots stretch back to shortly after World War II, when the U of I in 2015 as a way to expand its scope to include research in advanced the life sciences by creating the Photosynthesis Lab. This lab’s computational genomics, synthetic and systems biology, and research was known worldwide, and at the heart of the work was quantitative proteomics. biophysics, Nair says. The Photosynthesis Lab led directly to the creation “It is our hope that the new name will attract faculty who do not of a biophysics program at Illinois, which is one of the pillars of the Center normally consider themselves biophysicists, but whose research would for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology. be perfectly synchronous with those of our other faculty,” he says. "It has been very exciting to watch biophysics grow from a program to The center is a degree-granting program, with the current contingent a thriving center," says Cindy Dodds, administrative coordinator of of Ph.D. students totaling 45. Sixteen of them are in labs of faculty with biophysics. "When I began in 1994, we had a core faculty who were a primary appointment in MCB, 13 are in physics labs, eight in primarily studying photosynthesis and electrophysiology. Now our faculty engineering, seven in chemistry, and one in math. According to Nair, studies everything from single molecules to theoretical modeling." the center attracts top-quality Ph.D. students with a unique and broad Over the years, the center has become a well-traveled bridge between range of skills. engineering and life sciences. It draws on the expertise of over 40 affiliate “It’s typical for us to get a student who might be a double major in faculty members from a variety of departments, including biochemistry, astrophysics and biology,” he points out. “This kind of student usually physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, molecular and integrative wouldn’t apply to either physics or biology because they’re interested in physiology, cell and developmental biology, computer engineering, doing both.” bioengineering, microbiology, and more. More than 50 percent of the graduates go on to post-doctoral studies “I have had many wonderful students from biophysics over the years at top universities in the world, such as Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, and who have driven my research in new directions,” says Martin Gruebele, Stanford. Roughly 20 percent go into either industrial positions at places head of Department of Chemistry and James R. Eiszner Chair. “My like Dow or Indigo, or software and hardware development at such earliest biophysics student, Wei Yang, showed how proteins can fold companies as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and Lab7. Of the ‘downhill.’ He is now a faculty member at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan.” remaining students, about 15 percent go directly into academic In addition, the center has played an important role in supporting the positions or complete their medical degrees. Center for the Physics of the Living Cell (CPLC), a NSF-supported All Ph.D. students in the center are required to do two eight-week- Physics Frontier Center that emphasizes quantitative aspects of single long tutorials, and Nair says they are encouraged to do their tutorials molecules. For instance, physics professors Taekjip Ha and Oleksii with faculty completely outside of their specialty area. For instance, Aksimentiev, along with bioengineering professor Jun Song, are studying students well versed in computational biology might want to learn more how single-molecule bending of DNA affects things like genome about experimental methods, so their tutorial could take them into a lab regulation. setting. “It’s amazing that you can combine disparate experimental, theoretical, This is just another way to get students out of their comfort zone and and computational areas of expertise, and go all the way from single into a collaborative frame of mind. Nair says he saw this spirit from the molecules to whole genomes,” says Paul Selvin, a member of the CPLC. very beginning of his time at U of I. According to Nair, the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology “When I was going through my interviews for the job at Illinois, there aims to play a big role in the U of I’s new medical college, which will also were people who already wanted to collaborate with me, even before I unite engineering and life sciences. As he puts it, the center’s collaborative received the formal job offer,” he says. spirit “gives us a strength that is unassailable.” This multidisciplinary emphasis brought Nair to Illinois in 2001, and As an example of this unassailable strength, he cites the work on blood it is the reason he joined the center immediately after arriving here. clotting done by Chad Rienstra in chemistry, and Jim Morrissey and As he explains, “I knew that if I came to a campus where other people Emad Tajkhorshid in MCB. Morrissey’s lab synthesizes a phospholipid were interested in working with me, I would certainly be much more known as PS, while Rienstra’s lab analyzes the lipid’s 3D structure using successful than if I went to a campus where I was on my own.” n new approaches to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Tajkhorshid’s lab then runs computer simulations of the interaction
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 13 s e n n I
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MCBees Help Recruit, Provide Student Support, & Share the Joy of Science
Left to Right: Maryam Kademian (Microbiology), President; Mara Livezey (Biochemistry), Outreach; Amruta Bhate (Biochemistry), Academic; Nayab Abidi (Cell and Developmental Biology), First-year liason; Kirsten Eckstrum (Molecular and Integrative Physiology), Social; Omid Gholamalamdari (Cell and Developmental Biology), Treasurer. Not pictured: Pritha Rao (Microbiology), Secretary and Michelle Goettge (Microbiology) Communications. By Elizabeth Innes students, especially incoming first-year students have become members. Following are After six months of lab rotations, new MCB students; to foster relationships among the MCBees’ leadership team members, their graduate students choose a lab in one of the graduate students via social activities; and to roles/responsibilities, and their departments: four departments, Biochemistry, Cell and do outreach. • Maryam Khademian, President, Developmental Biology, Microbiology, and Microbiology grad student Maryam Microbiology Molecular and Integrative Physiology. Once Khademian proposed the idea, “we have 250 • Pritha Rao, Secretary, Microbiology settled in a department, students rarely see students here who are all potential friends,” she • Omid Gholamalamdari, Treasurer, Cell members of their cohort in other departments, thought to herself. and Developmental Biology “because you kind of get busy with your work,” “Grad school can be just as fun, and as cool, • Michelle Goettge, Communications, admits Biochemistry grad student Amruta and as amazing as my undergrad experiences if Microbiology Bhate, “and you only meet people from your we help students to know each other and to • Amruta Bhate, Academic, Biochemistry department.” make friends.” • Nayab Abidi, First-Year Liaison, Cell A group of MCB grad students decided to At the first meeting of the MCBees in and Developmental Biology do something proactive about keeping their November 2015, they chose their leadership, • Kirsten Eckstrum, Social, Molecular schoolwide cohort together. They got together working to ensure that all the departments and Integrative Physiology and started a GSA (Graduate Student were represented. In January 2016, once they • Mara Livezey, Outreach, Biochemistry Association), calling themselves the “MCBees.” became an officially registered GSA, they The MCBees also hope to do more than Their goals? To help MCB with recruitment; to started recruiting MCB grad students via just network. They have big plans for the become a source of support for graduate email. So far, around 150 of MCB’s 250 future: academic events, journal clubs, science-
14 MCB “These are actual research images, actual data from somebody’s lab, but they are also visually appealing. So you’ll have a cool image that’s also actual raw data. It has both things going for it.”
based competitions, social hours, and outreach. Amruta Bhate, in charge of academic affairs for the group, adds that they also hope to “have an early source where the incoming grad students can just contact senior students just to know how this school works.” For prospective students who could not make the first visit in February, the School scheduled an alternate weekend in mid-March. For that event, the MCBees sponsored the MCB Rapid Fire competition, in the form of elevator speeches, where entire labs or individual graduate students had three minutes to present their research to the audience. “It’s like an elevator pitch, but in a fun way,” explains Bhate. “To be catchy, it has to be general so that people from every discipline can understand it, and it has to be short, sweet, and funny.” While still a competition, the plan was that “the candidates/recruits will get an idea of the breadth of research going on.” Omid Gholamalamdari, the MCBees’ Treasurer, explains that they borrowed the idea from the Graduate College’s Research Live! competition, held for the public, during which Illinois grad students were given three minutes to talk about their research. “So this can be a Above: Lack of ESRP2 hinders kind of outreach someday if we just plan it for a proper maturation of hepatocytes. public audience,” he explains. Khademian adds Image credit: Amruta Bhate, that doing “Elevator Speeches” for the February Kalsotra Lab, Biochemistry, recruiting weekend was kind of a test run; the co-winner of the 2016 Graduate plan was to “do it on a smaller scale just to work Student Association Research out the nitty gritty details of the event, and then Image Contest. Left: we’ll eventually go big.” The pituitary is the Master Gholamalamdari even wants to do an Gland. Our gland tells your glands outreach to tackle the apprehension the general what to do. Image credit: Whitney public often feels about research. Edwards, Raetzman Lab, Molecular The MCBees also did another fun research- and Integrative Physiology, co- related event for MCB recruiting week: a winner of the 2016 Graduate research photo contest. They had students send Student Association Research Image Contest.
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 15 “We could use this as a platform to interact with other disciplines. One of the great things about Illinois is what a multidisciplinary campus this is, so we can really benefit from the other departments. “
them photos related to their research with a students in grades 1-5. They taught the fair for an Urbana Champaign Girls and Boys description, which they printed then youngsters about the different parts that make Basketball team, and more social activities such showcased during the recruitment weeks, “so up human cells, and had the students extract as a seminar and a tailgating party. recruits would actually see what’s going on,” DNA from strawberries. In addition, they set Pritha Rao, the MCBees’s secretary, explains explains Khademian. “They see what research up a microscope so the students could see live why she got involved in the MCBees, “This was actually is like.” cells moving. The group has also participated a group dedicated to represent the graduate “These are actual research images, actual in DNA day, and STEAMCation, science in students in MCB program. I thought this was a data from somebody’s lab, but they are also medieval times. good opportunity to interact with people from visually appealing,” adds Bhate. “So you’ll have The MCBees have other big plans for the the department outside the classroom setting a cool image that’s also actual raw data. It has future. For one, they hope to collaborate or and meet as individuals who are interested in both things going for it.” interact with other organizations or different various cultural, academic and outreach Some events are aimed purely at having the departments on campus, not just in MCB. In activities so that we would all have something kind of interaction Khademian dreamed of, the past, MCB did not have any student other than our research to look forward to friendship and bonding. To that end, the organization to do that; now they do. during graduate school.” McBees collaborated with the graduate college Nayab Abidi, first year liason, would also Although the MCBees have only been in to show the “The Ph.D. Movie,” and held like to take it a step further to foster existence for a few months, Rao believes “monthly happy hours for all the grad students multidisciplinary research collaboration. “We the group has begun to have an impact. in MCB as well as for the new recruits,” says don’t interact a lot with other departments like, “We have already organized a couple of events Kirstin Eckstrum, in charge of social activities. say physics or engineering…We could use this highlighting our research and an outreach event Another emphasis of the MCBees is as a platform to interact with other disciplines. with kinds from elementary school,” she says. “I outreach. According to outreach coordinator One of the great things about Illinois is what a can say that these events have helped graduate Mara Livezey, “We all do science; we all love multidisciplinary campus this is, so we can students, including me, realize the importance science. But for one reason or another, we got really benefit from the other departments. Who of the work we do and think of simpler ways to into science because someone taught it to us, knows? Maybe we can set up different describe complicated science.” n and I feel like we have to go out into the collaborations or team labs just by talking to community and teach others because, how else different people that you might not know. The can they be exposed to it really?” work that they’re doing could be beneficial for The MCBees also recently participated in what you’re doing in your lab.” Dr. Williams Elementary School’s STEM Concrete plans for 2017 include a Bio Café Night, doing two interactive activities for at the Champaign Public Library, a science
16 MCB James Spudich Receives a 2016 Alumni Achievement Award for his groundbreaking research on how we move
By Doug Peterson
The year was 1963, and the setting was Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to understand about how that movement was occurring,” he said. renowned for its summer classes in biology. A standing-room-only crowd Today, scientists around the world who study molecular motors use packed the room. James Spudich (BS, ’63, chemistry) had just finished the assay that he and his students developed from this research. his bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois, and he stood at the front In a 1994 breakthrough, Spudich’s team lowered a single actin filament of the room, wiping the blackboard in preparation for the next speaker— onto a single myosin molecule, so they could watch what happens when U of I biochemist Woody Hastings. one myosin molecule interacts with one actin. This helped open up a field As Hastings stepped up to the lectern, he suddenly threw a curve ball of biology now called “single molecule biology.” To do this work, to the crowd. He introduced his young student, Spudich, who strode up Spudich’s team built a laser trap with the help of Steve Chu, a Stanford to the podium and began giving the lecture, in Hasting’s place, to the physicist who won a Nobel Prize in 1997 for trapping atoms. (Chu also shocked audience. served as the Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2013.) “Nobody was expecting it,” Spudich recalled. Only he and Hastings The collaboration between Spudich and Chu was unique. Spudich knew the secret, and the crowd responded enthusiastically. had his team work part of the time for a year or more in Chu’s physics Spudich has gone on to become one of the most respected biochemists lab, while Chu’s physics students spent some of their time for several in the world. He credits his two years in Hastings’ lab at the U of I and years in Spudich’s lab learning biochemistry. two summers in Woods Hole, where Hastings headed the physiology This student-swapping collaboration inspired Spudich and Chu to course, as the sparks that sent him from chemistry to biochemistry. bring a new idea to Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State who Spudich made his mark with pioneering discoveries on molecular was then Stanford’s provost. They suggested to the creation of a program motors—the tiny powerhouses responsible for movement at the cellular that would bring together talent from physics, biology, chemistry, level. For this research, he has won a 2016 Alumni Achievement Award— engineering, computational sciences, and the clinical sciences. They one in a long line of honors. He also won the prestigious Albert Lasker called it Bio-X. Spudich served as its first director from 1998 to 2001, Basic Medical Research Award in 2012, an impressive honor as and today over 600 faculty members across campus are part of the Bio-X evidenced by the fact that almost half of the Lasker awardees program. subsequently won a Nobel Prize. Spudich started his first company in 1998, developing a drug that His two years in Woody Hasting’s U of I laboratory was the first makes the healthy part of a damaged heart work harder so that overall turning point in his career, followed by superb training in biochemistry heart function remains the same. A second drug aims to improve muscle and genetics at Stanford. Another turning point came during function for patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Both are in late postdoctoral research in structural biology at Cambridge University in stage clinical trials. Meanwhile, a second company, started in 2012, is England. He worked with Hugh Huxley on muscle research from 1969 to developing a drug that slows down a racing heart in patients with a 1971, setting him on the path of studying molecular motors. mutation that causes their heart muscle to overwork. Molecular motors are like microscopic automobiles, running along As for Spudich, he shows no signs of slowing down. Whenever he tracks in our cells and burning fuel called ATP. In a human muscle, the wants a break from this hectic pace, he goes to the air. He has been flying motor is called myosin, and the track is called actin. small planes for more than 40 years, and he even wrote a book on flying. In his early research, Spudich and his colleagues purified out both “You’re 1,000 feet above the ground and suddenly your whole myosin and actin and then coated microscope slides with the purified perspective changes,” he said. “You realize there are all kinds of things myosin molecules. Then, in 1986, Spudich and his Ph.D. student, Steve going on down there, and it puts perspective on the things we spend all of Kron, proved that out of the 5,000 or so proteins in a cell, you only our time worrying about. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry expressed it, ‘I fly needed these two proteins—actin and myosin—to create movement that because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.’” n was the equivalent of a muscle contraction. “This was a huge breakthrough because it simplified what you needed
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 17 Collegial Environment Set Alumnus up for Success
By Brian Wallheimer
Since 1975, Keith Westcott has felt at home at midst of rapid growth. the University of Illinois and with science. Westcott took courses in financial Westcott grew up in New Jersey, where his management to take care of his own assets and father was a biochemist for a pharmaceutical to help family. Besides his own financial well- company and his mother a librarian for the being, Westcott wanted to ensure he invested in Atomic Energy Commission. Science was in his ways that would allow him to give back to those blood, so to speak. who had given him so much, including the After his father took a new job in Kankakee, University of Illinois. Illinois, while Westcott was in high school, he set “I specifically attribute my financial well-being his sights on attending the University of Illinois, and the fact that I was able to spend time in the but he was not chosen for a spot in a lottery biotech pharmaceutical industry to my graduate required to enter a liberal arts and sciences field training in biochemistry at Illinois.” back in the 1970s during the Vietnam War. Over the years, Westcott has come back to Instead, Westcott attended the University of “I specifically attribute Illinois to teach six-week courses in biochemistry California Berkeley, where he thought about and give seminars on working in the becoming a physician. my financial well-being pharmaceutical industry to incoming students. Once again, being met with a roadblock, and the fact that I was His donations have supported several fellowships Westcott found the biology course he needed for graduate students in biochemistry, and was full, so he majored in chemistry instead and able to spend time in the Westcott makes it a point to meet with those eventually made his way toward the best of both students when he visits campus. worlds—biochemistry. biotech pharmaceutical Westcott is also a voting member of the With a bachelor’s degree in hand, Westcott industry to my graduate University of Illinois Foundation. In 2010, he was ready to move on from the volatile Berkeley received the LAS Distinguished Service Award campus of the era and had enjoyed visits to the training in biochemistry at and in 2013 the Loyalty Award for Exceptional Champaign-Urbana campus over the years to Illinois.” Alumni Service. see friends. Upon applying this time, he got in, Though he left the University of Illinois as a culminating in a doctorate in biochemistry in student long ago, Westcott said that one thing 1980. has not changed. He still feels like it is family, During those years, Westcott noticed that his and that keeps him coming back. peers in graduate school and the faculty that 1986, which, at the time, was a small startup “It allows me to feel I’m still part of the overall advised them were more than colleagues and biotechnology company. research effort even though I’m not working in a students; the collegiality amongst faculty and “That sort of environment at Illinois laboratory anymore myself,” he says. “The fact students throughout the department changed resonated with me, and that’s what it was like at that everyone’s been so welcoming and how Westcott viewed a job in a laboratory. Amgen in the early days,” he says. “I drew a lot encouraging, I appreciate that.” “Lowell Hager was department head at the of parallels and strength from that.” Westcott said he is proud of the Department time, and he used to encourage all of the Westcott was a protein chemist at Amgen, of Biochemistry today because it has kept a students, no matter who their major professor which grew to become one of the largest culture of inclusivity, a trait he attributes to the was, to interact with the rest of the professors,” biotechnology firms in the world. But early on leadership of Department Head Susan Martinis. Westcott says. “It was a good social group, and he when Westcott was there, he crowded in with “It is particularly good that Susan Martinis is was always getting up in front of us and saying other scientists at work benches. a graduate of the Biochemistry Department that you should be working hard at doing your During those years, Westcott did not work on herself. She was a few years behind me, but in science, but it should be fun at the same time.” a product that went to market. He was part of a many ways we shared the same experiences,” Scientists shared instruments and graduate collaborative team and said he’s most proud that Westcott says. “She is working to make sure that students asked questions of everyone, he said. It he helped build up the protein chemistry group. the department feels like family. It has a bright was the environment Westcott sought after he left He went from one supportive family to the next. future under her leadership.” n school and completed his postdoctoral work. Being paid partially in stock options when the After a brief stint at Alpha Therapeutics in Los company was small, Westcott was able to retire Angeles, Westcott found his fit at Amgen in early in 1999 when the company was in the
18 MCB “It gave me the skills — critical thinking, problem solving — which I think are critical to an individual’s ability to do anything today.”
Illinois Alumni Makes Lasting Mark in Physiology
By Brian Wallheimer
From his early days as an undergraduate, Instead of those bike rides into campus, Frank 1960s to support minority scientists, has been watching in amazement as Illinois professor F. R. was driving in and listening to National Public greatly expanded. There is now a travel program Steggerda demonstrated the inner workings of Radio, which regularly carried stories about that helps scientists attend the APS annual the heart and blood vessels in a dog, Martin science policy and funding in Washington, D.C. meeting, and the program supports up to a half Frank wanted to make his own mark in science. “It’s very easy to get enamored with what goes dozen pre-doctoral fellowships per year. Frank has certainly accomplished that goal, on at Capitol Hill, what goes on in the White The APS brings middle and high school though the road he took was not the one he House and how that all affects science policy,” teachers into labs during the summer and imagined. From those early days in Steggerda’s Frank says. supports an undergraduate summer research class, Frank imagined himself as a professor in a Enamored, Frank applied for a program program. Midwest town, riding a bicycle to campus with a through the National Institutes for Health that In the 1990s, the APS started publishing its brown bag lunch in his hand. He would spend his trained bench scientists in research scientific journals online and providing content time in the lab and classroom, and sometimes administration for a year. Instead of that free to the public one year after publication. under the cool shade of a tree discussing science program, however, NIH approached Frank to “We’ve carried a commitment to minority with his students. It was a lofty goal for a young become executive secretary of the physiology education and support of minorities to many of man from Chicago who came to Illinois through a section of the Division of Research Grants, our programs, and we have championed the idea scholarship program through the Western Golf where he spent seven years managing peer of expanding the reach of science by providing Association after realizing his family did not have evaluation of hundreds of funding proposals. access to our publications and being active in the means to pay for his education. During his last two years in government, classrooms,” Frank says. “When you really think Taking advantage of his opportunities, Frank Frank was also a member of the Department of about society and the world around us, we are immersed himself in physiology, earning all his Health and Human Services Senior Executive surrounded by science. We need to get as many degrees, through his doctorate in 1973, at Service Candidate Development Program. As people knowledgeable about science and get Illinois. He took positions as a teaching assistant, part of the program, he worked in the Office of them passing that enthusiasm forward.” research assistant, and pre-doctoral research Program Planning and Evaluation, Office of the Frank found that his Illinois education put trainee before going on to take postdoctoral Assistant Secretary of Health, working on him in a position to succeed in ways he never positions at the Michigan Cancer Foundation Orphan Drug legislation. In 1985, he became imagined. and Michigan State University. the executive director of the American “It gave me the skills—critical thinking, As an assistant professor at George Physiological Society (APS), a position he has problem solving—which I think are critical to an Washington University, the perfect picture in held ever since. individual’s ability to do anything today,” Frank Frank’s mind started to fade. He could not “I saw another path—a path that I thought says. “While I may not have envisioned myself afford a home close enough to campus to bike, would let me do more for my discipline. I came becoming executive director of American and there were no musings under the tree. to realize that I could do more for physiology Physiological Society (APS), I realized that I was About that time, Frank came to realize that for research in administration than I could do in the never going to win a Nobel Prize. What I’ve tried all the science he had learned in all those labs, he lab,” Frank says. to do is use those skills to create an environment had gotten another education. Through grant Over the last three decades, Frank has put where maybe someone else can win a Nobel applications, directing research programs, and particular emphasis on access to science through Prize.” n advising graduate students, Frank had become the APS. an excellent administrator. The Porter Physiology Program, started in the
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 19 Growing Blood Vessels in the Lab
Laura Niklason receives 2016 LAS Alumni Achievement Award for groundbreaking work in tissue engineering
By Doug Peterson
Laura Niklason first came up with the idea of she could find a peer group of like-minded vessel in the lab in 1997, her lab spent the next growing human blood vessels while she was budding scientists. 15 years refining the technology. This culminated doing her residency at Massachusetts General After graduating from Illinois, Niklason went in the first patients being implanted with the Hospital in the 1990s. through a combined PhD/MD program at the laboratory-grown vessels in 2012. Three and a A patient was undergoing a heart bypass—a University of Chicago, but finished her MD at half years later, the first two dialysis patients are surgery in which a physician takes a blood vessel the University of Michigan where her future still successfully using the same replacement from another part of the patient’s body and then husband was on faculty. vessels grown using Niklason’s technology. sews it on top of a clogged vessel, forming a During the third year of her anesthesia In all, a total of 60 dialysis patients in the bypass around the blockage. The problem, in this residency in 1995, she joined the laboratory of United States and Europe have now received the instance, was that doctors could not find a Robert Langer at MIT—another major turning engineered blood vessels, and an additional 175 suitable replacement vessel in either the patient’s point in her career. As she says, “At the time, his patients will receive the vessels as part of the legs or arms, so they had to go into his abdomen lab was one of the few in the country that was Phase 3 clinical trials. The vessel has proven to be to find one—not an ideal choice. exploring this new world of tissue engineering.” mechanically strong, significantly lowering both With the goal of providing a ready supply of It was while she was working in Langer’s lab the failure rate and infection rate. vessels, she created a prototype engineered blood and doing her anesthesia training that she In 2004, Niklason started a company, vessel in 1997, and in 2012 an advanced version decided, “I am going to grow a blood vessel. At Humacyte, to move the engineered blood vessels was used successfully in the first human patient. the time, it was a fantastical idea. Even my best forward. She has partnered with AlloSource, a The FDA has fast-tracked the engineered blood friends thought it was kind of funny. But I didn’t tissue procurement organization run by Tom vessel, moving it into Phase 3 human clinical know any better, so I started working.” Cycyota, a 1980 LAS alumnus in biology who trials. Meanwhile, she has also begun work on Once the vessel prototypes were developed, received the LAS Alumni Humanitarian Award finding ways to grow new lungs for she decided that for the first clinical application last year. (Niklason didn’t know about the Illinois transplantation. they would target patients who undergo dialysis connection until after they started talking about For this groundbreaking work in tissue three times a week. In preparation for dialysis, collaborating.) engineering, Niklason is a 2016 LAS Alumni doctors sew a replacement blood vessel just With engineered blood vessels showing so Achievement Award winner. under the skin. Blood is drawn out through this much success for dialysis patients, Niklason sees Niklason, a professor of anesthesia and replacement vessel, and the dialysis machine then many other possible uses for replacing tubular biomedical engineering at Yale University, grew cleans the blood, which is returned to the tissues in the body, such as the windpipe or up in the south suburbs of Chicago and says she patient’s body through the same vessel. esophagus in cancer patients. was probably seven or eight years old when she Because replacement vessels are used so When Niklason started this work in the 1990s, decided to become a doctor. heavily in dialysis and are subject to failure, they she says, “There was a tremendous amount of “I wanted to be the person who saves the day, are often made out of Teflon. But Teflon blood irrational exuberance about tissue engineering. I guess,” she recalled. vessels are much more susceptible to infection, People were saying we’re going to grow a new Niklason skipped a couple of years of school, which is why Niklason’s team wanted to replace arm in 10 years, and it’s all going to be fabulous.” so when she arrived on the University of Illinois them with bioengineered vessels that are, When that didn’t happen, the 2000s saw a campus in 1979, she was only 16 years old. basically, human tissue. To grow the new blood wave of pessimism, but work such as Niklason’s However, she said, “I didn’t feel that much vessels, Niklason and collaborators place human has ushered in a new period of cautious younger than other people.” vascular cells on a vessel-shaped scaffold, and optimism. As a 16-year-old physics major, she may have then the tissue grows into the shape of a vessel As she put it, “We are on the cusp of what I been an atypical student, but the advantage of a inside of a specialized bioreactor. think is going to be a permanent change in large school was that it was diverse enough that After developing their first successful blood medicine.” n
20 MCB GIVE to Unconventional Wisdom: Spotting HIV in the Blood
Deborah Paul receives 2016 LAS Dean’s Quadrangle Award for commitment to her family, Illinois, and her fight against devastating disease
By Doug Peterson
A mysterious ailment struck Deborah Paul’s Paul came to U of I for her master’s in 1977 after younger brother, Tim, in 1982, when lymph receiving a bachelor’s in biology from the University glands all over his body suddenly became of Wisconsin at Parkside. While she was on the swollen. He recovered, but it took two years for Illinois campus, Paul says one of the greatest doctors to finally figure out what had triggered influences on her career was the late Carl Woese, the the problem. acclaimed microbiologist who supervised her master’s In 1984, Paul’s brother developed thesis. pneumocystis pneumonia—a type of pneumonia “I had never met anybody like him,” she said. “He that was beginning to affect many men in was the most original thinker, and it was because of different parts of the country, particularly San him that I saw you could challenge ideas.” Francisco and New York. This form of Woese went on to discover an entirely new domain, pneumonia was linked to AIDS. or kingdom, of life, despite many scoffers. Likewise, Tim recovered from the pneumonia, which Paul faced similar skepticism when she began her typically killed AIDS patients. But cancer struck pursuit of a way to detect HIV in the blood. When she her brother later the same year, and in March of 1985, just two months started this work, the conventional wisdom was that HIV did not after Paul received her PhD in biochemistry, her brother passed away at circulate in the bloodstream. the age of 28. “People thought: ‘Why even bother looking for it?’” she said. In honor of her brother’s memory, LAS alumnus Paul has chosen to Undeterred, Paul set up her lab in the basement of Abbott, where she establish the Deb and Tim Paul Endowment Fund to support initially had the entire floor to herself. But being alone was heaven for University of Illinois work in infectious disease and immunology. this introverted scientist. Within a year, she had developed a test to For her commitment to her brother, her work, and the U of I, Paul is detect HIV in the blood, but skepticism outside of Abbott continued. the winner of the 2016 LAS Dean’s Quadrangle Award. When the team submitted a paper to get the technology out there, one Paul’s endowment at Illinois will eventually support a research chair, reviewer responded with four blunt words: “I don’t believe it.” but there is no one yet in that position. So, in the meantime, the U of I But the test proved to be a success and was patented in 1988. is supporting a professorship out of the endowment fund. The first Although it has since been replaced by nucleic acid tests, this initial test Deborah Paul Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology is Milan helped in the fight against HIV. Paul’s test identifies during the initial Bagchi in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. infection, and when the virus reemerges after going dormant. It was also Bagchi’s lab is deciphering the molecular genetic basis of steroid action used to monitor therapies because by monitoring viral levels in the blood that affects female reproductive tissue—work that has implications in with the test, scientists could determine if the drug was killing HIV, or if breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancers. the virus was becoming resistant to the therapy. At the time of her brother’s death, Paul had just begun her new job at In fact, by using this test to screen new potential therapies in viral Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, where she had begun looking for a way culture, Abbott Laboratories developed Norvir, the first protease to find HIV—the virus behind AIDS—in the bloodstream. One year inhibitor to target the HIV virus. The medication was approved in 1996, later, Paul succeeded, becoming the first to detect HIV in the blood. She and even today it continues to be used in combination with other drugs said she just wishes it could have been discovered in time to help her to combat AIDS. brother. Paul retired from Abbott in 2016, but she remains active as a group Deborah Paul was very close to her brother, despite having fitness instructor, teaching aerobics and toning classes, pilates, and completely opposite personalities. Paul is introverted, content to burrow barre, a ballet-based form of exercise—“ballet for the masses,” she says. away in her laboratory, while Tim was a complete extrovert. As she put In addition, she golfs three times a week, and when she travels on golf it, “Tim could walk into a room of strangers and make everyone his trips, she will often shoot 27 holes in a day. Two years ago, she even had friend.” He was also creative—writing poetry and short stories and a hole in one. playing multiple instruments. On a professional level, Paul set up the Illinois endowment to foster “He played piano beautifully and would accompany people who sang breakthroughs on intractable infectious diseases—the kind of work she professionally at different venues.” did on AIDS. But on a personal level, she said the research she is supporting takes on deeper meaning because of her brother, who was so proud of her. n
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 21 Milan Bagchi, Deborah Paul, and Stephen Sligar Faculty Member Named Deborah Paul Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Milan Bagchi’s research has provided fundamental insights in his field
Following years of groundbreaking and important research, Milan K. underlying causes of these diseases. This generous gift will help us to Bagchi, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at Illinois, has continue to pursue these translational research goals.” been named the Deborah Paul Professor of Molecular and Cellular Bagchi has been recognized previously with appointments as a Biology. University Scholar and Richard and a Margaret Romano Professorial An investiture is one of the highest honors that a faculty member can Scholar. receive, with the recipient chosen by a committee of peers. A generous gift “In addition to Dr. Bagchi’s outstanding record of translational research, from the Deb and Tim Paul Endowment Fund made this position possible. as department head, Dr. Bagchi has provided key guidance to the Bagchi earned his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, recruiting physician- of Nebraska-Lincoln and served as a professor at the Center of Biomedical scientists and key faculty hires active in translational research,” said Research of the Population Council at the Rockefeller University before Stephen G. Sligar, director of the School of Molecular and Cellular coming to Illinois in 2001. From 2008 to 2014, he served as the director of Biology. the Center for Research in Reproduction and Infertility, supported by the The position is named for Deborah Paul (MS, ’79, biology) and her late National Institutes of Health at Illinois. brother, Tim. After earning her degree at Illinois, Deborah Paul went on to Bagchi’s research has provided fundamental insights into the earn a doctoral degree and then spent 34 years at Abbott Laboratories. She mechanisms of steroid hormone action controlling mammalian authored 42 journal articles, four book chapters, 80 abstracts and has three reproduction. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in issued patents. top journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National She spent 14 years with Abbott Diagnostics doing hepatitis/retrovirus Academy of Sciences, PLoS Genetics, Development, and more. Each year research, where she pioneered HIV research. Paul also worked on he teaches a highly popular endocrinology course to more than 100 diagnostic immunoassays for hepatitis B, C, and E, and from 2005 until undergraduate and graduate students. Bagchi is also the current head of her retirement, she was director of licensing and business developments for the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. Abbott Molecular. “I am deeply touched by this honor, which recognizes the research Paul’s late brother, Tim, who died of AIDS, was a major inspiration for efforts of my team to decipher the molecular genetic basis of steroid his sister’s work. (See a profile of Paul and her brother on page 21 of this hormone action that controls cell proliferation, differentiation and immune magazine). response in female reproductive tissues,” Bagchi said. “Abnormal “I am privileged to be able to provide this gift to support the important hormonal signaling is responsible for various human diseases ranging from work of Dr. Bagchi and to play a part in continuing the academic reproductive dysfunctions and infertility to breast, ovarian and endometrial excellence at the University of Illinois while also benefiting the new College cancer. We are performing translational biomedical research in of Medicine,” said Paul. n collaboration with clinical partners to improve our understanding of the
22 MCB Susan Martinis Named Stephen G. Sligar Professorship Alumnus Kris Jenner endows the professorship in honor of his mentor at Illinois
When Susan Martinis studied at the University of Illinois as a doctoral student in the late 1980s, she had no idea that she would someday become a professor here, let alone the head of the Department of Biochemistry. Now, she has also received a professorship—one of the highest honors bestowed upon faculty at Illinois. Martinis has been named the recipient of the Stephen G. Sligar Professorship, which was created in 2016 by Dr. Kris Jenner, his wife, Dr. Susan Cumming, and his family, through the Jenner Family Fund. Professor Martinis is an internationally respected scholar in the field of RNA-protein interactions and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases whose work is most currently supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the W.M. Keck Foundation. She was a founding Kris Jenner, Susan Martinis, Stephen Sligar member of the National Institutes of Health Molecular Genetics A study section and is known for high-quality teaching and mentorship. Professor career in medicine, as well as research, which was fostered by his Martinis provides key guidance to the Department, School, College, and undergraduate research project in Sligar’s biochemistry laboratory. He University as well as critical leadership in the recruitment and mentoring credits Sligar with helping him become a Marshall Scholar, one of the most of faculty. She is currently involved in the transition to the new Carle prestigious fellowships for a college student, which enabled him to attend Illinois College of Medicine. the University of Oxford for a Master’s Degree in molecular biology. After graduating with a PhD (’90) from Illinois in Biochemistry Due to his accomplishments, he was offered the opportunity to stay on working in Dr. Sligar's laboratory, Dr. Martinis joined Paul Schimmel's for an additional year to complete a D.Phil. He then matriculated and laboratory at MIT as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow. graduated from Johns Hopkins with his medical degree and completed two Dr. Schimmel is the founder of multiple successful biotech startups and years of a general surgery residency before making the decision to pursue recruited Martinis as one of the initial members of Cubist his interest in finance. Following a successful career at T. Rowe Price as a Pharmaceuticals. Martinis left Cambridge in 1995 for the University of health care portfolio analyst and Vice President, Dr. Jenner founded Rock Houston and was recruited back to a tenured position at Illinois in 2005. Springs Capital Management, a hedge fund based in Baltimore, MD, in Since 2009, Martinis has been Head of the Department of Biochemistry 2013. and served for one year as interim Associate Dean for the Sciences in the Dr. Jenner credits his research experience as an undergraduate at Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She is currently President-Elect of as an important factor in his career successes in medicine and business, the American Association of Medical and Graduate Departments of which led him to create the Jenner Family Fund. The fund provides the Biochemistry. income to launch an annual awards program for five Molecular and A professorship is intended to encourage promising faculty to expand Cellular Biology (MCB) and Biochemistry undergraduate students to their careers at Illinois, and this one is unique as it was funded by an work in a research laboratory for the summer in order to provide the basis alumnus, Kris Jenner (BS, ’84, biochemistry), in honor of a current for a Senior Research Thesis in MCB or Biochemistry. faculty member. Sligar is a Swanlund Chair and professor of “It is an honor to recognize Dr. Martinis’ contributions to science and, biochemistry, chemistry, and biophysics and computational biology. He importantly, her dedication to teaching and mentorship,” said Dr. Jenner. also directs the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology. “Dr. Sligar’s early influence on my career was profound, and this gift Originally from Mascoutah, Illinois, Jenner came to Illinois on a reflects our family’s strong belief to give back to those whose tireless efforts football scholarship and was part of the 1983 Rose Bowl team as a are, in part, responsible for our well-being today. It is great to support the quarterback. In the classroom, however, he was inspired to pursue a career of another one of Dr. Sligar’s mentees.” n
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 23 Susan Lindquist, Scientist Who Made Genetic Discoveries Using Yeast, Dies at 67 By William Grimes, New York Times
Susan Lindquist, a molecular biologist whose genes, and there was pretty good evidence that they got conceptually daring work with yeast proteins opened turned on and off, but we didn’t know why,” she told new avenues to understanding gene functioning and The Boston Globe in 2004. “Each cell was using a degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, different set of them: How does that happen? It was died on Thursday in Boston. She was 67. pretty much a black box at the time.” The cause was cancer, her husband, Edward She focused initially on fruit-fly tissue, acting on a tip Buckbee, said. by Sarah Elgin, a junior faculty member. “She told me Dr. Lindquist devoted most of her career, first at the about this cool phenomenon in fruit flies where you can University of Chicago and later at the Whitehead see puffs on salivary gland chromosomes in response to Institute in Cambridge, Mass., to studying how heat,” Dr. Lindquist told the magazine The Scientist in proteins changed shape during cell division to carry out January. “If you labeled the salivary glands, you could genetic functions. see new proteins being made. I wondered if tissue- This process, known as protein folding, can go culture cells would make similar proteins. If so, it would awry, causing such neurological disorders as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and make molecular analysis possible.” Huntington’s chorea, as well as cystic fibrosis and some cancers. Certain After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of malformed proteins, known as prions, enlist recruits and attack the brain Chicago, she joined the university’s department of molecular biology and in the class of diseases called spongiform encephalopathies, which include began working with yeast, despite warnings by a colleague that she could Creutzfeldt-Jakob in humans and scrapie and mad cow disease in ruin her chances for tenure by switching organisms. Because she had animals. never thought tenure was a possibility in the first place, she later said, the Her research demonstrated that protein-folding errors occurred in all threat seemed moot. species and that biological changes could be passed from one generation “So this was an aspect of gender inequality that was extremely to the next through proteins alone, without the participation of RNA or positive,” Dr. Lindquist told The Scientist. “It allowed me to be fearless.” DNA—a process previously thought to be impossible. She added, “My highest aspiration then, if I did really well, was to have a “Her work has provided paradigm-shifting insights into the most basic corner of a lab and write grants under the auspice of a male professor.” aspects of cell biology, genetics and evolution,” the Genetics Society of She ended up running her own molecular genetics lab with a staff of America stated in awarding her its annual medal in 2008. 20. In 1997, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Her work with yeast proteins generated a multitude of insights into Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. neurodegenerative disease, drug resistance, cancer, evolution and prion Interviewers often expressed puzzlement that a medium as biology. In a series of experiments described in a 2006 paper in the unpromising as brewer’s yeast could be a scientific gold mine. Dr. journal Science, she and her team introduced a Parkinson’s gene into a Lindquist sympathized. yeast cell and, after testing 5,000 genes, isolated one gene with a protein “Even people in my laboratory thought we were crazy to try to study that saved the yeast cell. Later experiments with other labs were neurodegenerative diseases with a yeast cell,” she told The New York Times successful in saving the neurons of fruit flies and rats. Together the studies in 2007. “It’s not a neuron. But I thought we might be looking at a very opened a promising line of research for an eventual cure for Parkinson’s. general problem in the way proteins were being managed in a cell. And “I do a lot of what you would call high-risk, high-payoff research,” Dr. yeasts are easy to study because they are such simple cells.” Lindquist told an audience at Angelo State University in Texas in 2002. In 2001, Dr. Lindquist accepted the joint appointment of professor of “Some of my projects don’t work, but when they do work, they are pretty biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the fabulous.” Whitehead Institute, best known for its work on sequencing the human Susan Lee Lindquist was born on June 5, 1949, in Chicago. Her father, genome. She served as director until 2004. In 2010, President Obama Iver, was a tax preparer, and her mother, the former Eleanor Maggio, was presented her with the National Medal of Science. a homemaker. Dr. Lindquist lived in Cambridge. In addition to her husband, she is As a child, she conducted experiments by gathering berries and mixing survived by her daughters, Alana Buckbee and Eleanora Buckbee, known them in a bowl to see what happened when they fermented. as Nora; and her brothers, Alan and John. After graduating from Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Ill., “I have to tell you that the sheer intellectual joy of finding out how life she earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of works is really cool,” Dr. Lindquist told The Times. “This is the greatest Illinois in 1971 and a doctorate in biology from Harvard in 1976. intellectual revolution, and it is happening right now, and I’m lucky At Harvard, she became interested in the process by which genes enough to be in the middle of it.” n provided the information to create a protein. “We knew we had all these
24 MCB “Klaus Schulten was a giant amongst giants, a true pioneer, As a physicist, he made significant advances in the core programming and hardware needed to advance computational modeling of biological systems... His passing is indeed a loss to the entire scientific community”
In Memorium: Klaus Schulten
Klaus Schulten, professor of physics and Research Center for Macromolecular and hardware needed to advance Beckman Institute faculty member for nearly Modeling and Bioinformatics as well as computational modeling of biological systems. 25 years, has died after an illness. Schulten, Co-Director of the Center for the Physics In the application of these advances, Klaus who led the Theoretical and Computational of Living Cells. chose the most challenging problems to Biophysics Group, was a leader in the field of “Klaus Schulten was a cornerstone of the provide key insight into molecular function. biophysics, conducting seminal work in the Center for Biophysics since its foundation in He was a voice for the close collaboration area of molecular dynamics simulations, 1996,” said Satish Nair, director of the Center between experimentalists and theorists to illuminating biological processes and for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology. “He advance understanding that is grounded in structures in ways that weren’t possible was instrumental in nurturing Biophysics in reality. As an administration, he led numerous before. general, and Computational Biology efforts to recognize the cross-unit excellence His research focused on the structure and specifically, and helped to establish one of the in biophysics at Illinois, nationally and function of supramolecular systems in the world’s top programs. Klaus was also a internationally. His passing is indeed a loss to living cell, and on the development of non- phenomenal mentor to generations of the entire scientific community.” equilibrium statistical mechanical students and post-doctoral fellows, most of He is survived by his wife, University of descriptions and efficient computing tools for whom have gone on to set up prominent Illinois chemistry professor and physics structural biology. Schulten received his Ph.D. research labs of their own. His influence and affiliate Zan Luthey-Schulten; his daughter, from Harvard University in 1974. At Illinois, legacy to the Center was singular.” Charlotte Schulten, Glendale College he was Swanlund Professor of Physics and “Klaus Schulten was a giant amongst professor of mathematics; her husband, Dr. S. was affiliated with the Department of giants, a true pioneer, “ said Stephen Sligar, Case Bradford at the Caltech Jet Propulsion Chemistry as well as with MCB’s Center for director of the School of Molecular and Laboratory; his brother, Christoph Schulten Biophysics and Computational Biology; he Cellular Biology. “As a physicist, he made in Aachen; and his sister, Karin Balmer in was Director of the Biomedical Technology significant advances in the core programming Mainz . n
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 25 MCB GRADUATES
Doctor of Philosophy Master of Science
Biochemistry Yi Yu, Fall 2015 Microbiology Biochemistry Jason Bouvier, Summer 2015 Hanchao Zhao Maria Bautista Chavarriaga Mingxi Han Rodney Burton, Summer 2015 Courtney Cox, Summer 2015 Lingbowei Hu Salehe Ghasemper, Fall 2014 Biophysics & Quantitative Tulip Mahaseth, Summer 2015 Joseph Ly Yue Hao, Fall 2015 Biology Katie Molohon Hess, Fall 2015 Xuan Wang, Fall 2015 Carleigh Hebbard Sylvia Choi, Fall 2015 Parissa Hosseinzedah, Fall 2015 Kiran Girdhar, Summer 2015 Biophysics and Computational Biology Zhongyi Li Amanda Marciel, Summer 2015 Molecular and Gurcan Kayikcioglu, Fall 2015 Aidas Mattis David Park Integrative Physiology Laura Sloofman Daiva Mattis, Summer 2015 Joshua Vermaas Gwendolyn Humphreys, Summer 2015 Daryl Meling Hang Yu, Fall 2015 Lily Mahapatra Cell and Developmental Biology Ismaeel Muhamed, Fall 2015 Veena Chatti, Summer 2015 Ranjani Murali Cell and Developmental Neuroscience Manuel Ortega, Fall 2015 Biology Alexander Iordan Microbiology Shyamal Subramanyam Edwin Arauz Diaz, Summer 2015 Jennifer Kim Adam Kolakowski Chang Sun Derek Caetano-Anolles Patricia Weisner, Fall 2015 Seyed Torabi, Fall 2014 Yijie Geng, Summer 2015 Molecular & Integrative Physiology Richard Travers, Summer 2015 Sumanprava Giri Shayan Tabe Bordbar Padmaja Venkatakrishnan Amir Saberi, Summer 2016 Peiwen Wu, Fall 2015 Alvin Thomas Sophia Yi Undergraduate Degrees—Bachelor of Sciences
Academic Distinction Jessica Strzepka, MCB Molecular and Cellular Michelle Famakinwa Kathleen Lao, Fall 2015 Vamsi Reddy, Fall 2015 Scott Anderson, MCB, Fall 2015 Sarah Tucker, MCB, Fall 2015 Biology Venus Fan Kevin Lapp Veronica Resek Emmanuelle Asrow, MCB Nicholas Zanghi, MCB Mudassir Ali Katherine Favia, Fall 2015 Noelle Leary Lauren Rodriguez Honors Conc. Amanda Zhang, Biochemistry Megi Aliaj Gail Fernandes Joseph Leasure Karolina Roszko Connor Booker, MCB Jun Zhang, Biochemistry Tania Aguilar, Summer 2016 Eric Fernandez Ha Young Lee, Fall 2015 James Ryoo Leah Brackensick, MCB, Fall Gali Aljadeff, Summer 2016 Ellie Fishbein Taryn Lempa Bradley Ryva 2015 Natalie Allen, Fall 2015 Ryan Flanagan Chris Anthony Lingao Adwait Sadwilkar Mengqian Bu, MCB High Distinction, Sivani Aluru, Fall 2015 Alice Foltyn Hayden Lisk, Fall 2015 Wafiyyah Saiyed Albert Chang, MCB Research Ricardo Amaya Daniel Foody Jonathan Liu Manmit Sandhu Aaron Chen, MCB Vincent Abejuela, MCB Sameer Andani John Fronczak Robert Lopez Junaid Sandozi Liyushang Chou, MCB Honors Daniel Berger, MCB, Fall 2015 Harvey Andersen Jia Fu Matthew Lorenzen Samantha Schaller Conc. Alison Camden, Biochemistry Justin Ryan Andrada Andi Garcia Michael Lum, Fall 2015 David Schargorodsky Gandhar Datar, MCB Ellen Cho, Biochemistry Antonio Anima, Fall 2015 Alexander Geddes Viridiana Luna Emmalie Schoepke Michael Fassler, MCB Han Gil Jeong, MCB Elizabeth Arcan Dominic Gentile, Fall 2015 Alex Lynch Kailyn Schultz Samantha George, MCB Honors Mellissa Grana, MCB Shruthi Ashok Daniel Gillespie Keshavi Mahesh Lauren Schultz Conc. Ekaterina Gribkova, MCB Syed Atif John Goin Kathleen Maigler Karthik Seetharaman, Fall 2015 Sebastian Graca, MCB, Fall Honors Conc. Charles Ayemoba Felisha Gonzalez Felipe Maldonado Leslie Semeraro, Fall 2015 2015 Kevin Grudzinski, MCB Suleiman Ayoub Michael Gonzalez, Fall 2015 Sean Malone, Fall 2015 Jangho Seo Jennifer Grage, MCB, Fall 2015 Farid Kadyrov, MCB Jonathan Bacos Sravya Gourishetti Fateemah Manasra Darsh Shah Ryan Gundersen, MCB Wiktoria Kasprzyk, MCB Kamil Bajan Dylan Grillaert Bridget Mancini Jay Shah Bredesen Hartmann, MCB, Fall Jason Lamano, MCB Sarah Bakir Elizabeth Grogan Julianna Marqui Parth Shah, Fall 2015 2015 Wangsoo Lee, MCB Yesha Banaji Mercedes Grove, Fall 2015 Elizabeth Marr Sahil Shah, Fall 2015 Sarah Imran, MCB Andrew McInerney, MCB Ian Barnes, Fall 2015 Patricia Grzyb Joseph Marsek Robert Shepard Ayana Jamal, MCB, Fall 2015 Ashabari Mukherjee, MCB, Fall Khatereh Behrokh Stephanie Guan Victoria Marshall, Fall 2015 Michael Sheu, Fall 2015 Wangsoo Lee, MCB 2015 Patrick Benassi, Fall 2015 Jessica Gubala Derrick Mathy Jihoon Shin Michelle Leong, MCB, Fall 2015 Alay Parikh, MCB Jacob Bennick, Fall 2015 Anushrav Gulati Keegan McAuliffe, Fall 2015 Connor Simutis Michael Leventhal, MCB Jeonghun Park, MCB Zachariah Bertels Hannah Gutzwiller Mary McCarthy LaTosha Singleton Honors Conc. Jamie Perry, MCB Riya Bhavsar Arielle Guzman Laura McElheny Caroline Skibinski Abhijith Matur, MCB Honors Justin Podowski, MCB Prem Bheda, Summer 2016 Kevin Ha Mitchell McShane Tatiana Skylar Conc. Aditya Ravindra, MCB, Fall Dylan Blaha Despina Hadjiagapiou Aakaash Meduri Keisha Smith Michael McGrath, MCB 2015 Angelo Blancaflor Syed Haider Denghui Mei Jennifer Solloway Andia Mitri, MCB, Fall 2015 Samantha Reed, MCB Lindsey Block, Fall 2015 Mohammed Hamad, Summer Alexis Miles Jack Soneson Brett Nelson, MCB Honors Wilhelm Salmen, MCB Brittany Blum 2016 Josef Miller Wenjun Song, Summer 2016 Conc. Stacy Sons, MCB Cory Bockenhauer, Fall 2015 Raia Hamad, Fall 2015 Hanlin Mok Amanda Span Shannon O'Brien, MCB Amanda Sul, MCB Trevor Boensch, Fall 2015 Emily Hamm Yanis Mokraoui Katie Springer Michael Pajor, MCB Robert Thompson, MCB Beau Bonham Jane Han Cassandra Mora Shivani Srivastava Jeonghun Park, MCB Kevin Yu, MCB Megan Booe Sean Haney Sidra Murtaza, Fall 2015 Ariel Stateman Akash Patel, MCB, Fall 2015 Jamie Zhu, MCB Steven Bowden Sheeri Hanjra, Fall 2015 Clayton Myers Hannah Stein Ricky Patel, MCB Natasha Braun, Fall 2015 Kent Hanson Kenya Nagasaka, Fall 2015 Andrew Storm Ana Petracovici, MCB Distinction, Research Mariaelana Brenner Nadia Hatoum Chandresh Nandani, Fall 2015 Seung Wan Suh Madison Havel, Fall 2015 Pavan Kumar Narendrula Faten Suhaidi Allison Schartman, MCB Kimberly Allen, MCB Nickolas Broches, Fall 2015 Rachel Heiberger, Fall 2015 Miles Norsworthy Alec Swartz, Summer 2016 Parshva Shah, MCB Honors Burak Cetin, MCB Eric Brown Stephanie Hein Christina Nowicki Marlena Taube Conc., Fall 2015 Camille Garcia, MCB Stephanie Brust Michael Heldak, Fall 2015 Samantha O'Connor Janki Thakkar Dillon Svoboda, MCB, Fall 2015 Gregory Harpring, MCB Ana Bulaja Lucas Helliker Ramel Odisho, Fall 2015 Vrajika Thakker Robert Tsang, MCB, Fall 2015 Mary Hong, MCB Danielle Burkley Matthew Hensen Benjamin Olivari Philip Thomas Sarah Tucker, MCB, Fall 2015 Cole Lewis, MCB Honors Conc. Arminius Caldwell Norma Hernandez Aaron Oraham Megan Thompson Gage Winger, MCB Jeremy Quinones, MCB Honors Lukas Campe Janell Herrera Grace Overturf Alexis Thorstenson Gerald Wu, MCB Conc. Stefani Canadzic, Summer 2016 Sharell Hicks Michael Padish, Fall 2015 Ana Tinoco Martinez Stephanie Youssef, MCB, Fall Hao Sun, Biochemistry Megan Carson Sulzer Kyle Hirschfelder Sasirekha Pandravada Vincent Tir 2015 Carlos Vega, MCB Karina Castro Daniel Ho Artiben Parikh Lam Tran Omar Zaki, MCB, Fall 2015 Lucy Wan, MCB, Fall 2015 Daniel Cesario Kyle Chamberlain Matthew Holaday Jennifer Park Margaret Tran, Fall 2015 Zachary Holmbeck Olivia Park Michelle Tran Highest Distinction, Molecular and Cellular John Chan Crystal Chang Aaron Hong Simon Park Raphaella Tran Research Biology Honors Angela Hong Benjamin Parker, Fall 2015 Christine Troscinski Oludemilade Akinrotimi, MCB, Jeffery Chang Concentration Alekha Charles Jingling Hou Jay Patel, Fall 2015 Stephen Tse Fall 2015 Guanglin Chen Kevin Huang Mikita Patel, Fall 2015 Scott Tyrrell Madison Barker, MCB Daniel Chavez Andrew Knapp Caiming Chen Henry Huynh Monal Patel Ashay Vaidya Jesse Black, MCB Krishna Kudaravalli Ikenna Ifearulundu Neel Patel, Fall 2015 Ron Vidri Philip Cannizzaro, MCB Xuankang Chen Sarah Osmulski Sally Chhuon, Fall 2015 Christina Im Neil Patel Dominique Vittori Yanbo Chen, Biochemistry Aaron Ruderman Ericson Imarenezor Nisha Patel Suchi Vohra Gandhar Datar, MCB Agnieszka Chmielowski Swetapadma Tripathy Vaishali Chundi Morgan Ivy Prayag Patel Qi Wang Austin Deets, Biochemistry Akshay Jain Prianca Patel Shuwei Wang, Fall 2015 Caitlin Dingwall, MCB, Fall Adrienne Chung Biochemistry, Nicole Cinquino Kiley Janas Twinkle Patel Xiaodan Wang 2015 Seung Jang Olivia Pattelli Matthew Weber Diana Fan, MCB Specialized Curriculum Brittany Cline Joshua Choi Alicia Cobbold Camille Johnson Agnieszka Pawlowska Michael Weisshappel Jennifer Grage, MCB, Fall 2015 Tressa Joy Jessica Pesavento, Fall 2015 Michael White, Fall 2015 Ayana Jamal, MCB, Fall 2015 Frank Gambino Jr. Jessica Corral Lijo Luka Christian Crawford Esther Ju Katelyn Peters Christopher Witek Valerie Jaroenpuntaruk, Jacob Kacmar Caleb Pflederer Connie Woo Biochemistry Jessica Mattick Michelle Dai Kelly Mehan Zachary Daniels, Fall 2015 Tejasvini Kapa Dorothy Pham Hyung Woo, Fall 2015 George Mastorakos, Daniel Kim Isaac Philip Lance Workman, Fall 2015 Biochemistry Linda Nguyen Manthan Dave Michael Schaible Mitali Dave Kyung-Youn Kim, Fall 2015 Heinrich Pinardo Brennen Wright Abhijith Matur, MCB Honors Michael J Kim, Fall 2015 Jessica Poad Jessica Wrobel Conc. Cameron Shahnazi Omar Dawood Bradley Smith Taylor DeSanto, Summer 2016 Jeffrey Kinka Maria Poonawalla, Fall 2015 John Yi, Fall 2015 Michael Pajor, MCB Kyungwon Ko Hannah Proctor Kyle Young Megan Patton, MCB Honors Francois-Marc Truc Sopirinye Diri Gina Yoo John Doyle, Fall 2015 Rachel Kohn William Provosty Al-Yazeed Yousef Conc. Steven Krauklis Phillip Quach Evan Zaucha Robert Pipal, Biochemistry Shawn D'Souza Paul Dudek Lauren Kunkel, Fall 2015 Vibhish Raghuraman Carlos Zavala Edrees Rashan, Biochemistry Oleksiy Kyrychenko Christian Ramos, Summer 2016 Kirsten Zborek Allyson Ray, MCB Karen Duenas Ruiz, Fall 2015 Alicia Esparza Thomas Laabs Arnav Rana Jiaren Zhang John Rouck, MCB Nasli Lane Rickia Raspberry Katherine Zitello
26 MCB SUPPORT THE MCB FAMILY
Biochemistry alumni and faculty are engaged Microbiology lies at the heart of the biological in interdisciplinary research in medicine, sciences. The recent awareness that host- community health, the environment, social associated microbes, the “microbiome,” play policy, and industry. We are committed to vital roles in modulating human health maintaining an exceptional record via underscores the relevance of microbiology. groundbreaking discoveries and superb training Moreover, microbiology is also key to of scholars in our classrooms and laboratories. understanding climate change, green The main academic mission of the chemistry, geology, animal health, and agriculture. School of Molecular and Cellular Biology is the management and advancement of the undergraduate major. Each year we graduate nearly 500 majors with the Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology. We’re one of the Department of Cell and Developmental Molecular and Integrative Physiology Biology faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers explore topics ranging from largest majors at the University, and and staff research interactions among molecular function to whole animal integration have an established, outstanding molecules, macromolecules, and to understand how thousands of encoded macromolecular machines giving rise to living proteins serve to bring about the highly track record of preparing students for cells. Our mission includes applying basic cell coordinated behavior of cells and tissues professional and academic careers. In and molecular biological research to the underlying physiological functions, and how understanding and treatment of human their dysfunction may lead to diseases such as addition, the school works closely with disease as well as new biotechnology cancer, diabetes, obesity, neurological its four departments in managing our applications. disorders, and infertility. graduate-level programs. With over 15,000 alumni, we’re proud of our graduate family and want to keep in Give online: mcb.illinois.edu/giving close contact. Our future is dependent Your gifts support general and specific programs in research, on the generosity of our graduates, and teaching, training, and public service, at the school or we welcome your contributions to the departmental level. To express interest and to make a school and departments, each of which tax-deductible donation to the MCB General Fund and/or offers a unique and excellent mission. funds in each of the four MCB departments, please visit mcb.illinois.edu/giving. You can also contact Assistant Director of Development Trent Reed, [email protected], (217) 300-4462, to discuss making a donation. Every gift helps maintain the excellence of MCB.
Your financial support is deeply appreciated.
SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 27 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Molecular and Cellular Biology Nonprofit org. U.S. postage 393 Morrill Hall PAID 505 South Goodwin Avenue Champaign, IL Permit no. 75 Urbana, IL 61801 mcb.illinois.edu