Vol. 19 / No. 4 / April 2020 THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY ‘‘ The magic isn’t the squid… The magic is the protein.’’ Don’t wait a lifetime for a decision. C. elegans daf-2 mutants can live up to 40 days. JBC takes only 17 days on average to reach a fi rst decision about your paper. Learn more about fast, rigorous review at jbc.org. www.jbc.org NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2 22 37 EDITOR’S NOTE ‘THE MAGIC ISN’T THE SQUID ... USE THE MIC! Caution: Tchotchkes at work The magic is the protein.’ 38 3 28 WHAT CAN YOUR OMBUDS OFFICE MEMBER UPDATE ‘START SIMPLE. IT ALWAYS GETS DO FOR YOU? MORE COMPLICATED.’ 6 A conversation with Paul Dawson IN MEMORIAM 10 ANNUAL MEETING RETROSPECTIVE Marilyn Farquhar (1928 – 2019) 32 MOLECULAR & CELLULAR PROTEOMICS SESSION 13 LIPID NEWS 32 A deeper insight into phospholipid MCP TO HOST PROTEOMICS SESSION biosynthesis in Gram-positive bacteria 33 GINGRAS STUDIES PROTEOMICS’ IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH 14 34 JOURNAL NEWS SELBACH SEEKS THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE MAGIC 14 Scrutinizing pigs’ biggest threat 35 15 Progesterone from an unexpected source GARCIA USES MASS SPECTRONOMY TO UNRAVEL THE HUMAN EPIGENOME may affect miscarriage risk 16 Finding neoantigens faster — advances in the study of the immunopeptidome Don’t wait a lifetime for a decision. 18 From the journals C. elegans daf-2 mutants can live up to 40 days. JBC takes only 17 days on average to reach a fi rst decision about your paper. Learn more about fast, rigorous review at jbc.org. 52 www.jbc.org 28 22 MARCH 2020 ASBMB TODAY 1 EDITOR’S NOTE THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Caution: Tchotchkes at work OFFICERS COUNCIL MEMBERS Gerald Hart Suzanne Barbour By Comfort Dorn President Joan Broderick e Matt Gentry e _ tchotchke (noun) \'chäch-k , -ke; 'tsäts-k \: knickknack, trinket Toni M. Antalis Blake Hill President-elect Audrey Lamb Origin: Yiddish tshatshke trinket, from obsolete Polish czaczko Wei Yang James M. Ntambi First Known Use: 1971 —Merriam Webster Unabridged Secretary Takita Felder Sumter Kelly Ten–Hagen Joan Conaway JoAnn Trejo Treasurer n my office windowsill I have a plastic margarita glass full of paper umbrel- ASBMB TODAY EDITORIAL las, a small pot of succulents, a pottery jar wearing a scarf and hat, a plastic EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS ADVISORY BOARD Obutterfly ring, a fidget spinner and a sign that reads “Crazy cat lady.” Robert S. Haltiwanger Rajini Rao These are my office tchotchkes. They’re usually more spread out, but I Carla Koehler Chair Co-chairs, 2020 Annual Ana Maria Barral wanted to pose them: Meeting Program Committee Natasha Brooks Kelly Chacón Cheryl Bailey Chair, Education and Beronda Montgomery Professional Development Bill Sullivan Committee Melissa Vaught Binks Wattenberg Daniel Raben Chair, Meetings Committee ASBMB TODAY Sonia Flores Angela Hopp Chair, Minority Affairs Executive Editor Committee [email protected] Nicole Woitowich Comfort Dorn Chair, Science Outreach and Managing Editor Communication Committee [email protected] Terri Goss Kinzy Lisa Schnabel Chair, Public Affairs Graphic Designer Advisory Committee [email protected] Ed Eisenstein John Arnst We all have these things, right? The random objects that accumulate in Chair, Membership Committee Science Writer our workspaces and make them our own. Look around your desk/office/lab. Susan Baserga [email protected] What do you see? You can probably tell a story about where each of these Chair, Women in Biochemistry Laurel Oldach and Molecular Biology Science Writter non–work-related things came from — and that’s what I want you to do. Committee [email protected] Regular readers might recall that we devote our August issue to the topic Sandra Weller Ed Marklin Chair, Publications Web Editor of careers. We invite you to submit essays and articles related to your career Committee [email protected] path, sharing what you’ve learned. We want to know what works (and what Lila M. Gierasch Allison Frick Editor-in-chief, JBC Multimedia and Social Media doesn’t) as ASBMB members seek and find the jobs that fit. A. L. Burlingame Content Manager We still want those serious, useful articles and essays (deadline: June 15), [email protected] Editor, MCP but we also want your tchotchkes. Barbara Gordon Nicholas O. Davidson Executive Director Take a picture of the knickknacks in your workspace (bonus points if Editor-in-chief, JLR [email protected] you’re in the photo too) and tell us their story: Where did you get them—and Kerry-Anne Rye Editor-in-chief, JLR when? What do you think about/feel when you look at them? You don’t need to write a lot. Keep it under 100 words. Then send your For information on advertising, contact Pharmaceutical Media Inc. at 212-904-0374 or [email protected]. picture (as a jpg file) and words to [email protected] by June 15. We’ll share them in our August 2020 issue. Comfort Dorn Correction ([email protected]) is the The data sources for infographics in the story www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday managing editor of ASBMB “A Matter of Degree” in the February issue were Today. Follow her on Twitter incorrect. Please refer to the web version of the PRINT ISSN 2372-0409 @cdorn56. story at asbmb.org/asbmbtoday for correct data citations. In the same article, Zerick Dunbar’s Articles published in ASBMB Today reflect solely the authors’ views and not school was misidentified; he attends Meharry the official positions of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Medical College in Nashville. Also, Taylor Biology or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated. Mentions of Carmon’s compensation from Alabama A&M products or services are not endorsements. University was misstated; he is paid a stipend. 2 ASBMB TODAY MARCH 2020 MEMBER UPDATE Young researchers present science The Emerging Researchers National Conference Molecular Biology, along with three faculty members. in STEM, hosted by the American Association for (See the full list of presenters at our website.) the Advancement of Science and the National Science Stephen Gonzalez, a student at California State Foundation, is an opportunity for underrepresented University, Fullerton, pictured above, said, “One of the undergraduate and graduate students to present their conversations that really stuck with me was with one research to peers and professors. of my poster judges … We got into a great talk about Among this year’s presenters were nine student my research. I cherished his time there, since he really members of the American Society for Biochemistry and made me grow more scientifically and as a presenter.” Doudna, Charpentier share Wolf prize in medicine The 2020 Wolf Prize in medicine Biology’s inaugural Mildred Cohn will be awarded jointly to Jennifer Award in Biological Chemistry. Doudna and Emmanuelle Char- Charpentier is a biochemist, pentier, whose work led to the microbiologist and geneticist rec- discovery of the gene-editing tool ognized as an expert in regulatory clustered regularly interspaced short mechanisms underlying processes of Doudna Charpentier palindromic repeats–CRISPR-associ- infection and immunity in bacte- ated protein 9, or CRISPR–Cas9. rial pathogens. She is scientific and Doudna is the Li Ka Shing managing director of the Max Planck Foundation will award the Wolf chancellor’s chair in biomedical Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Prize “to outstanding scientists and and health sciences and a professor Berlin, an institute that she founded artists from around the world … for of molecular and cell biology and with the Max Planck Society. achievements in the interest of man- professor of chemistry at the Uni- Doudna and Charpentier deter- kind and friendly relations among versity of California, Berkeley, and mined the mechanism of RNA-guid- peoples,” according to the founda- a Howard Hughes Medical Institute ed bacterial adaptive immunity by tion’s website. Wolf Prizes are given investigator. She studies how RNA the CRISPR-Cas9 system, enabling in art, agriculture, physics, medicine molecules control the expression them to harness the system for effi- and mathematics. A New York Times of genetic information. In 2013, cient genome engineering in animals article noted that the Wolf Prize is Doudna won the American Society and plants. thought of as one of the predictors of for Biochemistry and Molecular This is the 42nd year the Wolf a future Nobel Prize. MARCH 2020 ASBMB TODAY 3 MEMBER UPDATE National Academy of Inventors Society for Glycobiology presents awards names fellows Gerald Hart, Robert J. Linhardt and Manfred Wuhrer were among the researchers recently honored by the Society for Three ASBMB Glycobiology. members joined the Hart is president of the American Society for Biochemistry and ranks of the National Molecular Biology and a Georgia Research Alliance eminent scholar Academy of Inven- at the University of Georgia. He received the President’s Innovator tors in December as Award, given each year since 2015, which honors the contributions of Brown part of a class of 168 one scientist who has had a significant impact. new fellows. For Hart, that impact was not only creating a new field in glycobi- The academy was ology, the dynamic and inducible modification of nuclear and cytosolic launched in 2010 proteins via O-GlcNAc, but also shepherding its growth and providing to promote entre- “exemplary service to the glycobiology and life science community,” preneurship within the society’s website states. academia. According Linhardt, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was Goldstein to the NAI website, honored with the Karl Meyer Lectureship Award. Established in 1990, its fellows program the award is given to well-established scientists who have made widely recognizes professors who have made recognized major contributions to the field of glycobiology.