I t ’ s N o t t oo Late to Jo in U s in a N a h e I m March 2010 The Many Roles of the Na,K-ATPase American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology September 30 – October 4, 2010 Registration and Abstract Submission Deadline: August 1, 2010 Transcriptional Regulation by Chromatin and RNA Polymerase II Granlibakken Resort, Tahoe City, CA Meeting Organizer: Ali Shilatifard, Stowers Institute for Medical Research Keynote Speaker: Robert E. Kingston, Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Plenary Speakers: Paul Kaufman, University of Massachusetts Yang Shi, Harvard University Medical School Karen Adelman, National Institute of Brian Strahl, University of North Carolina at Environmental Health Sciences Tom Kerppola, University of Michigan School Chapel Hill of Medicine Mark Bedford, MD Anderson Cancer Center Ali Shilatifard, Stowers Institute for Medical Tony Kouzarides, Gurdon Institute Research Shelley Berger, University of Pennsylvania W. Lee Kraus, Cornell University Ramin Shiekhattar, The Wistar Institute Joan Conoway, Stowers Institute for Medical Nevan Krogan, University of California, Research San Francisco David Stillman, University of Utah School of Medicine Jacques Cote, Laval University Cancer Robb Krumlauf, Stowers Institute for Medical Research Center Research Raymond Trievel, University of Michigan Medical School Joaquin Espinosa, HHMI / University of Mike Levine, University of California, Berkeley Colorado at Boulder Dylan Taatjes, University of Colorado Anders Naar, Harvard Medical School Jean-Marc Egly, Inst Genet et Biol Mol et Michael Washburn, Stowers Institute for Cell Danesh Moazed, Harvard University Medical Research Peggy Farnham, University of California, Barbara Myer, University of California, Johnathan Whetstine, MGH Cancer Center Davis Berkeley and Harvard Medical School Grace Gill, Tufts University Frank Pugh, University of Pennsylvania Jerry Workman, Stowers Institute for Medical Research Steven Hanes, Wadsworth Center Joe Reese, University of Pennsylvania Julia Zeitlinger, Stowers Institute for Medical Research www.asbmb.org/TranscriptionalRegulation2010 contents March 2010 On the cover: From neurons to sperm and muscle, Jerry Lingrel society news has characterized Na,K- 2 President’s Message ATPase function. 18 5 Washington Update 6 News from the Hill 10 ASBMB Creates the Stadtman Award Two new 11 ASBMB Introduces publications the DeLano Award from FASEB. 5 12 Member Spotlight 14 Retrospective: Paul C. Zamecnik (1912 – 2009) 16 JBC Thematic Series Breaks Down Proteases 2010 annual meeting 17 Professional Development at the Annual Meeting feature stories 18 Jerry Lingrel: Pumping Out Great Science in every issue 22 Education ASBMB introduces two new meeting 24 Minority Affairs awards. 10, 11 26 Meetings 28 BioBits 30 Career Insights asbmb today online Have you seen the new ASBMB Today Web 32 Lipid News site? It has features that allow you to comment on articles, share content on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites and access podcasts, videos and more. Check it out at www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday March 2010 ASBMB Today 1 president’smessage A monthly publication of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Plus the Secret Officers Gregory A. Petsko President Suzanne R. Pfeffer President-Elect Handshake Mark A. Lemmon Secretary Merle S. Olson Treasurer By Gregory A. Petsko Council Members Dafna Bar-Sagi Ruma V. Banerjee Benjamin F. Cravatt Joan A. Steitz apprentice |ah-pren-tiss|, noun Thomas E. Smith Ann M. Stock a person who is learning a trade from a skilled employer, James A. Wells Adrian Whitty having agreed to work for a fixed period at low wages Ex-Officio Members Ellis Bell postdoc |pohst-dock|, noun Chair, Education and Professional Development Committee a person doing the sam e thing, only for lower wages Joan W. Conaway Chair, Meetings Committee grad student |gr-add stoo-dent|, noun John D. Scott Chair, Membership Committee a person doing the same thing for almost no wages at all Craig E. Cameron Chair, Minority Affairs Committee Laurie S. Kaguni hen I was a graduate student at Oxford University, 40 years ago, I learned 2010 Annual Meeting Program Coordinator Whow to crystallize proteins, collect X-ray diffraction data, program comput- William C. Merrick Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee ers and solve protein crystal structures. When I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Toni M. Antalis Chair, Publications Committee Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique in Paris, I learned how to stabilize proteins in Herbert Tabor solution at subzero temperatures and perform kinetic analysis of enzyme reactions Editor, JBC Ralph A. Bradshaw under conditions that could trap productive intermediates. A. L. Burlingame Then, I went to Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit as an Co-editors, MCP Edward A. Dennis instructor in the biochemistry department— my first independent position. I Joseph L. Witztum taught courses, wrote grant applications, prepared budgets, wrote papers, sat Co-editors, JLR on various committees and advised graduate and medical students. Once I had ASBMB Today Editorial Advisory Board Alex Toker more than two students working with me, I hardly ever collected my own data, Chair set up crystallizations or carried out kinetic analyses with my own hands. Note Greg P. Bertenshaw Craig E. Cameron A. Stephen Dahms Irwin Fridovich the monumental disconnect between what I was trained to do and what I actu- Jonathan Gitlin Richard W. Hanson ally had to do to run a lab. Elizabeth A. Komives Bettie Sue Masters Luke A. O’Neill Duanqing Pei I’ve remarked before that, once I became a practicing scientist, I realized I had Carol C. Shoulders Robert D. Wells taken all of the wrong courses as a student. Although I started out as a classical ASBMB Today literature major, because I was interested in science, I took math, physics, chem- Nicole Kresge Editor [email protected] istry, biology, biochemistry, biophysics and so on. I should have taken business Nick Zagorski Science Writer administration, elocution, basic accounting, creative writing, speed-reading, [email protected] politics, sociology and abnormal psychology. Now that I’m chair of a department, I Nancy J. Rodnan Director of Publications [email protected] really wish I’d taken abnormal psychology. Barbara Gordon Executive Director Getting one’s doctoral degree is a watershed moment in the life of a scientist. It [email protected] indicates that a certain level of training has been successfully attained and that one Magazine design & production: Amy Phifer is qualified to engage the subject at a much more advanced level. In the biochem- For information on advertising, contact istry department at Brandeis University, we have a nice custom: At the mini- Capitol Media Solutions at 800-517-0610 or [email protected] commencement when our graduate students receive their doctoral degrees, after they have come up to the platform and have been handed the degree, they do not return to their seats in the auditorium; rather, they are seated up on the platform with the attending faculty members, symbolically welcoming them as colleagues www.asbmb.org in the profession. It always has reminded me of the ceremony at which a medieval craftsman was admitted into a guild. The guild system began more than 1,000 years ago. It had two functions: to protect the exclusive right of only certain people to make a living in a skilled 2 ASBMB Today March 2010 president’smessage trade and to pass on those skills to select The problem is that some time during members of the next generation, thereby 1. the past half-century, a disconnect devel- ensuring the survival of the guild. oped between what our apprentices and A guild was made up of experts in their journeymen are learning and the set of craft, so-called master craftsmen. Before skills they actually need to succeed when a new employee could rise to the level of they set out on their own. This disconnect mastery, he— they were always men in the 2. occurred because the old model of the Middle Ages— had to go through a two- individual scientist working with perhaps tier schooling period during which he first one apprentice and a technical assistant, was called an apprentice. After this period, doing much of the work with his or her he could rise to the level of journeyman. 3. own hands, ceased to be valid in academia Apprentices, who worked exclusively under (though it continues, to some extent, in a particular master, typically would not learn industry). We continued to train our stu- more than the most basic techniques until dents in how to carry out good experiments they were trusted by their peers to keep the and interpret data, but we often neglect an guild’s or company’s secrets— which, in equally important skill set: namely, the ability some guilds, included a secret handshake, 4. to write well, to manage people effectively thereby enabling members to identify each and to formulate problems in a way that other. makes them fundable. After being employed by a master for Some mentors, to be sure, make it their several years, and after producing a quali- 5. business to give their students experience fying piece of work, the apprentice was and guidance in these things, and some promoted to the rank of journeyman and graduate programs even include formal was given documents (letters from his mas- instruction in some of them, but the basic ter and/or the guild itself) that certified him attitude often seems to be that one is sup- as a journeyman and entitled him to travel posed to acquire these abilities by osmosis. to other towns and countries to learn more of the art. That works for some people, but not for all. Journeymen were able to work for other masters, unlike One difficulty is that students and postdocs usually don’t apprentices, and generally were paid by the day. After take advantage of opportunities for such instruction when several years of such experience, a journeyman could be they are offered; this is particularly true of postdocs, who received as a master craftsman (although, in some guilds, frequently have no organization to arrange formal tutoring in this step could be made straight from apprenticeship).