For friends of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Table of Contents From the Chair .............................................................. 3 Biochemistry Advisor Graduate Degrees ..................... 28 Exciting Discoveries ...................................................... 4 Education and Training ................................................... New Tripartite Biochemistry Complex .......................... 9 Postdoc Program ........................................................ 30 Profiles ............................................................................. Graduate Program: IPiB ............................................ 31 Jill Wildonger ............................................................ 10 Graduate Student Organization: SFLC ...................... 32 Aaron Hoskins ........................................................... 11 Undergrad Program: UBSO ....................................... 33 Scott Lowe ................................................................. 13 In Memoriam ................................................................... Lars Renner ................................................................ 14 Paul Kaesberg ............................................................ 34 Dave Nelson ............................................................... 15 Mo Cleland ................................................................ 35 Hector DeLuca ........................................................... 16 Masayasu Nomura ..................................................... 36 Lardy, Burris, Potter: South Dakota's Gifts ................ 17 Chris Raetz ................................................................ 37 International Programs ................................................ 19 Gobind Khorana ........................................................ 38 Our Department in India ........................................... 20 Honors and Awards...................................................... 40 Our Department in England ...................................... 21 GLBRC ........................................................................ 44 Our Department in Uganda ....................................... 22 From the Labs ................................................................. Pre-pre PhD programs ..................................................... Emeritus .................................................................... 45 Project CRYSTAL ....................................................... 24 Current ...................................................................... 48 Micro Explorers ......................................................... 25 Contact Information ................................................... 66 Biochemistry Graduate Degrees .................................. 26 Donors ........................................................................ 67 "Elmer" nestled amongst the Biochemistry buildings Photo courtesy of Hedrich Blessing From the Chair By Professor Betty Craig the “Henry A. Lardy Undergraduate As his passing occurred so close to our Research Fund” and the “Karen M. print deadline, you will find only a Telander Undergraduate Research short mention in the pages that follow. Fund.” Henry Lardy, as you all know, Our next newsletter will provide a full was a giant of our department. He memorial. A symposium in honor and passed away in 2010 – you may celebration of his lasting contributions recall a tribute to his enduring to mechanistic enzymology is planned example in that year’s newsletter. for May 22-24, 2014 here in Madison. Karen Telander was an undergrad at We hope to see many of you there. UW-Madison who went on to pursue Check our website for updates and It’s been a while since last we wrote, a career in research, research ethics, and an opportunity to contribute to his but I think you’ll find us worth the wait. undergraduate education. She passed legacy (http://www.biochem.wisc. Marv Wickens and colleagues have away in 2009 – her husband initiated edu/news/default.aspx?id=252) pieced together a mosaic here that I hope a scholarship in her honor to support gives you a glimpse of the excitement and women and minority undergrads In the past few years, we’ve had three energy of the department’s goings on. in chemistry and biochemistry. retirements from and two additions to our faculty. I’m pleased to say that while Among my favorites are the I’m pleased to report that as we go George Reed, Dave Nelson, and Hector increasing opportunities we’ve been able to press in spring 2013, the building DeLuca have all retired, we are lucky to offer our undergrads to experience and renovation so omnipresent in to continue to see them frequently the wider world. Our faculty has worked recent newsletters is done. Almost. around the department, and Hector’s tirelessly to develop unique study The new research tower (also known as lab is still going strong (page 16). abroad experiences that enhance our the “Biochemical Sciences Building”) We’re also pleased to have welcomed students’ international perspective and was occupied in January of 2012. The Aaron Hoskins and Jill Willdonger to understanding of science. Aseem Ansari’s final step, complete renovation of the department in 2011. Both came Khorana Program (page 20), James floors 4 – 6 of the “85 wing,” will be to us with prestigious NIH Pathway Ntambi’s Uganda Program (page 22), completed in July of this year. See page to Independence Awards that have and Marv Wickens’ SCORE (England) 9 for a more complete description of helped them hit the ground running. Program (page 21) take students the tripartite complex as documented They introduce themselves and their into labs and lives across the globe. by Mike Cox, the “architect in roads to Madison on pages 10 – 12. charge” of this massive project. We’ve also established a summer I hope you enjoy what you read research program for undergrads in Sadly, we share a long “in and see in this issue – the new, more our labs here at home. The program memoriam" section to offer tribute colorful look of our newsletter. May provides students both the opportunity to colleagues we have lost since you it bring back pleasant memories of to experience full-time research and received our last newsletter – Paul your time in Madison in general, the financial assistance necessary to Kaesberg, Chris Raetz, Har Gobind and the department in particular. do so, making the important research Khorana, and Masayasu Nomura. Mo experience accessible to all. Our two Cleland, too, died tragically on March Remember, we are always happy to newest scholarships are supported by 6th this year following a fall on ice. hear from you, and visit us when you can. E-mail: [email protected] Regular mail in care of the department – see page 66 for address information NEW: Like the Department on Facebook facebook.com/UWMadisonIPiB 3 New Discoveries A sampling of the Department's pioneering research in areas ranging from metabolism to gene regulation to enzymology..... A new regulator of insulin. The Attie lab positionally cloned a gene for Type 2 diabetes, Stxbp5L, which encodes an inhibitor of insulin secretion called tomosyn-2. The work shows that beta-cells produce an inhibitor of insulin secretion and so have to inactivate this inhibitor to secrete insulin. Sushant Bhatnagar & Alan Attie Structures of splicing complexes. Butcher's group determined the structures of U6 spliceosomal RNA in complex with its protein and RNA binding partners using NMR, x-ray crystallography and small angle x-ray scattering. These structures reveal how the essential Prp24 protein interacts with U6 RNA to mediate the structural rearrangements required for spliceosome assembly. Additionally, we determined the structure of the U2/U6 RNA complex, providing the first view of this important component of the spliceosomal catalytic core. Jordan Burke & Sam Butcher New Activity of Pyruvate Carboxylase. The Cleland lab discovered that oxamate, an analog of pyruvate, is a substrate for pyruvate carboxylase, being converted to a carbamate analog of oxaloacetate. The carbamate is very acid-labile, which is why it was not discovered earlier. The study made use of C-13 NMR to detect the carbamate. Mark Anderson, Laurie Reinhardt, Mo Cleland & Tonya Zeczycki Controlling Fe-S cluster biogenesis. A post-translational mechanism regulating the cellular level of the scaffold protein on which Fe-S clusters are built was uncovered in the Craig lab. Degradation by the mitochondrial Lon protease modulates the scaffold’s stability over a 10-fold range, allowing cells to rapidly adapt their Fe-S cluster assembly and repair capacity to changing environmental conditions. Ji-Yoon Song & Betty Craig 4 Natural symbiosis in carbon cycling. The Fox and Currie labs showed that pine-boring woodwasps inoculate the trees with a bacterium that enhances the destructive nature of the insect attack, thus providing a new example of symbiotic contributions to carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. The potent mixture of enzymes secreted by the bacterium also gives insight into new approaches for enzymatic deconstruction of cellulosic biomass for industrial purposes such as biofuels production. Amy Lim, Brian Fox, Shishir Chundawat, Johnnie Walker, Lai Bergeman, Kirk Vander Meulen, Chris Bianchetti & Taichi Takasuka A new viral strategy. Baculoviruses use a novel mechanism to modulate the host DNA damage response during infection, as shown in the Friesen group.