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Go to www.asbmb.org www.asbmb.org AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY NOVEMBER 2003, Volume 2, Issue 8 features 3 Marc Kirschner to Head Harvard’s New Systems Biology Department 4 Seeking Balance in Age of Terrorism 6 Texas Stem Cell Advocates Meet, Organize 13 10 Life Scientist Salaries Reported 12 Protein Modifications and Turnover ON THE COVER: 14 Cellular Organization and Dynamics 8 ASBMB Members 16 Integration of Signaling Mechanisms Share Nobel Prize 18 Lasker Award Honors Robert Roeder 20 Harvard’s Jack Strominger to Receive ASBMB-Merck Award departments 22 NIH News 14 24 Biotech Business 27 Career Opportunities 28 Calendar BRONZE AWARD WINNER 2003 LETTERS ASBMB Today is a monthly publication of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology A Crisis Developing in Biology Officers Bettie Sue Masters President n a recent publication, ASBMB virtue of the guidelines used and publi- Judith S. Bond President-elect Albert E. Dahlberg Secretary Today, August 2003, Sydney cized in making the awards and by the Kenneth E. Neet Treasurer I Brenner contends, quote, fact that the Nobel Committee has Thomas Blumenthal Councilor “there is now a crisis developing in high regard for the merit of the Lasker William R. Brinkley Councilor biology, in that completely unstruc- Award. Could a criteria of merit for the Lila M. Gierasch Councilor Frederick P. Guengerich Councilor tured information does not achieve Lasker Award address not only the dis- William J. Lennarz Councilor understanding.” The Scientist, in an covery meriting the Award but also the Alexandra C. Newton Councilor editorial describes the problem collation and integration of data Merle S. Olson Councilor Peter J. Parker Councilor as, quote, “data overload, absence which led to the discovery? William L. Smith Councilor of reproducibility, and lack of an A recent review which I wrote was Non-Voting Members appropriate conceptual framework.” published in Cardiovascular Engineering, George M. Carman Another recent article defines the prob- An International Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, Chair, Meetings Committee lem as, quote, “Separating the Curd September 2002. That review, Athero- John D. Scott from the Whey.” Still another article genesis: Historical Perspective, Bio- Alexandra C. Newton Julio Celis has the heading, “Databases Grow, and chemical Mechanism, and Current Co-chairs, 2004 Program Committee Grow, —- and GROW.” Status, provides examples of discovery Marion H. O’Leary J. Ellis Bell I recently wrote to Dr. Brenner on based on collation and integration of Co-chairs, Education and Professional this problem and defined it by stating unstructured data. Also, see Naturwis- Development Committee that all of us are literally drowning in senschaften 80:547-555, 1993. William R. Brinkley Chair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee data because this immense mass of With best regards, I am, Peter A. Rubenstein uncollated and non-integrated data Sincerely, Chair, Publications Committee does not permit understanding biolog- Laurence Pilgeram, Ph.D. Phillip A. Ortiz Chair, Minority Affairs Committee ical mechanisms or function. The crux PO Box 1583 Herbert Tabor of the problem seems to be that we Goleta Station Editor, JBC have developed a current generation of Santa Barbara, California 93116 Ralph A. Bradshaw scientists with a mind set on automa- Editor, MCP Edward A. Dennis tion who use this generation of data as Editor, JLR a substitute for thinking and the hard Tell Us What difficult mental work required for mak- Editorial Advisory Board You Think Irwin Fridovich ing sense out of the data. We seem to Richard W. Hanson have forgotten that computers do not Bettie Sue Masters think. Garbage in, garbage out. We appreciate receiving let- Evan J. Sadler In wrestling with this problem, the Robert D. Wells ters that are suitable for publica- question arose as to how can we cope tion from ASBMB members Comments with this problem of re-orienting our regarding issues of importance Please direct any comments or questions thinking and that of students back to or commenting on articles concerning ASBMB Today to: the essence of scientific discovery, appearing in ASBMB Today. Let- John D. Thompson rather than mindless generation of ters should be sent to the editor, Editor, ASBMB Today data. It has become so bad that our 9650 Rockville Pike John Thompson, at the address Bethesda, MD 20814-3996 current generation of editors consider found at left. Letters must be Phone: 301-634-7145; Fax: 301-634-7126 data to be outdated or meaningless if it E-mail: [email protected] signed and must contain the is more than five years old. writer’s address and telephone For information on advertising It seems to me that the members of contact FASEB AdNet at 800-433-2732 number. The editor reserves the ext. 7157 or 301-634-7157, or the Lasker Award Jury are in a unique right to edit all letters. email [email protected]. position to address this problem by 2 ASBMBToday NOVEMBER 2003 Marc Kirschner to Head Harvard’s New Systems Biology Department arvard Medical School has eling and quantitative measurement. ics, computer sciences, physics, and made a significant commit- In its modern guise it attempts to yield engineering, as well as traditional bio- H ment to the emerging field of molecular descriptions of complex cel- medical fields; talent from broad disci- systems biology in the creation of the lular and multicellular systems. It fills plines that can develop the theoretical Department of Systems Biology (DSB), an important current gap in both framework for complex systems biol- one of the first such department-levels teaching and research.” ogy problems. More than 20 fulltime in the nation. The Department of Sys- “It is worrying that we do not under- faculty will be recruited and the new tems Biology will be Harvard Medical stand how most drugs work and essen- Systems Biology Department will School’s first completely new depart- tial that we know in detail how both receive significant initial funding from ment in more than two decades and, genetic mutations and the environ- Harvard University and Harvard Med- with more than 20 faculty recruit- ment contribute to disease,” said ical School. The new department will ments expected, will be one of its Joseph B. Martin, Dean, Harvard Med- have special programs for the educa- largest departments. ical School. “Answering such questions A quantitative understanding of an requires building predictive models of “Systems biology is a entire subcellular, cellular, or organism cells, organs, and ultimately, organ- system could dramatically speed drug isms. And this requires not only logical extension of discovery, by allowing one to predict advanced computational models but physiology and the effects of attacking a specific target the acquisition of new quantitative within the context of the complex cel- data, often with new methods capable biochemistry...” lular circuits. New drugs often fail after of interrogating the activity of a large Dr. Marc Kirschner the expenditure of millions of dollars, number of genes within whole cells or because the effect on a single gene or whole organisms. In evaluating this protein target in the test tube fails to challenge, we reached the conclusion tion of physical scientists in biology have the predicted effect when tested that the scale of the effort required and special core facilities to promote in the human body. demands a new department.” interaction between disciplines. DSB “As we understand more about the “This type of focused, department- will also be inter-institutional, linking tiniest pieces that we are made of, it based program will help to define and faculty from the Medical School with becomes increasingly clear that we do stimulate the exciting interdisciplinary faculty at its affiliated hospitals and not understand how they work field of systems biology, which needs Harvard University. together as systems,” said ASBMB strong leadership right now,” said member Dr. Marc Kirschner, the first Bruce Alberts, President of the National About the new chair of the new department. “We Academy of Sciences and a member of department’s leader need to build on the foundation of the outside review panel that helped Dr.