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See inside for a pullout meeting guide. science focus 22 Cytochrome P450’s New Partner 24 New Lipid Player in Embryonic Development 26 New Insight into Mitochondrial Diseases 28 “Sticky” Proteins Fuse Adult Stem Cells to Cardiac Muscle, Repairing Hearts special interest 10 ASBMB Journal Snapshot: Submitted and Accepted Manuscripts by Region 12 Highlights from the ASBMB Asian Compendium departments Adult stem cells repair cardiac tissue. 28 2 Letter to the Editor 14 ASBMB Member Spotlight 6 News from the Hill 15 Biotech Business News 17 Career Insights 19 Professional Development 30 BioBits BY NICOLE KRESGE Science from ASBMB Journals 35 Meeting Calendar resources 33 For Your Lab A look at ASBMB journal submission and acceptance rates. 10 34 Career Opportunities April 2007 ASBMB Today 1 lettersto the editor mind–is achieved. It is like defining developed, and assessed by a multidis- Teaching that it is best to know where we are ciplinary team of faculty (the “inte- about the primary structure of a grated courses” in Bell’s paper). This Interdisciplinary protein without moving hastily to perspective will allow for more realis- understand how its tertiary structure tic planning and monitoring of the Science/Fostering evolved across time. integration process. Under this stepwise perspective Interdisciplinary of integration, one should con- Changing sider the definition of levels of Bell chooses the departmental Research integration with enough detail to structure as the first obstacle of integration. We could add institu- In the February 2007 issue of understand what would be a “not tional history, since institutional ASBMB Today, J. Ellis Bell calls so difficult” next step. In this tradition weighs much and younger attention to the importance and regard, all of us who teach will schools tend to be more prone to the dilemmas of developing inter- find a very useful resource in a key change. It is hard to imagine that disciplinary education within bio- paper (R. M. Harden (2000) The there will be interdisciplinary teach- chemistry and molecular biology integration ladder: a tool for cur- ing in BMB courses if faculty do not (BMB). Finding solutions to the riculum planning and evaluation develop interdepartmental, interdis- problems and obstacles that his Medical Education 34, (7), 551– ciplinary teams. Therefore, it is paper refers to perhaps requires 557) that defines a “ladder of inte- important to question institutional seeing them through a comple- gration” with 11 steps. The ladder departmental structures and define mentary perspective. goes through four broad catego- ries: from absolutely no interac- policies for change. Levels of Integration tion among disciplines–when the Given the fact that research One often considers the issue of faculty pay no concern to what drives faculty’s efforts–since it is interdisciplinary education–also other courses are teaching; given more weight in decisions described as curriculum integration through courses in which faculty related to promotion or others–and across disciplines–as an “all or none” have made adaptations to their given the high contemporary phenomenon. This is the same as own disciplinary courses based on emphasis on interdisciplinary scien- believing that there is no integration if any sort of input from other disci- tific research, one can perhaps fore- it is not a perfect integration. plines; to courses where faculty see that research might drive faculty to A more rich and manageable from different disciplines work develop interdisciplinary educational perspective perhaps considers that together on each other’s courses practices. In order to be more opti- integration is a strenuous process of (much like the year lab project that mistic about the near future, perhaps curriculum, faculty, and institu- Bell suggests for the science major funding agencies and committees that tional development that must go course) that remain, however, sepa- define rules for promotion could through a series of steps until the rate courses; to the final step in which define policies that would stimulate ultimate goal–students analyzing the disciplines have fused into inte- the evolution along integration steps. problems with an interdisciplinary grated courses that are structured, Manuel Joa˜o Costa Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal Tell Us What You Think Editor’s note: In addition to this let- ter, J. Ellis Bell has received a number We appreciate receiving letters that are suitable for publication regarding issues of of comments on his article. The importance or comments on articles appearing in ASBMB Today. Letters should be responses have been generally sup- sent to the editor at [email protected]. Letters must be signed and must portive of the concepts he expressed. contain the writer’s addresses and telephone number. He looks forward to more discussion The editor reserves the right to edit all letters. on the topics discussed in his article over the coming months. 2 ASBMB Today April 2007 More than chemistry. Biochemistry – ACS Chemical Biology – published since 1962 published since 2006 When it comes to biochemistry and chemical biology, ACS leads the way. Contribute, publish, and review with the journals of the American Chemical Society. president’smessage A monthly publication of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology A Feast of Public Officers Heidi E. Hamm President Affairs Events Judith S. Bond Past-President Peggy J. Farnham Secretary at EB 2007 Merle Olson Treasurer HEIDI HAMM, PRESIDENT Council Members Joan W. Conaway Robert A. Copeland Kuan-Teh Jeang John D. Scott William S. Sly Kevin Struhl Suzanne Pfeffer Linda Pike Editorial Advisory Board ne of thegreat advantages to Many Membersof Congress report Irwin Fridovich Richard W. Hanson Oholding our annual meeting in that they neverhearfrom our com- Bettie Sue Masters J. Evan Sadler conjunction with Experimental Biol- munity. Research needsmorecham- Robert D. Wells ogy (EB) isthesynergy among the pions inCapitol Hill, but that will Ex-Officio Members participating societies that allowsour only happen when we convince Con- J. Ellis Bell memberstopartake of the widevari- gress that increased support for Chair, Education and Professional Development Committee ety of science inmany different disci- researchfunding makes political Laurie S. Kaguni plines. This year,theadvantages of sense, improves public health,and Chair, Meetings Committee meeting with EB aremultipliedbyour helpsmaintainour competitiveness in George Hill Chair, Minority Affairs Committee meeting inWashington, D.C. The the world. Benjamin F. Cravatt societies participating inEBarethus The publicaffairs staffsof the par- Michael Rosen taking advantage of this year’s loca- ticipating societies are working to Co-chairs, 2007 Program Committee William R. Brinkley tion to hold a number ofpublic generate visits from as many EB Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee affairs-related symposia, workshops, attendees as possible. The meetings Ralph A. Bradshaw and other sessions on both govern- are being arrangedfor Tuesday and Deputy Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee ment processes andpolicy-related Wednesday,May 1and 2. We hope Shelagh Ferguson-Miller topics. A few are highlightedbelow. that each ofyou will beabletospare Chair, Publications Committee Herbert Tabor an hour or two on one of those two Editor, JBC Hill Visits daystomeetwithyour member of Ralph A. Bradshaw First and most important, we hopeall Congress oryour senators. The public Al Burlingame Co-editors, MCP ofyou will participate inavisitto affairs staff is eager to assist you in Edward A. Dennis Capitol Hill while you are here. making appointments! Editor, JLR Biomedical scientists face one of There isaWeb site withfurther ASBMB Today the most alarming periods confront- information on theHill visits pro- 9650 Rockville Pike, ing the biomedicalresearch enterprise gram. Please go to www.the-aps.org/ Bethesda, MD 20814-3996 in recent years. NIH funding is dimin- pa/ebweb/index.htm for 1) informa- Phone: 301-634-7145; Fax: 301-634-7369 Nicole Kresge Editor ished. Success rates are declining. Pol- tion about making appointments, 2) [email protected] itics trump science. Just fouryears acollection of advocacy materials, Pat Pages Science Writer after Congress completed the dou- and 3) contact information.