Vol. 13 / No. 4 / April 2014 THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY CONTENTS Best of JBC 2013: Podcast Series The Journal of Biological Chemistry has released a four-part podcast series to explore some of the research findings highlighted by the 2013 Best of JBC collection. The editors reviewed more than 4,000 articles published in NEWS FEATURES PERSPECTIVES 2013 and named 22 as the best, one article for each Affinity category. 2 32 40 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE UNDER THE SPELL OF ESSAY Serendipity and ‘impact’ THE COCKROACH HUNTER ank God for overlapping genes 5 12 43 NEWS FROM THE HILL OPEN CHANNELS oughts on the proposed Petsko on the Ph.D. pipeline American Cures Act 6 40 MEMBER UPDATE 7 JOURNAL NEWS 12 RETROSPECTIVE 7 Part I: The N-terminal lobe regulating Argonaute slicer activity: Richard Hanson, 1935 – 2014 JBC’s best RNA article of 2013 With Rachel Green, Johns Hopkins University 14 LIPID NEWS Part II: Prion-mediated toxicity of Aβ oligomers: 17 JBC’s best neurobiology article of 2013 NEWS With JBC Associate Editor Paul Fraser, University of Toronto; and Nigel Hooper, University of Leeds, U.K. 18 ANNUAL MEETING Part III: Key interactions at the HER2-HER3 kinase dimer interface: 18 How you can spread the good news JBC’s best signal transduction article of 2013 19 Your annual meeting checklist With JBC Associate Editor Alex Toker, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and Ron Bose, Washington University 20 Plan your meeting break time! 18 in St. Louis 21 Bringing science to San Diego 22 On the path to sustainability Part IV: α-synuclein, living cells and Parkinson’s disease: 23 Professional-development opportunities 24 Awards coverage JBC’s best cell biology article of 2013 With JBC Associate Editor Paul Fraser, University of Toronto; Dennis Selkoe, Harvard Medical School; and Ulf 32 24 Dettmer, Harvard Medical School In this month’s cover story, science writer Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay writes about To listen, visit www.jbc.org/site/podcast the jewel wasp, a fascinating parasite whose bewitching stings turn cockroaches into unwitting – and, simultaneously, willing – victims. PHOTO BY VICTOR LANDA, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE APRIL 2014 ASBMB TODAY 1 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE berg was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry “for his studies of is misinterpretation of impact may be driving THE MEMBER MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY the molecular basis of eukaryotic FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Serendipity transcription” (5). is prize was research toward the middle of the clinical-fundamental primarily for the determination of continuum – that is, away from fundamental studies OFFICERS COUNCIL MEMBERS the three-dimensional structure of Jeremy M. Berg Squire J. Booker and ‘impact’ eukaryotic RNA polymerase. is toward translational ones, even if these are quite far President Brenda Schulman prize represents not a serendipitous removed from true clinical applications. Steven McKnight David Sabatini By Jeremy Berg discovery but rather the culmination President-Elect Melissa Starovasnik of many years of eort by Kornberg Karen Allen Wesley I. Sundquist of Nobel laureates for analysis clearly “impact” was not intended to mean Secretary and his co-workers on a well-recog- Gregory Gatto Jr. represents a highly selected group. short-term inuence on human Toni Antalis Natalie Ahn hen I was a young faculty favors only the prepared mind”). nized problem, namely the elucida- Treasurer With these caveats, the analysis health but rather the potential Anjana Rao member at Johns Hopkins Under ideal circumstances, scientic tion of the structure and associated reveals that serendipity was the for changing the landscape of the Daniel Leahy W University, I served on the priority setting balances the benets mechanistic insights for a large and EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS Ph.D. thesis committee of Suzanne of exploring the unknown with its complex enzyme of central impor- primary driver in approximately 10 research elds involved, regardless Geeta Narlikar ASBMB TODAY Baker, a Ph.D. student in the labora- associated potential for truly novel tance to biochemistry and molecular percent of these accomplishments of whether these changes were close Enrique de la Cruz and a substantial contributor to an to a human health or clinical setting Co-chairs, 2014 Annual EDITORIAL ADVISORY tory of Bert Vogelstein, then an assis- discoveries against the selection of biology. Meeting Program BOARD tant professor in oncology. Baker’s problems that, if substantial progress An example of a hybrid discovery additional 25 percent. or were fundamental changes in Committee Charlie Brenner thesis project involved trying to iden- is made, will provide considerable is represented by the Nobel Prize to J. our understanding of basic biology. Peter J. Kennelly Chair Unfortunately, this broad perspective Chair, Education and Carol Shoulders tify a putative tumor-suppressor gene benet to society. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus Judging potential impact on potential impact sometimes has Professional Development Shiladitya Sengupta on human chromosome 17. Based in 1989 for their discovery “of the Committee e balance between selection of Yolanda Sanchez been lost during implementation, to Daniel Raben on considerable work mapping dele- Estimating the importance cellular origin of retroviral onco- important problems and the potential Floyd “Ski” Chilton some degree within the NIH but, in Chair, Meetings Committee tions in numerous human tumors, genes” (6). ey were working on a for unanticipated discoveries has been Cristy Gelling of serendipity my opinion, to a greater degree by Takita Felder Sumter she had reduced the search space to fundamental problem, namely the the topic of much discussion. Marc Peter J. Kennelly reviewers who interpret impact to Chair, Minority Aairs approximately one-fourth of the chro- Can we provide at least some bound- nature of cancer-causing genes from Kirschner of Harvard Medical School Committee Michael Bradley mean translational impact. Rajini Rao mosome. To put the nishing touch aries on the balance between seren- viruses. Identifying the nature of recently published an editorial in omas Baldwin is misinterpretation of impact Chair, Outreach Committee on Baker’s thesis, Vogelstein suggested dipity and problem importance? Sig- these genes, regardless of the answer, Science magazine titled “A Perverted may be driving research toward the Bob Matthews ASBMB TODAY that she sequence a gene that falls in nicant discoveries can be primarily would have been of fundamental View of ‘Impact’” (7), in which he middle of the clinical-fundamental Chair, Public Aairs Angela Hopp the center of this region to rule out serendipitous; the result of incremen- importance. e answer turned out criticizes the use of “impact” and “sig- Advisory Committee continuum – that is, away from Editor, [email protected] this gene as the sought-after tumor tal, step-by-step solving of a known, to be of unanticipated signicance, nicance” as criteria in peer review Jerey Benovic Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay fundamental studies toward transla- Chair, Publications suppressor. e gene they selected important problem; or a hybrid of the revealing that the viral genes were by the National Institutes of Health. Sr. Science Writer, tional ones, even if these are quite far Committee [email protected] was p53, the product of which had two. An example of a largely seren- related to normal cellular genes that, I agree with Kirschner that the use removed from true clinical applica- Martha J. Fedor Marnay Harris been shown to associate with a key dipitous discovery was recognized when mutated in some ways, can of these terms has the potential to Editor-in-chief, JBC tions. Designer, [email protected] protein from the tumor virus SV40 by the Nobel Prize in physiology or contribute to cell transformation. distort judgments about the potential Herbert Tabor is middle region may, in fact, be Andrew Harmon (1). To everyone’s astonishment, medicine in 2006 to Andrew Fire and To look at the balance between consequences of supporting specic Co-editor, JBC Science and Technology the least fertile area for real progress. Baker found point mutations in this Craig Mello for their discovery of serendipity and problem selection, proposals. However, as someone who A. L. Burlingame Publishing Manager, Fundamental research often turns Editor, MCP [email protected] gene in several tumors (2); they had “RNA interference-gene silencing by I examined all of the winners of was involved in the NIH “Enhancing out to be most inuential when it Edward A. Dennis Barbara Gordon stumbled on what turns out to be the double-stranded RNA” (4). the Nobel Prize in physiology or Peer Review” project (8) that led to Joseph L. Witztum Executive Director, is addressing basic biological pro- gene that is most commonly mutated is discovery was based on a medicine and chemistry over the the incorporation of these terms, I Co-editors, JLR [email protected] cesses of which our understanding in human cancer (3). chance observation made in the con- past 25 years and scored each win- can provide some context. is incomplete (i.e., most processes), While serendipity has been central text of studies of gene regulation in ner’s contribution as either largely First, what concerns about peer and important discoveries often are to a number of important discover- C. elegans wherein a control experi- serendipitous, largely driven by review led to the incorporation of made in model systems that are most ies, the importance of serendipity can ment involving the simultaneous solving a problem of known, fun- these terms? Much of the discussion amenable to controlled, detailed be overstated. e selection of the injection of both sense and anti-sense damental importance or a hybrid of with stakeholders both inside and study without regard to direct clinical problem under study is also essential, RNAs corresponding to the same the two. Of the 117 Nobel laureates outside of the NIH focused on the translation.