March 2017 Asbmb Today 1 President’S Message
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CONTENTS NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2 18 31 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE SOLVING THE FACULTY EDUCATION Biochemists, unite! DIVERSITY PROBLEM Starting the organelle wars 3 24 34 NEWS FROM THE HILL MEET ANNE-CLAUDE GINGRAS DUE DILIGENCE Let’s talk about reproducibility Pixel perfect 28 4 MEET STEVE CARR 36 MEMBER UPDATE OUTREACH 6 18 Eective communication: dream or reality? RETROSPECTIVE 37 6 Susan Lindquist (1949 – 2016) ESSAY 9 ressa C. Stadtman (1920 – 2016) 37 Is biochemistry a tool or a discipline? 38 Working at Manylabs, 12 an open science space NEWS 40 Just like Boyd 12 Cox wins Tabor award for work on extracellular matrix 13 Hidden information in mRNA 42 THE DO-OVER 14 If I could turn back time LIPID NEWS PI-PLC β1 in dierentiation 44 and disease 31 OPEN CHANNELS Bradley Graba Make or break 15 describes how he discovered a new JOURNAL NEWS way to teach cell 37 15 A factory runs riot biology to high- 16 Predicting when blood goes bad school students 17 Targeting cholesterol for ALS treatment using Twitter. 6 42 THE DO-OVER MARCH 2017 ASBMB TODAY 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Biochemists, unite! OFFICERS COUNCIL MEMBERS By Natalie Ahn Natalie Ahn Squire J. Booker President Victoria J. DeRose Wayne Fairbrother Steven McKnight Karen G. Fleming he American Society of Past President Rachel Green Biological Chemists, Jennifer DuBois Susan Marqusee Jared Rutter Secretary T which later became Celia A. Shier the American Society for Toni M. Antalis Michael Summers Treasurer Biochemistry and Molecu- ASBMB TODAY EDITORIAL lar Biology, was founded EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS ADVISORY BOARD more than 100 years ago. Natalie Ahn Rajini Rao Steven McKnight Chair e founders’ aim was to Co-chairs, 2017 Annual Charles Brenner embrace the biological Meeting Program Past Chair sciences from the chemical Committee Ana Maria Barral point of view and separate Cheryl Bailey Floyd “Ski” Chilton Chair, Education and Henrik Dohlman biochemistry from physiol- Professional Development Peter J. Kennelly ogy as a distinct scientic Committee Beronda Montgomery A. Maureen Rouhi pursuit. Our elds of Daniel Raben Chair, Meetings Committee Melissa Vaught biochemistry and molecular Binks W. Wattenberg Takita Felder Sumter biology dened the molecu- lar and chemical mecha- Chair, Minority Aairs ASBMB TODAY Committee Angela Hopp nisms that govern biological omas Baldwin Executive Editor, processes, fostering one of Chair, Public Outreach [email protected] Committee the most productive areas of Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay Wesley Sundquist Managing Editor, scientic investigation. Chair, Public Aairs [email protected] Today, the ASBMB Advisory Committee John Arnst continues to stand for the Amnon Kohen Science Writer, discovery and understanding Chair, Publications [email protected] Committee Valery Masterson the molecular mechanisms Designer, Lila M. Gierasch of life at deeper levels. We [email protected] tion for discovery across the wide Editor-in-chief, JBC Ciarán Finn stand for education: We provide each spectrum of biological and medical A. L. Burlingame Web Editor, new generation of scientists and edu- sciences? Binks Wattenberg, Enrique Editor, MCP [email protected] cators with mentorship and resources De La Cruz and Dan Raben begin a Allison Frick Edward A. Dennis to teach critical thinking, problem Editor-in-chief, JLR Media Specialist, discussion to answer this question for [email protected] William L. Smith solving and the other skills of great biochemists in their Perspectives essay Barbara Gordon Editor-in-chief, JLR scientists. We are prominent national Executive Director, on page 37. Keeping our community [email protected] advocates: We reach out on behalf of alive enables each of us to ourish. our members and the larger commu- You can help make us even stron- nity of scientists to inform govern- ger. Not a member of the ASBMB? For information on advertising, contact Pharmaceutical mental and nonscientic groups about Please join our community today. Media Inc. at 212-904-0374 or [email protected]. the consequences of policy decisions Already a member? Enlist a colleague on science. We also inform scientists to join too. It’s easy: Go to www. about policies that aect our research asbmb.org/membership/ or email and teaching. And, most importantly, [email protected]. www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday we foster community by creating a PRINT ISSN 2372-0409 home for people to nd collabora- Articles published in ASBMB Today reect solely tions, share ideas and promote careers. Natalie Ahn the authors’ views and not the ocial positions of ([email protected]) of the the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular What does it mean to be a bio- Biology or the institutions with which the authors University of Colorado, Boulder, is are aliated. Mentions of products or services are chemist or molecular biologist as our president of the ASBMB. not endorsements. elds increasingly become the founda- 2 ASBMB TODAY MARCH 2017 NEWS FROM THE HILL Let’s talk about reproducibility By Benjamin Corb n 2015, Leonard Freedman, the fact is that we need more data before Societies for Experimental Biology, founder and president of the we can draw rm conclusions. set the issue of reproducibility as the I Global Biological Standards Initia- Researchers at the Center for Open need for scientists to be transparent, tive, and colleagues published a report Science recently began their own careful, diligent about recordkeeping, that claimed $28 billion worth of analysis on reproducibility, specically and mindful of reducing potential biomedical research is irreproducible. in cancer research projects (3). eir pitfalls, such as conrmation bias and e amount accounts for more than preliminary results are complicated. poor study design, while conduct- 50 percent of all preclinical Project researchers are examining 29 ing research. Scientists rightfully feel research grants. papers published in Science, Nature proud of the enormous contribu- is analysis, published in PLOS and Cell since 2012, repeating the tions made by biomedical research, Biology (1), shook scientists and same experiments and asking whether but they can get defensive about science advocates alike. Articles and or not they can reproduce the nd- their work, which can complicate the blog posts critical of the study have ings. One unique aspect of this repro- issue. Moreover, even the denition been published in the 18 months since ducibility eort is its transparency. of what constitutes reproducibility is Freedman’s analysis was published, Unlike previous eorts that have not murky, because science, particularly including by us and others, that were shared which papers they attempted biological science, is complex. Small critical of his study, citing concerns to reproduce, this group is publish- environmental dierences from one over Freedman’s potential conicts of ing their ndings from beginning to lab to another or unclear methodology interest (2). end — the papers they reviewed, the explanations can aect the ability of e inability of scientists to procedures and methods they fol- one researcher to reproduce the reproduce other scientists’ ndings is lowed, and their entire results are all results of another. an issue that the biomedical research available for review and scrutiny. Sean Nevertheless, rather than overreact- enterprise should be concerned about, Morrison, a senior editor of eLife, told ing to criticisms regarding reproduc- especially given that so much of the Nature, “For people keeping score ibility, let’s commit to the goal of research is funded by the federal at home, right now it’s kind of two government, which is to say taxpay- out of three that appear to have been making our scientic work careful, ers. Being good stewards of taxpayer reproduced” (4). scholarly and impactful. If we articu- money must mean conducting sound Conversations about reproducibil- late this goal clearly, then the enter- science. Sound science requires ity can be dierent among scientists prise will be better protected against reproducibility. But is the amount of because the importance of the issue any future criticisms, and perhaps research irreproducibility in the life may vary signicantly across dier- then we’ll show the criticisms to be sciences really so clear-cut that we can ent disciplines. Some eorts, like one irreproducible. chastise an entire community? e led by the Federation of American Benjamin Corb REFERENCES ([email protected]) is director 1. Freedman, L. P., et al. PLOS Biol. 13, e1002165 (2015). of public affairs at the American 2. http://policy.asbmb.org/2015/06/22/research-reproducibility-rises-to-the-top/. Society for Biochemistry and 3. Nosek, B. & Errington, T. eLife 6, e23383 (2017). Molecular Biology. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/bwcorb. 4. Baker, M. & Dolgin, E. Nature 541, 269 (2017). Interested in science policy? Follow our blog for news, analysis and commentary on policy issues aecting scientists, research funding and society. Visit policy.asbmb.org. MARCH 2017 ASBMB TODAY 3 MEMBER UPDATE Six ASBMB members named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors Francis Barany of Weill Cornell University, Barbara D. Boyan of Virginia Commonwealth University, Paul L. Modrich of Duke University, Nicholas Muzyczka of the University of Florida, Ronald T. Raines of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Bruce W. Stillman of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have been nominated as 2016 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. NAI fellows are named inventors on U.S. patents who are nominated by their peers for their outstanding contribu- tions as innovators. Fellows are recognized for having a signicant eect on society through innovations in patents and licensing as well as discovery and technology. ese six members, along with the other 2016 NAI fellows, will be inducted as part of the Sixth Annual Confer- ence of the National Academy of Inventors in April. BARANY BOYAN MODRICH MUZYCZKA RAINES STILLMAN Serio to be dean Hartl and Schulman named program pairs renowned scientists with leading biomedical research at UMass Amherst visiting professors institutions as a means of promoting Tricia R.