Vol. 13 / No. 5 / May 2014 THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY CONTENTS NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2 14 18 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE PROPAGATING POSSIBILITIES OPEN LETTER Good reads and the power of data Researcher tinkers with tree genetics On hindsight and gratitude 5 19 NEWS FROM THE HILL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Making scientic research 11 19 Tips for Ruth L. Kirschstein training a priority for Congress grant applicants 21 e skills you need for 6 a career in science policy MEMBER UPDATE 22 Give credit where it is due ACS honors nine ASBMB members 24 7 EDUCATION JOURNAL NEWS 24 Reimagining the undergraduate 18 science course 12 27 ‘Creativity is in all – not a possession ASBMB NEWS of only a certain few’ 2014 annual meeting travel award winners 28 OUTREACH Yale Science Diplomats 28 31 LIPID NEWS Desperately seeking Sputnik for fundamental science 32 OPEN CHANNELS Reader comments 14 12 In our cover story, we learn about one research team’s eort to manipulate common trees to produce high-value commodities. MAY 2014 ASBMB TODAY 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE calibration curves are much worse. tomy for breast cancer by surgeon perpetually changing landscape of is is particularly true for the local William Halsted and the implications breast cancer was beginning to tire THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY television forecasts: ey substantially of studies of its eectiveness. Moving him out. Trials, tables, and charts FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Good reads and overpredict the probability of rain. past surgical treatments that focused had never been his forte; he was a is tendency gets at a key point. primarily on the identiable tumor, surgeon, not a bookkeeper. OFFICERS COUNCIL MEMBERS What is the best measure of the valid- Halsted developed more aggressive is passage reveals several points. Jeremy M. Berg Squire J. Booker the power of data ity of a forecast? surgical approaches that removed First, the collection and analysis of President Brenda Schulman Citing a study by Allen Murphy considerable additional tissue based the long-term outcomes demon- Steven McKnight David Sabatini By Jeremy Berg (4), Silver notes three possible mea- on the concept that removing all President-Elect strated a clear but surprising pattern. Melissa Starovasnik sures: of the “roots” of a tumor would Karen Allen Wesley I. Sundquist ese observations had implications save more lives than more localized Secretary Gregory Gatto Jr. 1. the “quality” or “accuracy” both for treatment (more and more Toni Antalis Natalie Ahn urling up with a good book ing. It includes a discussion of the (How well does the forecast match surgeries. radical surgery was not likely to Treasurer Anjana Rao is one of life’s great pleasures. discovery by Edward Lorenz at the the actual outcome?) Halsted analyzed the outcomes lead to improvements) and for the Daniel Leahy of radical mastectomy in 1907. C Two books that I have greatly Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 2. the “consistency” or “honesty” understanding of cancer (it can be EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS Mukherjee writes: enjoyed over my time as president of ogy of so-called “chaotic” behavior (To what extent was the prediction as a systemic rather than a localized Geeta Narlikar ASBMB TODAY Enrique de la Cruz the American Society for Biochemis- in computer-based simulations of accurate as it could be?) In the summer of 1907, Halsted EDITORIAL ADVISORY disease). Second, rather than embrac- Co-chairs, 2014 Annual try and Molecular Biology are Nate weather. Lorenz was dismayed when 3. the “economic value” (How presented more data to the American Meeting Program BOARD ing the insights from the analysis, a Silver’s “e Signal and the Noise: apparently identical runs of the simu- useful was the prediction in making Committee Charlie Brenner Surgical Association in Washington, leading expert applied his tools to Peter J. Kennelly Chair Why So Many Predictions Fail — lations with the same data produced good policy decisions?) D.C. He divided his patients into other elds; the data had provided Chair, Education and Carol Shoulders but Some Don’t” (1) and Siddhartha vastly dierent results. is is due to In this light, it seems that some three groups based on whether the the “wrong” answer. Professional Development Shiladitya Sengupta Mukherjee’s “e Emperor of all forecasters decrease accuracy and Committee the fact that these (and many other) cancer had spread before surgery We must all be mindful of our Yolanda Sanchez Daniel Raben Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” simulations are very sensitive to consistency to increase the economic to lymph nodes in the axilla or the Floyd “Ski” Chilton own prejudices and our tendencies to Chair, Meetings Committee (2). apparently trivial dierences in the value of their predictions. ey get Cristy Gelling neck. When he put up his survival see what we want to see in data or to Takita Felder Sumter Although they are very dier- in less trouble with their audiences if Peter J. Kennelly data on which they are based. Silver tables, the pattern became appar- dismiss data and analyses that come Chair, Minority Aairs ent, these books share three major they predict rain and it doesn’t occur Committee Michael Bradley goes on to describe how computer ent. Of the sixty patients with no to conclusions inconsistent with our features. First, each takes a largely his- (and the event is moved to an indoor omas Baldwin Rajini Rao simulations, in conjunction with cancer-aicted nodes in the axilla goals as awed. Chair, Outreach Committee torical approach to analyze progress judgments from human meteo- venue) than if they don’t predict rain or the neck, the substantial number Bob Matthews ASBMB TODAY in its respective eld. Second, each rologists, have steadily improved the and all of the guests get soaked. of forty-ve had been cured of breast Chair, Public Aairs Angela Hopp addresses the roles of careful data col- The importance Advisory Committee quality of weather predictions since cancer at ve years. Of the forty Editor, [email protected] lection and analysis in allowing elds of mechanism Jerey Benovic the 1970s. ‘The Emperor patients with such nodes, only three Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay to move past strongly held but often Chair, Publications Sr. Science Writer, is conclusion, of course, of All Maladies’ had survived. and rich data sources Committee [email protected] incorrect beliefs. Finally, each empha- depends on tracking the accuracy e ultimate survival from breast Martha J. Fedor Both books highlight the role of Marnay Harris sizes the importance of understand- of predictions. One of the sections is delightful and thought-pro- cancer, in short, had little to do with Editor-in-chief, JBC Designer, [email protected] mechanistic understanding in driving ing mechanism to place empirical that I found most intriguing involves voking book by Mukherjee tracks how extensively a surgeon operated Herbert Tabor Andrew Harmon progress. Co-editor, JBC observations in a robust context that calibration of measures of predic- our understanding of cancer and the on the breast; it depended on how Science and Technology Weather forecasting has improved A. L. Burlingame Publishing Manager, can be extended. ese features, of tion accuracy, which Silver entitles development of cancer treatments extensively the cancer had spread steadily because the basic physical Editor, MCP [email protected] course, are of central importance in “How to Know if Your Forecasts Are from ancient times through the before surgery. As George Crile, one Edward A. Dennis Barbara Gordon mechanisms of air and temperature biochemistry and molecular biology All Wet.” is section highlights the present “genomic revolution.” Major of the most fervent critics of radical Joseph L. Witztum Executive Director, ow and related phenomena are Co-editors, JLR [email protected] and also in science advocacy. importance of access to many predic- steps along this path include the surgery, later put it, “If the disease reasonably well understood so that tions and subsequent outcomes and appreciation of the nature of cancer was so advanced that one had to get models can be based on these mecha- ‘The Signal and the Noise’ calibration of predictions to judge as a disease of poorly controlled cell rid of the muscles in order to get rid growth, the development of surgical of the tumor, then it had already nisms, even though considerable Silver is best known for his success how well they do. e predictions of approaches for treatment (including spread through the system,” making simplications and approximations in predicting the outcome of recent the likelihood of rain by the National highly intrusive, radical surgeries), the whole operation moot. are necessary to produce manageable presidential and senatorial elec- Weather Service are remarkably well the introduction and renement But if Halsted came to the brink models (even with the most powerful For information on advertising, contact Fox Associates Inc. tions based on aggregation and calibrated; when the NWS forecasts of chemotherapies based on killing of this realization in 1907, he just supercomputers). In contrast, Silver at 800-440-0231 or [email protected]. analysis of polling data on his blog rain with a 50 percent probability, rapidly dividing cells, the elucidation as emphatically shied away from it. argues that earthquake prediction FiveirtyEight (3). In his book, it really does rain approximately 45 of cancer as a genome-based disease He relapsed to stale aphorisms. “But remains much more problematic Silver describes the history and bases percent of the time. of cell-growth control, and recent even without the proof which we because of limited knowledge of for predictions in a range of areas He also presents calibration curves www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday advances in the development of spe- oer, it is, I think, incumbent upon mechanisms that promote earth- including politics but also nance, for the Weather Channel and for local ISSN 2372-0409 cically targeted anticancer agents.