November 2011 SCIENCE VOICES ON THE HILL NEEDS ADVOCACY TOOLKIT YOU LOOKING AHEAD Also inside: More Annual Meeting Coverage American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology AT1111_C2C1.indb 1 10/27/11 2:34 PM ANNUAL REVIEWS Global. Mobile. Relevant Research. NOW AVAILABLE Annual Review of Biochemistry ON MOBILE DEVICES! Volume 80 • July 2011 • Online & In Print • http://biochem.annualreviews.org Editor: Roger D. Kornberg, Stanford University School of Medicine The Annual Review of Biochemistry, in publication since 1932, sets the standard for review articles in biological chemistry and molecular biology. Since its inception, these volumes have served as an indispensable resource for both the practicing biochemist and students of biochemistry. Access this and all Annual Reviews journals via your institution at www.annualreviews.org Personal copies available at a reduced rate. Institutional site license options available. Contact Annual Reviews for details. PARTIAL TABLE OF CONTENTS: • Biochemistry of Mobile Zinc and Nitric Oxide Revealed • From Serendipity to Therapy, Elizabeth F. Neufeld by Fluorescent Sensors, Michael D. Pluth, Elisa Tomat, Stephen J. Lippard • Journey of a Molecular Biologist, Masayasu Nomura • Development of Probes for Cellular Functions Using Fluorescent • My Life with Nature, Julius Adler Proteins and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer, • Protein Folding and Modifi cation in the Mammalian Endoplasmic Atsushi Miyawaki Reticulum, Ineke Braakman, Neil J. Bulleid • Reporting from the Field: Genetically Encoded Fluorescent • Mechanisms of Membrane Curvature Sensing, Bruno Antonny Reporters Uncover Signaling Dynamics in Living Biological • Biogenesis and Cargo Selectivity of Autophagosomes, Systems, Sohum Mehta, Jin Zhang Hilla Weidberg, Elena Shvets, Zvulun Elazar • DNA Replicases from a Bacterial Perspective, • Introduction to Theme "Membrane Protein Folding and Insertion", Charles S. McHenry Gunnar von Heijne • Genomic and Biochemical Insights into the Specifi city of ETS • Assembly of Bacterial Inner Membrane Proteins, Ross E. Dalbey, Transcription Factors, Peter C. Hollenhorst, Lawrence P. McIntosh, Peng Wang, Andreas Kuhn Barbara J. Graves • ß-Barrel Membrane Protein Assembly by the Bam Complex, • Signals and Combinatorial Functions of Histone Modifi cations, Christine L. Hagan, Thomas J. Silhavy, Daniel Kahne Tamaki Suganuma, Jerry L. Workman • Transmembrane Communication: General Principles and • Assembly of Bacterial Ribosomes, Zahra Shajani, Lessons from the Structure and Function of the M2 Proton Michael T. Sykes, James R. Williamson Channel, K+ Channels, and Integrin Receptors, Gevorg Grigoryan, • The Mechanism of Peptidyl Transfer Catalysis by the David T. Moore, William F. DeGrado Ribosome, Edward Ki Yun Leung, Nikolai Suslov, Nicole Tuttle, • Mass Spectrometry in the Postgenomic Era, Brian T. Chait Raghuvir Sengupta, Joseph Anthony Piccirilli • Advances in the Mass Spectrometry of Membrane Proteins: • Amyloid Structure: Conformational Diversity and Consequences, From Individual Proteins to Intact Complexes, Nelson P. Barrera, Brandon H. Toyama, Jonathan S. Weissman Carol V. Robinson • AAA+ Proteases: ATP-Fueled Machines of Protein Destruction, • Quantitative, High-Resolution Proteomics for Data-Driven Robert T. Sauer, Tania A. Baker Systems Biology, Jürgen Cox, Matthias Mann • The Structure of the Nuclear Pore Complex, André Hoelz, • Applications of Mass Spectrometry to Lipids and Membranes, Erik W. Debler, Günter Blobel Richard Harkewicz, Edward A. Dennis • Benchmark Reaction Rates, the Stability of Biological Molecules • Emerging In Vivo Analyses of Cell Function Using Fluorescence in Water, and the Evolution of Catalytic Power in Enzymes, Imaging, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz Richard Wolfenden For a complete table of contents for the current volume, please visit http://biochem.annualreviews.org ANNUAL REVIEWS • Guiding Scientists to Essential Research Since 1932 TEL: 800.523.8635 (US/CAN) • TEL: 650.493.4400 (WORLDWIDE) • FAX: 650.424.0910 (WORLDWIDE) • EMAIL: [email protected] AT1111_C2C1.indb 2 10/27/11 2:35 PM contents NOVEMBER 2011 On the cover: It’s the advocacy issue— in red, white and blue, of news course! Find out how to 2 President’s Message do your part. A letter to the entering class 4 News from the Hill Advocacy resources at your fingertips 5 Washington Update Translational-center plans move forward This one’s for the shutterbugs! 6 Members on Capitol Hill Find out how to get your travel 8 Maternity planning for postdocs photos featured in 9 Member Update ASBMB Today. 9 features 10 NIH Center for Scientific Review update 11 Online exclusives 12 Q&A with Laurie Glimcher Oh, how we love odes! Submit 16 Goodbye, Beaumont House to our poetry contest for a chance to win a cash prize meetings and publication of your 20 Organelle dynamics free verse. 28 21 Sugar fix 22 ‘Developing’ drugs 23 Systems biology 25 Chemical biology and biocatalysis 26 Targeting tuberculosis Our new science writer, Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay, 27 Education and Professional interviews Laurie Glimcher, Development left, the new dean of Weill Cornell Medical School. 12 departments 29 Lipid News Retrospective: Eugene P. Kennedy 31 Journal News 31 MCP: Proteomic and metabolic basis for anxiety and depression 31 JLR: Thematic review series asbmb today online highlights lipid droplet research Check out our new series of blog 32 JBC: Formation of radical for DNA generation reviews for readers who haven’t yet explored all that the blogosphere has 32 JBC: Tabor award winner to offer when it comes to biochemistry and molecular biology. Contributor 33 Education Aditi Das offers her recommendations Evaluating student gains in understanding for blogs useful in the classroom and lab. www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday 36 Open Channels November 2011 ASBMB Today 1 AT1111_C2C1.indb 1 10/27/11 2:35 PM president’sm age A monthly publication of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology A letter to the entering class Offi cers BY SUZANNE PFEFFER Suzanne R. Pfeffer President Jeremy M. Berg President-Elect Mark A. Lemmon Secretary Merle S. Olson Treasurer Toni M. Antalis Treasurer-Elect hat if every ASBMB member selected a mentee (a student, postdoc Council Members Wor junior faculty member) and gave him or her the gift of an ASBMB Karen N. Allen Ruma V. Banerjee membership? I decided to do that for the 12 graduate students who began Benjamin F. Cravatt Michael A. Marletta David Sabatini John D. Scott training this semester in the department of biochemistry at Stanford University. Melissa Starovasnik Wesley I. Sundquist I don’t expect many ASBMB members to gift 12 memberships in one year, but Jonathan S. Weissman I cannot think of a better way to welcome young scientists into our discipline. I Ex-Offi cio Members should have been doing this for years now, for all of my students, to help them Russell DeBose-Boyd Hongtao Yu understand from the outset that they are part of a much larger community of Co-chairs, 2012 Annual Meeting Program Committee Peter J. Kennelly scientists. So with that, I share with you a letter to the entering class. Chair, Education and Professional Development Committee Joan W. Conaway Chair, Meetings Committee Dear First-Year Students, Terri Kinzy Chair, Membership Committee I cannot think of a more exciting time to embark on a career Squire J. Booker in science. There are so many more tools available today than Chair, Minority Affairs Committee Bettie Sue Masters ever before, and our ability to study questions on a genomewide Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee Charles Brenner scale represents a major advance both in terms of the scope of Chair, Publications Committee the answers that can now be obtained and the systemwide com- Martha J. Fedor, Editor-in-chief, JBC plexity that we can now begin to explore. Herbert Tabor, Co-editor, JBC Ralph A. Bradshaw You are now a professional researcher — getting paid to do A. L. Burlingame Co-editors, MCP experiments and make discoveries. The sooner you realize that Edward A. Dennis students and postdocs make essentially all of the major discover- Joseph L. Witztum Co-editors, JLR ies, the sooner you will understand why coursework is an impor- ASBMB Today Editorial Advisory Board tant starting point but not at all the point of graduate school. We Alex Toker (Chair) need to teach you how to learn what you need to learn on your Mike Bradley Craig E. Cameron A. Stephen Dahms Alex C. Drohat own. There simply is too much information and a broad swath of Ben Ellington Irwin Fridovich Richard W. Hanson Gerald Hart history that would take too much course time to explain. Discov- Peter Kennelly Carol C. Shoulders eries won’t happen if you aren’t thinking hard about your sci- ASBMB Today ence and spending a great deal of time doing experiments. You Angela Hopp Interim Editor [email protected] need to embrace your project as your own. The sooner you do Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay Sr. Science Writer / Editor this, the more successful you will be. [email protected] Erin Salb Production Coordinator Some of you will be very lucky in graduate school: Your [email protected] research project will yield ready answers, and your proteins Nancy J. Rodnan Director of Publications [email protected] will be well behaved. Others will have a more challenging time, Barbara Gordon Executive Director and those of you in this latter category will learn another [email protected] important lesson— that science is not always easy and suc- For information on advertising, contact Capitol Media Solutions at 800-517-0610 cess requires knowing when to keep trying and, just as impor- or [email protected] tantly, when to change tack. I will worry about those of you who have easy success, because after you graduate and you face a tougher project (and it will be when and not if), you may not www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday have acquired the skills needed to deal with that challenge. All of a sudden, science may not seem as much fun anymore. It is 2 ASBMB Today November 2011 AT1111_C2C1.indb 2 10/27/11 2:35 PM president’sm age those of us who have struggled who appreciate approaches to tackle a question, and by collabo- most the joys of discovery.