March 2018 Asbmb Today 1 Editor’S Note
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CONTENTS NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2 18 48 EDITOR’S NOTE MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS: RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT Not crying wolf UNKNOWN CAUSE. A love of teaching and the chemistry of living organisms 3 NO CURE. NEW HOPE NEWS FROM THE HILL 32 50 Appropriations season — FROM A BAVARIAN BACCALAUREATE OUTREACH what we want and how to help TO BACTERIAL BLEACH Sparking the flame of science 4 36 52 NEWS ESSAY Member update 2018 TABOR AWARD WINNERS Leadership: the sock’s-eye view 9 44 WHAT TO WEAR 54 LIPID NEWS WHEN SCIENCE MEETS SICKNESS The state of the lipid research community — AT THE ANNUAL MEETING improving grant review Science prepared me for cancer treatments, but nothing prepared me for surviving 10 JOURNAL NEWS 18 52 10 miRNAs take the wrecking ball to colorectal cancer 12 When HIV drugs don’t cooperate 13 A rare blood disease can teach us about blood clotting 14 Charting the mitochondrial interactome 15 From the journals 12 15 54 WHEN SCIENCE MEETS SICKNESS MARCH 2018 ASBMB TODAY 1 EDITOR’S NOTE THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Not crying wolf By Comfort Dorn OFFICERS COUNCIL MEMBERS Natalie Ahn Squire J. Booker President Victoria J. DeRose Wayne Fairbrother ave you ever felt sick enough ovary syndrome — and the subject of Gerald Hart Rachel Green President Elect Blake Hill that you thought you should this month’s cover story: the almost see a doctor — made an unpronounceable myalgic Jennifer DuBois Susan Marqusee H Secretary Celia A. Shiffer appointment, took time off work, encephalomyelitis. Takita Felder Sumter hired a babysitter, spent an hour As Lily Williams reminds us in her Toni M. Antalis JoAnn Trejo Treasurer thumbing through ancient magazines feature story on page 18, ME used ASBMB TODAY EDITORIAL in the waiting room — only to be to go by the less accurate “chronic EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS ADVISORY BOARD told (implicitly or explicitly) that fatigue syndrome.” For years, it has Jin Zhang Rajini Rao you’re exaggerating, that it’s all in languished, with research that went Wilfred van der Donk Chair Co-chairs, 2018 Annual Charles Brenner your mind? Or the result of your bad, nowhere and patients disrespected. It Meeting Program Past Chair sloppy living habits? Or not really a mostly strikes women (though plenty Committee Ana Maria Barral big deal and it will go away soon? of children and some men get it), and Cheryl Bailey Floyd “Ski” Chilton If you’re nodding along, chances it’s difficult to diagnose and almost Chair, Education and Henrik Dohlman Professional Development Peter J. Kennelly are you’re female. impossible to treat. It’s finally getting Committee Beronda Montgomery There’s plenty of evidence — a bit of attention from the National Daniel Raben A. Maureen Rouhi enough that all those doctors should Institutes of Health, with $7 million Chair, Meetings Committee Melissa Vaught Binks W. Wattenberg be pretty embarrassed by now — that in targeted funding for four research Sonia Flores women are at greater risk for certain centers. Chair, Minority Affairs Committee ASBMB TODAY conditions that cause pain (migraines, I first heard of chronic fatigue Angela Hopp Susannna Greer for starters) and that they are treated in an interview with the author Executive Editor, Chair, Public Outreach [email protected] less aggressively for pain than men. Lauren Hillenbrand, who described Committee Comfort Dorn For the medical profession, I’m researching and writing her bestseller Matthew S. Gentry Managing Editor, sure it’s complicated. With insur- “Seabiscuit” while lying flat on her Chair, Public Affairs [email protected] Advisory Committee ance companies breathing down their back. That stuck in my mind because, John Arnst Amnon Kohen Science Writer, necks, doctors feel pressure to move although words are my job, even on Chair, Publications [email protected] patients in and out quickly. Like the my best day I have trouble stringing Committee Valery Masterson mechanic who can’t find the source them together. And Hillenbrand is no Designer, Lila M. Gierasch of that funny noise your car makes, outlier. A quick internet search shows Editor-in-chief, JBC [email protected] Ed Marklin a doctor might get impatient with that famous sufferers range from Flor- A. L. Burlingame Web Editor, Editor, MCP [email protected] someone who doesn’t have a clear-cut, ence Nightingale to musicians Randy Edward A. Dennis Allison Frick diagnosable and treatable problem. Newman and Cher to U.S. soccer star Editor-in-chief, JLR Media Specialist, So they put it back on the patient Michelle Akers. [email protected] William L. Smith or imply that if they can’t find it, it’s When I think of Lizzie Mooney, Editor-in-chief, JLR Barbara Gordon Executive Director, probably no big thing. the 12-year-old Illinois girl in Wil- [email protected] Part of this is undoubtedly plain liams’ story who has been terribly sick old garden-variety sexism. We’ve with ME for a quarter of her life, it For information on advertising, contact Pharmaceutical made some progress in gender equity, makes me wish doctors were more Media Inc. at 212-904-0374 or [email protected]. but men’s bodies are still regarded willing to listen to and believe their as the norm in many aspects of patients — and to admit they still life, including health. Much about don’t have all the answers. women, including their pain, remains a side note. In addition, the diseases www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday that are difficult or impossible to Comfort Dorn PRINT ISSN 2372-0409 diagnose — those for which telltale ([email protected]) is managing markers have yet to be found — seem Articles published in ASBMB Today reflect solely the authors’ views and not editor of ASBMB Today. Follow her the official positions of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular largely to afflict women. Fibromyal- on Twitter @cdorn56. Biology or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated. Mentions of products or services are not endorsements. gia, autoimmune disorders, polycystic 2 ASBMB TODAY MARCH 2018 NEWS FROM THE HILL Appropriations season — what we want and how to help By Benjamin Corb s the calendar turns to March, last year. Committee’s March 9 training webi- appropriations season begins on Funding increases at this level are nar on how to write an op-ed piece A Capitol Hill and advocates from not easy to come by. First, legislators (check the policy blog for details). every constituency kick their efforts responsible for determining budget Legislators and their staffs read local into high gear. The American Society levels must account for mandated papers to stay in touch with the issues for Biochemistry and Molecular Biol- caps to federal spending that have important to their constituents back ogy is no different, and we enter this been in place since 2011. These caps home. There is no better way to build spring with an invigorated interest limit the total amount of federal support for investments in your work in increasing the research budgets at spending authorized in a particular than telling the people and politi- the National Institutes of Health, the year for all discretionary funding. cians in your community about the National Science Foundation and The ASBMB has long been a proud impact your research might have on the Department of Energy’s Office of supporter and leader of Nondefense their lives. We urge ASBMB members Science. For fiscal year 2019, we are Discretionary United, a coalition of across the country to draft and pub- calling on Congress to increase federal federal, state and local organizations lish opinion pieces in local newspa- investments in the life sciences by 8 that have called for the raising of caps pers during the month of March. percent at all agencies. Particularly of on nondefense discretionary federal Writing an op-ed letter too much interest to the ASBMB community is spending, where the overwhelming work? Visit asbmb.org/advocacy for that this would mean an increase of majority of federal funds for science sample tweets and letters that you $2.6 billion to the NIH, $600 million come from. The ASBMB, NDD can personalize and share to tell your to the NSF and $430 million to the United and thousands of other groups representatives about the support you DOE’s Office of Science. have been working for years with need. Share your experiences with us The increases we are looking for congressional leaders on both sides of at [email protected]. We’ll fea- extend beyond the annual biomedi- the aisle to #RaiseTheCaps success- ture your tweets, letters and op-eds on cal research and development price fully three times, most recently in index inflationary rate of 2.2 percent. the current budget deal, which has our blog and spread the word about This accounts for inflation and also raised spending caps into fiscal year the important role you play in help- provides new dollars to increase 2019 — and we must continue to ing us to secure these much-needed funding rates across all three agencies. do so to ensure there is room in the funding increases this year. We look These increases are critical not only federal budget for increases in science forward to working with you. to ongoing research efforts but also to investments. create funding opportunities for new Legislators also must understand scientists beginning their careers, a that an increased investment in sci- Benjamin Corb constituency of the research com- ence is vital to their constituents and ([email protected]) is director of munity the NIH has been looking to to the nation. This is where we need public affairs at the ASBMB.