Celebrating the Protein Data Bank
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Vol. 20 / No. 3 / March 2021 Celebrating the Protein Data Bank INSIDE: A STEADY HAND AT THE HELM 26 | A FOND FAREWELL 44 Don’t forget to renew your ASBMB membership! Over the past 100 years, the ASBMB has grown and changed with the times to become the supportive community of discoverers that it is today. ASBMB members are driven to better understand what makes life work. With patience, perseverance and insatiable curiosity, and through collaboration and hard work, we seek to uncover the secrets of life. Thank you for your membership. If you need to renew your ASBMB membership, you can do so here: society.asbmb.org/SignInRenew CONTENTS NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2 26 44 EDITOR’S NOTE A STEADY HAND AT THE HELM TRIBUTES TO BARBARA GORDON, One year later ASBMB EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 32 2004–2021 3 MEMBER UPDATE 55 FIVE QUESTIONS 7 32 JBC HERBERT TABOR EARLY CAREER Melissa Starovasnik: “The pleasure of my life” IN MEMORIAM INVESTIGATOR AWARDS CELLULOSE SYNTHASE BY DAVID S. GOODSELL, RCSB PDB DOI:10.2210/RCSB_PDB/MOM_2021_2 CELLULOSE SYNTHASE BY DAVID 33 Arrieta follows the heart to find We talked to Protein Data Bank a protein function 10 co-founder Helen Berman about the NEWS 34 Burke expands frontiers and maintains PDB50 celebration coming up in May. 10 Celebrating the Protein Data Bank balance in RNA research 13 Meet our inaugural MOSAIC scholars 35 Experimenting with recipes 15 Transport of O-palmitoleated Wnts: and signaling proteins Where does the lipid go? 36 Challenged by a pandemic, Harbig pursues a new approach to treating flu 17 37 Kountz tracks methyls in microbe JOURNAL NEWS metabolism 17 The protein defects that cause 38 I smell a winner: Linking plant Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease olfactory stimuli to genetic regulation 19 A novel approach to septic shock 39 JLR JUNIOR AEs SESSION 21 From the journals 40 MCP HOSTS EARLY-CAREER RESEARCHER SESSION 10 41 Branon works to break barriers in science and higher education 42 Decoding organ communication systems 43 Understanding cellular function to understand life 13 44 19 33 55 MARCH 2021 ASBMB TODAY 1 EDITOR’S NOTE Vol. 20 / No. 3 / March 2021 THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY One year later FOR BIOCHEMISTRYOFFICERS ANDCOUNCIL MOLECULAR MEMBERS BIOLOGY Suzanne Barbour Toni M. Antalis President Joan Broderick By Comfort Dorn OFFICERS CharlesCOUNCIL Craik MEMBERS Gerald Hart Gerald Hart MattSquire Gentry J. Booker Past President President SusannaVictoria Greer J. DeRose he last time I ate a meal inside for Biochemistry and Molecular Wei Yang Blake Hill Jennifer DuBois Audrey Lamb a restaurant was March 12, Biology office closed, and the society’s Secretary Audrey Lamb Secretary JamesJames M. M. Ntambi Ntambi 2020. I use the word “restau- annual meeting was canceled. Because Joan Conaway T Takita Felder Sumter Toni M. Antalis Celia A. Shiffer Treasurer rant” loosely because I was at Dulles most of our members lacked access Treasurer KellyTakita Ten–Hagen Felder Sumter Kelly Ten-Hagen International Airport in Virginia to their office mail, we didn’t print JoAnn Trejo EX-OFFICIOEX-OFFICIO MEMBERS MEMBERS ASBMB TODAY EDITORIAL grabbing a sandwich and a beer three issues of this magazine. Shortly ADVISORY BOARD RobertRobert S. HaltiwangerS. Haltiwanger before an overnight flight to Am- before the shutdown, we learned that RajiniASBMB Rao TODAY EDITORIAL CarlaCarla Koehler Koehler ChairADVISORY BOARD sterdam – where I was to meet my the ASBMB’s three journals would Co-chairs,Co-chairs, 2020/2021 2020 Annual Annual AnaRajini Maria Rao Barral MeetingMeeting Program Program Committee Committee daughter and her family for a fun be going open access. Somehow, that Chair Cheryl Bailey Natasha Brooks Cheryl Bailey trip to see friends on a Greek island. had to happen with almost everyone Chair, Education and Professional KellyFloyd Chacón “Ski” Chilton Chair, Education and Henrik Dohlman Development Committee Beronda Montgomery You can guess what happened working from home. Professional Development Peter J. Kennelly DanielCommittee Raben next. Since then, the way we do BillBeronda Sullivan Montgomery Chair, Meetings Committee Daniel Raben MelissaA. Maureen Vaught Rouhi Amsterdam locked down. We everything has shifted, layered with all Chair, MeetingsSonia Committee Flores BinksMelissa Wattenberg Vaught Chair, Minority Affairs canceled our island trip. Daycare the ordinary changes of work and life Sonia Flores Binks W. Wattenberg Committee Chair, Minority Affairs ASBMB TODAY was closed, so I spent the next 10 and coping. I got a new hip in July. Nicole Woitowich Committee AngelaASBMB Hopp TODAY days trying to keep my 2-year-old My younger daughter got engaged Chair, Science Outreach and ExecutiveAngela Editor Hopp CommunicationSusannna Committee Greer granddaughter out of her par- in August. My mother turned 90 in Chair, Public Outreach [email protected] Editor Terri Goss Kinzy [email protected] ents’ hair while they attempted to September. My grandson was born in Committee Comfort Dorn Chair, Public Affairs Comfort Dorn Matthew S. Gentry Managing Editor do their jobs remotely, all of us November. Advisory Committee Managing Editor Chair, Public Affairs [email protected] [email protected] crammed into their tiny Dutch The ASBMB (along with everyone AdvisoryEd Eisenstein Committee Chair, Membership Committee LaurelJohn Oldach Arnst house. I panicked briefly when Pres- else) learned to exist and thrive Sandra Weller Science Writter Susan Baserga Science Writer Chair, Publications [email protected]@asbmb.org ident Trump announced that U.S. online, and the crowning result will Chair, Women in BiochemistryCommittee and Molecular Biology Ed LaurelMarklin Oldach citizens who were overseas would be a virtual annual meeting in April. Lila CommitteeM. Gierasch WebScience Editor Writter not be allowed back home, but We’ve seen a lot of staff changes, Editor-in-chief, JBC [email protected]@asbmb.org Sandra Weller Ed Marklin A. L. Burlingame otherwise I had fun teaching little culminating with the retirement in Chair, Publications AllisonWeb EditorFrick CommitteeEditor, MCP Multimedia [email protected] and Social Media Penelope how to make biscuits and February of Barbara Gordon, our NicholasLila M. O. Gierasch Davidson ContentAllison Manager Frick taking her on walks to all the nearby longtime executive director (see page [email protected] Editor-in-chief,Editor-in-chief, JBC JLR Media Specialist playgrounds. We ordered carryout 44), and the selection of Steve Miller A. L.Kerry-Anne Burlingame Rye [email protected] F. MIller Editor-in-chief,Editor, MCP JLR ExecutiveBarbara Director Gordon food from the suddenly shuttered to take on that position (see page 26). [email protected] Director restaurants in their neighborhood. I All these changes have happened Nicholas O. Davidson [email protected] Editor-in-chief, JLR learned that in seven months I was in the flat, surreal twilight of online Kerry-Anne Rye going to have a second grandchild. existence. I have to wonder how Editor-in-chief, JLR That trip seems so long ago. different everything will feel next ForFor information information on on advertising, advertising, contact contact Pharmaceutical Pharmaceutical Back then, only a few people were March when (fingers crossed) we can Media Inc. at 212-904-0374 or [email protected]. Media Inc. at 212-904-0374 or [email protected]. wearing masks or distancing at the all be in the same room again. airports. A handful of folks had donned what appeared to be dispos- able hazmat suits, but I dismissed Comfort Dorn (cdorn@ www.asbmb.org/asbmbtodaywww.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday them as outliers. When I returned asbmb.org) is the managing PRINT ISSN 2372-0409 editor of ASBMB Today. Follow PRINT ISSN 2372-0409 to Dulles, a nice man took my tem- her on Twitter @cdorn56. perature, asked me if I felt OK and ArticlesArticles published published in ASBMB in ASBMB Today Today reflect reflect solely solely the authors’the authors’ views viewsand not theand official not the official positions positionsof the American of the SocietyAmerican for BiochemistrySociety for Biochemistry and Molecular and told me to stay home for two weeks. BiologyMolecular or Biologythe institutions or the institutions with which with the authorswhich the are authors affiliated. are affiliated. Mentions of productsMentions or of services products are or not services endorsements. are not endorsements. Meanwhile, the American Society 2 ASBMB TODAY MARCH 2021 MEMBER UPDATE Rylaarsdam becomes associate director to director of the complexes involved in responding Vanderbilt Center for Structural to encounters with, and reversing, provost of Bethel University Biology. She took over at the start of DNA damage Geneticist Robin Rylaarsdam, January. as well as innate who until recently was the dean of The center for structural biology immune responses arts and sciences at Saint Xavier Uni- that Lacy now leads was founded in to pathogenic versity in Chicago, has been named 1999. Walter Chazin, the founding organisms. provost of Bethel University, an evan- director who led the center for 21 Chazin earned gelical Christian university in St. Paul, years, said, “The center was designed his Ph.D. at Con- Minnesota, after a national search. As and built around what was then an cordia University CHAZIN provost, she will oversee the education avant-garde concept of integrating in Montreal and of all students and coordinate between all structural