constituent society of faseb american society …...charles c. (“chuck”) hancock, jr., who has...

A M E R I C A N S O C I E T Y F O R B I O C H E M I S T R Y A N D M O L E C U L A R B I O L O G Y

w w w . a s b m b . o r gSE PTE M BE R 2003SE PTE M BE R 2003

Constituent Society of FASEB


‘Master Planners’ of the Skeleton2

ASBMB 2004:Meetings Within a MeetingPage 16

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

‘Master Planners’ ofthe SkeletonPage 12

ASBMB 2004:Meetings Within a MeetingPage 16

First Annual Herbert Tabor/Journal of Biological Chemistry

Lectureship Recipient

First Annual Herbert Tabor/Journal of Biological Chemistry

Lectureship Recipient

“A Molecular Exploration of the Cell”

Opening LectureFirst Annual Herbert Tabor/Journal of Biological Chemistry LectureshipRobert J. Lefkowitz, HHMI, Duke University Medical Center

Organized by:John D. Scott, HHMI, Vollum Institute; Alexandra C. Newton, UCSD; Julio Celis, DanishCancer Society, and the 2004 ASBMB Program Planning Committee

Meeting I: Molecular Recognition and CatalysisOrganizer: Jack E. Dixon, UCSD

Meeting II: Cellular Organization and DynamicsOrganizer: Harald A. Stenmark, Norwegian Rad. Hosp.

Meeting III: Genomics, Proteomics and BioinformaticsOrganizers: Charlie Boone, Univ. of Toronto and Michael Snyder, Yale Univ.

Meeting IV: Integration of Signaling MechanismsOrganizer: Kjetil Tasken, Univ. of Oslo, Norway

Meeting V: Molecular and Cellular Biology of LipidsOrganizer: Dennis Vance, Univ. of Alberta

Meeting VI: Protein Structure, Catalysis and DynamicsOrganizer: Susan Taylor, UCSD

Meeting VII: Protein Modifications and TurnoverOrganizer: William J. Lennarz, SUNY at Stony Brook

Meeting VIII: Regulation of Gene Expression and Chromosome TransactionsOrganizer: Joan W. Conaway, Stowers Inst. for Med. Res.

Meeting IX: Signaling Pathways in DiseaseOrganizers: Alexandra Newton, UCSD andJohn D. Scott, HHMI, Vollum Inst.

Meeting X: The Future of Education and ProfessionalDevelopment in the Molecular Life SciencesOrganizer: J. Ellis Bell, Univ. of Richmond

IUBMB/ASBMB 2004

American Society for Biochemistry and

Molecular Biology Annual Meeting

and 8th IUBMB Conference

“A Molecular Exploration of the Cell”

June 12 – 16

Boston, MA

For further information:ASBMB

9650 Rockville PikeBethesda, MD 20814

Tel: 301-634-7145Fax: 301-634-7126

Email: [email protected]://www.asbmb.org/meetings

Proteomics and Bioinformatics ■ Chemical Biology ■ Molecular Recognition ■ Cellular Biochemistry

A b s t r a c t D e a d l i n e : F e b r u a r y 4 , 2 0 0 4

f e a t u r e s2 Executive Officer Search Committee

3 The ASBMB Centennial

4 Award Honors Robert J. Cousins for Contributions toMicronutrient Research

6 Harvard’s R. John Collier Wins Bristol-Myers Squibb Award

8 IOM Proposes N IH Organizational Changes

9 Lipids Get Spotlight in New Glue Grant

10 Differentiation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells

12 ‘Master Planners’ of the Skeleton

16 ASBMB 2004: Meetings Within a Meeting

20 NIH Funding Picture Not Pretty

21 House Ups NSF Appropriation 6.2%; Senate Action Awaited

d e p a r t m e n t s4 Members in the News

8 NIH News

20 News From the Hill

22 Biotech Business

24 Calendar


w w w . a s b m b . o r g

O N T H E C O V E R :

14 Robert Lefkowitz,recipient of the First Annual Herbert Tabor/Journal of BiologicalChemistry Lectureship

SEPTEMBER 2003, Volume 2, Issue 6

10

BRONZE AWARD WINNER 2003

ASBMBToday SEPTEMBER 20032

rs. Bettie Sue Masters, Presi-dent, and Judith Bond, Presi-dent-Elect of ASBMB, have

completed the constitution of theSearch Committee for Executive Offi-cer of the ASBMB in replacing Mr.Charles C. (“Chuck”) Hancock, Jr.,who has announced his retirement atthe end of this calendar year. As indi-cated in Dr. Masters’ letter to the mem-bership on July 8th, we shall be losinga “linchpin of our Society” due to hisdynamic, highly motivated and dedi-cated service. This makes the task of asearch for his replacement even morechallenging.

This committee will be chaired byDr. Vernon Schramm, Professor andRuth Merns Chair of the Departmentof Biochemistry of the Albert EinsteinCollege of Medicine, Co-ProgramChair of the ASBMB 2003 meeting inSan Diego, and Chair of the Divisionof Biological Chemistry of the Ameri-can Chemical Society. Dr. Schrammbrings a dedication to the goals of ourSociety and a balanced view of thefuture to this important task. His com-mittee members are:

Dr. Judith Bond, President-Elect ofASBMB, Professor and Chair, Depart-ment of Biochemistry and MolecularBiology, Pennsylvania State UniversityCollege of Medicine, Hershey, PA

Dr. Joan Conaway, Senior Scientist,Stowers Institute for Medical Research,Kansas City, MO

Dr. Carl Frieden, Professor and Chair,Department of Biochemistry and Mole-cular Biophysics, Washington Univer-sity School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

Dr. Richard W. Hanson, Professor,Department of Biochemistry, Case

Western Reserve University School ofMedicine, Cleveland, OH

Dr. Claudia Kent, Co-Program Chair,ASBMB 2003 meeting, Former Profes-sor (Retired), Department of BiologicalChemistry, University of Michigan,Ann Arbor, MI. Current Address: LaJolla, CA

Dr. Kenneth Neet, Treasurer andChair of the Finance Committee ofASBMB, Professor and Chair, Depart-ment of Biochemistry and MolecularBiology, Finch University of the HealthSciences, Chicago Medical School,Chicago, IL

Dr. Philip Ortiz, Chair, MinorityAffairs Committee of ASBMB, AreaCoordinator, Mathematics, Scienceand Technology, Center for DistanceLearning, Empire State College,Saratoga Springs, NY

Ex Officio/Non-Voting: Dr. RobertD. Wells, President of the Federationof American Societies for Experimen-tal Biology, Past-President of ASBMB,Director, Center for GenomeResearch, Institute of Biosciences andTechnology, Texas A&M University,Houston, TX

Drs. Masters and Bond believe thatthis committee will bring the right bal-ance of experience, energy, and visionto the challenge we face in making thisvery important decision in the life ofthe ASBMB.

D

Committee Selected forExecut ive Off icer Search

ASBMB Todayis a monthly publication

of The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

OfficersBettie Sue Masters President

Judith S. Bond President-elect

Albert E. Dahlberg Secretary

Kenneth E. Neet Treasurer

Thomas Blumenthal Councilor

William R. Brinkley Councilor

Lila M. Gierasch Councilor

Frederick P. Guengerich Councilor

William J. Lennarz Councilor

Alexandra C. Newton Councilor

Merle S. Olson Councilor

Peter J. Parker Councilor

William L. Smith Councilor

Non-Voting MembersGeorge M. CarmanChair, Meetings Committee

John D. ScottAlexandra C. NewtonJulio CelisCo-chairs, 2004 Program Committee

Marion H. O’LearyJ. Ellis BellCo-chairs, Education and ProfessionalDevelopment Committee

William R. BrinkleyChair, Public Affairs Advisory Committee

Peter A. RubensteinChair, Publications Committee

Phillip A. OrtizChair, Minority Affairs Committee

Herbert TaborEditor, JBC

Ralph A. BradshawEditor, MCP

Edward A. DennisEditor, JLR

CommentsPlease direct any comments or questionsconcerning ASBMB Today to:

John D. ThompsonEditor, ASBMB Today9650 Rockville PikeBethesda, MD 20814-3996Phone: 301-634-7145Fax: 301-634-7126E-mail: [email protected]

For information on advertising contact FASEB AdNet at 800-433-2732

ext. 7157 or 301-634-7157, or email [email protected].

M r. C h a r l e s C .

( “ C h u c k ” ) H a n c o c k ,

J r. , h a s a n n o u n c e d h i s

r e t i r e m e n t a t t h e e n d

o f t h i s c a l e n d a r y e a r.

SEPTEMBER 2003 ASBMBToday 3

entertainment for all interests—fromclassical to pop and rock—are beingplanned.

This gala Centennial Celebration will require an infusion of funding,financed partially through a modestsurcharge of $10 per Regular memberand $5 per Associate member per yearfor the next 3 years. Membership fundswill be supplemented with donationsfrom foundations and industry. Theserevenue sources will allow us to financeour activities without overly burdeningthe resources of ASBMB, at a time whenwe are embarking on the publication of

three new journals, Molecular and Cellu-lar Proteomics, Journal of Lipid Research,and Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyEducation (published for the Interna-tional Union of Biochemistry and Mol-ecular Biology), as well as increasingour public affairs, scientific recognitionawards, and educational and profes-sional development activities.

Please plan to join us in San Fran-cisco for this special celebration of 100years of accomplishment and thepromise of the future for the AmericanSociety for Biochemistry and Molecu-lar Biology.

he American Society for Bio-chemistry and MolecularBiology (ASBMB) will enter its

Centennial Year in 2006, and in 2005The Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC)will mark its hundredth year of publi-cation.

The ASBMB Council is planningnow to honor these two remarkableachievements with an outstandingCentennial Celebration at the ASBMBAnnual Meeting in conjunction withEB2006 in San Francisco. For this his-toric event, we are planning a festivalthat will feature not just the celebra-tion of a prestigious and honorablehistory but a look forward to the futureof the biomedical discipline that werepresent.

Special publications being plannedwill, in words and pictures, tell the his-tory of ASBMB and The JBC, includingClassics, Reflections, scientific land-marks and the many contributions toscience that have been made byASBMB members.

The meeting itself will feature multi-media showcasing the contributionsand future developments of ASBMBand its journals, including makingavailable to the public at no charge100 years of JBC content searchableonline. The Society’s contributions toeducation and professional develop-ment, public and legislative affairs, andscientific awards will also be high-lighted at the meeting. The 2006 meet-ing will also feature lectures andcommentary by scientific luminaries,displays and demonstrations of bothhistoric instruments and current state-of-the-art instrumentation, and work-shops focusing on the proteomics eraand the future of biochemistry andmolecular biology. On the lighter side,social activities and a variety of musical

The ASBMB Centennial: Planning Now for 2006

Educat ion and Professional Development2002-2003 ASBMB Graduat ion Survey

The ASBMB Education and Profes-sional Development Committeemailed in August the fifth annual grad-uation survey to Biochemistry andMolecular Biology Department Chair-persons. Respondents may either mailthe survey to the Society or completethe form online in the Education sec-tion of the ASBMB website. The resultsof this survey will be published in theASBMB Today and placed on the Soci-ety’s website.

The data will enable the Commit-tee to more fully serve our membersby providing up-to-date demograph-ics and showing trends over time.Additionally, the data will be of helpto research universities in identifyingrecruiting areas that they may nothave previously identified.

The deadline for return of the sur-vey will be September 26. Please visitthe Education section of the ASBMBwebsite, www.asbmb.org, to see if

your department is currently on our“List of Schools” that offer Biochem-istry and Molecular Biology degrees.You may also view a list of therespondents to last year’s survey. Sur-vey results for the past four years areavailable online. The results for 2001-2002 were also published in theMarch 2003 issue of ASBMB Today.

The Society uses this informationto provide to the public a list ofdepartments that we know offerBiochemistry or Molecular Biologydegrees which may be found in theList of Schools section of theASBMB Education site. This year, asa service to departments returningthe survey, ASBMB will provide alink on their educational page toyour institution or departmenthome page. If you would like to par-ticipate in this service, please pro-vide the appropriate URL in thespace provided on the survey.

T


body. In his studies, he was the first todemonstrate that a dietary trace min-eral could actually influence the tran-scriptional regulation of geneexpression. His laboratory continues

to study the role of such zinc-bindingproteins and the factors controllingtheir synthesis and degradation.Among the applications of his workhas been the development of micro-level gene expression assays that offernew tools for assessing a person’smicronutrient status in field and clini-cal settings.

The subsequent discovery andunderstanding by Dr. Cousins of thezinc-binding properties of another pro-tein—cysteine-rich intestinal proteinor CRIP—has led to a more completeappreciation of how zinc behaves inintestinal and immune cells. CRIP isnow understood to have a role inimmune defense against infection.

Most recently, the discovery by Dr.Cousins that zinc deficiencies can actu-ally induce the expression of an intes-tinal hormone called uroguanylin is abreakthrough toward realizing theprobable role that zinc deficienciesmay play in zinc-responsive diarrhealdiseases common in young children,

particularly in the developing world.Today, using nutritional genomics, hecontinues to explore zinc status andtransport, and zinc’s regulatory role inthe immune system.

“Even as he has made these manyimportant contributions to under-standing more about micronutrientslike zinc, Dr. Cousins has alsoremained in the forefront in the fieldof nutritional genomics, applyingstate-of-the-art tools to a variety ofimportant and relevant questions ofnutritional research,” says Robert A.Burns, Research Fellow, Nutrition Sci-ence, Global Research and Develop-ment, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, asubsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb.“For example, he has utilized genomicapproaches to understand the meta-bolic consequences of deficiencies orexcesses of zinc in the body. And,while so many of his fundamental dis-coveries continue to be of great scien-tific interest, they also have enormousimplications for human health, partic-ularly as we have come to understandthe role of zinc deficiency in earlychildhood morbidity and mortality inthe developing world. As technologieshave advanced, Dr. Cousins has madecreative and innovative use of thosetechnologies for the benefit of scienceand most importantly, for the benefitof humankind.”

Dr. Cousins received a B.A. from theUniversity of Vermont in 1963 and hisPh.D. in nutritional biochemistry fromthe University of Connecticut in 1968.

M E M B E R S I N T H E N E W S

obert J. Cousins, Boston Fam-ily Professor of Nutrition at the University of Florida,

Gainesville, was named winner of theTwenty-third Annual Bristol-MyersSquibb/Mead Johnson Award for Distin-guished Achievement in NutritionResearch for his major contributions tomicronutrient research, specifically hiswide-ranging and continuing focus onthe metabolism and function of zinc inthe body, including its critical role inthe immune response system.

During a distinguished career thathas spanned more than three decades,Dr. Cousins, an ASBMB member, andhis colleagues have elucidated novelzinc-regulated genes that have beenfound to be essential for the regulationof a host of processes in the body.

His earliest efforts in the field, begin-ning in the 1970s, focused on zincmetabolism as regulated by hormonesand immune mediators related tostress and infection, and transcrip-tional regulation studies that set thestage for Dr. Cousins to formulate anew and groundbreaking understand-ing of zinc’s role in gene expressionand protein function.

He was also the first, in the late1970s, to elucidate the presence ofintestinal metallothionein, a proteininvolved in the regulation and kineticsof the intestinal absorption of dietaryzinc, while also discovering its vitalrole in cellular zinc metabolism, itsrelationship to zinc deficiency and theconsequences that can have on the

Robert J. Cousins,winner of the

twenty-third AnnualBristol-Myers

Squibb/Mead John-son Award

Robert J . Cousins Wins Bristol-MyersSquibb/ Mead Johnson Award Recogn ized for P ioneer ing Contr ibut ions to Understand ingFunct ion and Metabo l ism of Z inc as an Essent ia l Nutr ient

in Human Hea lth

R


papers, he has also served as an editoror on the editorial committees andboards of a number of major journalsincluding the Annual Review of Nutri-tion, the Journal of Nutrition and theFASEB Journal. His professional serviceincludes serving as president of the Fed-eration of American Societies for Exper-imental Biology, the major coalition ofbiomedical research societies.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Unre-stricted Biomedical Research GrantsProgram, under which the Distin-guished Achievement Award is pre-sented, was initiated in 1977. Itmarked its 25th anniversary in 2002,reaching a milestone of $100 millionin no-strings-attached funding in sixbiomedical research areas: cancer, car-diovascular disease, infectious disease,

metabolic disease, neuroscience andnutrition. The recipient is selected bypeer review. The award, a $50,000cash prize and a silver commemorativemedallion, is given annually in each ofthe six therapeutic areas. Dr. Cousinswill officially receive the nutritionaward at the annual Bristol-MyersSquibb Distinguished AchievementAward dinner to be held in New YorkCity on October 16, 2003.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global phar-maceutical and related health care prod-ucts company whose mission is toextend and enhance human life. MeadJohnson is a world leader in nutrition,recognized for developing and market-ing quality products that meet the nutri-tional and lifestyle needs of infants,children and adults of all ages.

He began his academic career as anassistant professor of nutrition at Rut-gers University in 1971 and wasnamed to his current post at the Uni-versity of Florida in 1982. Since 1987,he has also served as director of theCenter for Nutritional Sciences at theUniversity of Florida.

His many honors have included: theMead Johnson Award for research innutrition in 1979 and the Osborne andMendel Award in 1989, both from theAmerican Institute of Nutrition; a MeritAward from the National Institute ofDiabetes and Digestive and Kidney Dis-eases; and the USDA Secretary’s HonorAward for Superior Service in Researchin 2000. In 2000, Dr. Cousins was alsoelected to the National Academy of Sci-ences. The author of more than 160




pathway for the A subunit to cross amembrane and enter the cell interior,where it gains access to its target. There,the A subunit modifies its target mole-cule, causing death of the cell or, insome cases, a toxic disruption of animportant cellular function. As a resultof these early discoveries, similar studieswere undertaken with other toxins. Inaddition, for the first time in the field oftoxinology, Dr. Collier’s team elucidatedthe three-dimensional structures of tox-ins, eventually pioneering the use ofcrystallographic structural analysis inthe design of bacterial vaccines. Subse-quently, Dr. Collier has gone on to offerscientists new insights into differentmechanisms by which channels orpores are formed in cellular membranes,allowing for the translocation of bacter-ial toxins into cellular compartments.

On a practical level, this pioneeringresearch has contributed to the devel-opment of vaccines, including pertus-sis (whooping cough), because hisidentification of active sites on toxinshas allowed them to be detoxified andthen used as vaccines. In addition, thedesign of immunotoxins to specificallydestroy certain cancer cells is a directresult of Dr. Collier’s work. And mostrecently, as a result of work begunyears before by his laboratory to inves-tigate the toxin of the anthrax bacteria,new therapeutic strategies to defeatanthrax are now being developed.

“Dr. Collier’s outstanding contribu-tions to the field of infectious diseaseresearch began with his early work ondiphtheria toxin, in the process helpingus understand that what he discoveredabout diphtheria is applicable to most

bacterial toxins,” said Richard Colonno,Vice President, Infectious Disease DrugDiscovery, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “Whilehis science has been insightful, elegantand indeed, in many ways extraordinaryand groundbreaking, the practical appli-cations of his work have been just asimpressive and critical. They range fromdiscoveries that have led to the develop-ment of vaccines, to the creation ofimmunotoxins to fight cancer, and now,to pioneering work on the anthrax toxinthat could lead to new therapeuticapproaches in the war against bioterror-ism. He has understood the publichealth promiseand implicationso f h i s b a s i c scientific break-throughs and hasbeen in the fore-front of findingpractical andmeaningful appli-cations of hiswork. We’re proud to be able to recog-nize his achievements on behalf of thescientific and medical community andon behalf of all those individual patientswho have been helped as a result ofthose discoveries.”

Dr. Collier received his B.A. fromRice University in 1959 and his Ph.D.in biology from Harvard University in1964. He held teaching positions atthe University of California, Los Ange-les, beginning in 1966 before joiningHarvard Medical School in 1984, tak-ing up his current position in 1989. AtHarvard, he has also served as FacultyDean for Graduate Education,

John Collier, Maude and Lil-lian Presley Professor ofMicrobiology and Molecular

Genetics at the Harvard Medical School,was named winner of the ThirteenthAnnual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award forDistinguished Achievement in Infec-tious Diseases Research for his majorcontributions to our understanding ofthe molecular mechanisms by whichbacteria cause disease. His historic dis-coveries have influenced the design ofvaccines and toxin-based anticanceragents and have recently led to noveltherapeutic strategies against anthrax inthe war against bioterrorism.

For nearly 40 years, Dr. Collier, anASBMB member, and his colleagueshave been at the forefront in providingthe scientific community with a grow-ing understanding of the mechanismsof action of bacterial toxins. Workinginitially with diphtheria toxin, he wasthe first to demonstrate that a toxincould enter human cells and inactivatean intracellular target molecule.Specifically he showed how the diph-theria toxin interfered with proteinsynthesis in the cell by inactivating anintracellular target called elongationfactor-2. This revolutionary discoveryled to the more expansive conclusionthat most major bacterial toxins act bymodifying intracellular targets.

Dr. Collier then went further, by elu-cidating the fundamental structures oftoxins and how they function inside acell. Intracellularly acting toxins werefound to consist of two units, A and B,which together contribute to cell dam-age. In this A-B paradigm, the B sub-unit allows for cell binding and forms a

R.

Harvard’s R. John Coll ier Wins Bristol-Myers Squibb AwardRecogn ized for H istor ic D iscover ies of How Bacter ia

Cause D isease– Affect ing Vacc ine Des ign and NewTherapeut ic Deve lopment

Dr. R. John Collier

Continued on page 11

INVITING NOMINATIONS FOR THE

FASEB Excellence in Science Lecture and Award 2005

NOMINATION FORMNOMINATION FORMNOMINATION FORMNOMINATION FORMNOMINATION FORM

Selection Criteria and EligibilitySelection Criteria and EligibilitySelection Criteria and EligibilitySelection Criteria and EligibilitySelection Criteria and Eligibility

Sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company to recognize

outstanding achievement by women in biological

science. All women who are members of one or

more of the societies of FASEB will be eligible for

nomination. Nominations recognize a woman

whose career achievements have contributed

significantly to further our understanding of a

particular discipline by excellence in research.

Nomination ProceduresNomination ProceduresNomination ProceduresNomination ProceduresNomination Procedures

Please use this form as a checklist, include as a cover

sheet for your packet, and provide allallallallall of the following

information:Nominations may be made only by a member of

a FASEB Society. Self-nominations are not

accepted.

16 copies and original nomination letter, setting

forth in detail:• the contribution(s) to the field that represents

the nominee’s outstanding achievement in science

• leadership and mentorship

• evidence of national recognition

• honors and awards

• synopsis of selected bibliography

16 copies of the full curriculum vitae including all

publications.

16 copies of no more than 5 reprints.

16 copies of each additional letter of support.

Recommendations from former trainees are

encouraged.

Incomplete or late packets will be

returned to the nominator.

Length of CandidacyLength of CandidacyLength of CandidacyLength of CandidacyLength of Candidacy

Nominations may be updated and resubmitted for a

three-year period following the procedures listed

above.

DeadlineDeadlineDeadlineDeadlineDeadline

Nomination packets including all letters of reference

for the 2005 Excellence in Science Award must be

received no later than March 1, 2004.

Mail Complete Nominations Packets to:Mail Complete Nominations Packets to:Mail Complete Nominations Packets to:Mail Complete Nominations Packets to:Mail Complete Nominations Packets to:

Ms. Tia B. Poole

FASEB Excellence in Science Award

9650 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, MD 20814-3998

Telephone: 301.634.7090

E-mail: [email protected]

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The awardee will present an Excellence in Science

Lecture. The award will be presented at an annual

meeting of a FASEB member society. The award

includes a $10,000 unrestricted research grant,

funded by Eli Lilly and Company, travel expenses,

complimentary registration at the meeting, and a

plaque in recognition of the award.

TO VIEW A LIST OF PREVIOUS AWARDEES

PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.FASEB.ORG


N I H N E W S

whether NIH’s current structure canaccommodate the increasing pace ofscientific advances.

The report did not recommendwholesale consolidation of institutesand centers. However, the committeedid not favor a static organization.“Despite our conclusion that wide-spread consolidation of the institutesand centers would be unwise now,we do not expect NIH’s organiza-tional structure to remain frozen,”said Committee Chair Harold T.Shapiro, President Emeritus and Pro-fessor of Economics and PublicAffairs, Princeton University. “We areconvinced that many of the goalsthat might be achieved throughlarge-scale consolidation could beachieved more rapidly and effec-tively through other organizationalmechanisms.” These might includeincreasing the authority of the NIHdirector and giving him more flexi-bility to make organizationalchanges.

The committee supported a mergerbetween the drug- and alcohol-abuseinstitutes because the missions of thetwo organizations are nearly the same;also, there is a strong link betweenalcoholism and the use of illicit drugs,and many of the treatment options aresimilar. And since the National HumanGenome Research Institute has suc-cessfully completed its main mission, itmakes sense for it to merge with theNational Institute of General MedicalSciences, which has a lead role in fund-ing basic biomedical research.

Much of today’s most importantresearch requires the collaboration ofexperts from many disciplines. To help

achieve the necessary coordination,the NIH director should develop major“trans-NIH” research initiativesthrough periodic NIH-wide strategicplanning. Also, a “special projects”program should be established in theDirector’s office to fund risky cutting-edge research. Congress should pro-vide $100 million in new funding forthis program the first year, with theannual budget eventually growing toas much as $1 billion.

The committee expressed concernabout efforts by HHS to consolidate orcentralize management and adminis-trative functions throughout thedepartment as part of the “One HHS”initiative. The committee fears thatsome attempts to centralize or evenoutsource administrative tasks fail toappreciate how closely some of thesefunctions, such as aspects of grantsmanagement, are tied to the scientificenterprise. Any consolidation effortsshould be considered cautiously andonly after careful study of circum-stances unique to NIH.

The committee also recommendedthat appointments to the NIH’s advi-sory committees should be basedsolely on a candidate’s scientific orclinical expertise, or his or herinvolvement in relevant issues. Also,a substantial proportion of eachinstitute’s advisory council shouldconsist of people whose primarysource of research support is derivedfrom a different institute or center,or from outside NIH.

The full report can be purchased or readonline at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10779.html?onpi_newsdoc072903

erge the National Instituteon Drug Abuse with theNational Institute on Alco-

hol Abuse and Alcoholism. ■ Merge the National Institute of

General Medical Sciences with theNational Human Genome ResearchInstitute.

■ Congress should fund a new pro-gram for special projects to be runout of the NIH director’s office.

■ NIH-sponsored clinical researchshould be consolidated.

■ The special status of the National Can-cer Institute should be reconsidered.

■ Directors of NIH institutes and cen-ters should be appointed to nomore than five-year terms, andauthority to hire and fire themshould be switched from the secre-tary of HHS to the NIH director.

These are among the numerous rec-ommendations found in a new reportwritten by a committee under thepurview of the National ResearchCouncil and Institute of Medicine(IOM) of the National Academies. Thereport was released July 29.

The report appears at a time whenNIH is coming under increasing con-gressional scrutiny (see last month’sASBMB Today for a discussion of thisproblem) and may attract more atten-tion than usual (an earlier IOM reporton NIH’s organizational structure,issued in 1984, was never acted upon).Congress requested this study becauseNIH has become vastly larger andmore complex in recent decades, andit wanted expert advice on whetherNIH was becoming too fragmentedand unwieldy. Another concern was

M

IOM Proposes N I H Organizat ional ChangesBy Peter Farnham , Pub l i c A f fa i rs O f ficer


ing diverse groups of scientiststogether. The National Institute ofGeneral Medical Sciences conceived ofglue grants after consultations withleaders in the scientific communitywho emphasized the importance ofconfronting intractable biologicalproblems with the expertise of large,multifaceted groups of scientists.

“Today’s large, complex biomedicalproblems demand more intellectualand physical resources than a singlelaboratory or small group of laborato-ries can offer,” said NIH Director EliasZerhouni. “By funding scientists fromdiverse fields and bringing themtogether, this project dramaticallyincreases the likelihood of a strongreturn on our research investment. Weexpect to significantly improve ourunderstanding of the role of lipids inmany serious diseases.”

The Lipid MAPS Consortium willseek to identify and measure theamounts of all lipids within a cell. Thiswill give scientists a picture of howlipids interact with each other and

with the inner structures of cells atvarying times and locations.

Imbalances in lipids cause or play arole in diseases that affect millions ofpeople worldwide. High cholesterolhas been implicated in cardiovasculardisease, which killed about 950,000Americans in 2002, according to theAmerican Heart Association. Lipidsproduced by immune system cells areinvolved in inflammatory diseasessuch as rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis,asthma and inflammatory bowel dis-ease. Lipids also play a role inAlzheimer’s disease and cancer.

The Lipid MAPS Consortium is dividedinto six focus areas. The “lipidomics”focus area will investigate six majorgroupings of lipids. Other scientific focusareas will cover informatics, cell biology,lipid detection and quantitation, andlipid synthesis and characterization. Morethan 30 researchers at 16 universities andtwo corporations will be involved.

For more information on the LipidMAPS Consortium research plan, see:http://www.lipidmaps.org

hile genes and proteins havelong held starring roles inbiomedical research, lipids—

fats and oils—often have a more directeffect on human health. A new NIHgrant puts lipids at center stage in anambitious scientific project that prom-ises to shed light on heart disease,arthritis and other major illnesses. Thefive-year grant will fund the LipidMAPS Consortium, a large collabora-tive effort led by the University of Cali-fornia, San Diego. NIH anticipates totalfunding of about $35 million on theproject, starting with $6.3 million inthe first year.

“Lipids are the most important bio-molecules because they are the ultimatecontrollers and regulators of our bodilyprocesses,” said ASBMB member EdwardDennis, Professor of Chemistry and Bio-chemistry at the University of California,San Diego, and principal investigator ofthe Lipid MAPS Consortium.

The new award is a “glue grant,” sonamed because it enables large-scalebiomedical research projects by bring-

Lipids Get Spotl ight in New N IG MS ‘Glue Grant’W

N I H Will Repay Researchers’ LoansThe National Institutes of Health

(NIH) Loan Repayment Programsoffer up to $35,000 per year to repaystudent loans of scientists, physi-cians, dentists, and other health pro-fessionals willing to commit to acareer in clinical, pediatric, healthdisparities or contraception andinfertility research. Applicants musthave doctoral-level degrees and com-mit to spend at least 50% of theirtime for two years conducting quali-fied research.

Online application was to open Sep-

tember 1 and closes December 31,2003. See www.lrp.nih.gov for programinformation and to apply online.

NIH Loan Repayment ProgramNIH will also repay lenders for the

extant principal, interest, and relatedexpenses of qualified U.S. Government(federal, state, local), academic institu-tions, and commercial educationalloans obtained by participants for thefollowing:1.Undergraduate, graduate, and healthprofessional school tuition expenses;

2.Other reasonable expenses requiredby the school(s) atended, includingfees, books, supplies, educationalequipment and materials, and labora-tory expenses; and 3.Reasonable living expenses, includ-ing the cost of room and board, trans-portation and commuting costs, andother living expenses as determined bythe Secretary.

More detailed information is available on the NIH website athttp://www.lrp.nih.gov/about/extramural/loaninfo.htm

N I H N E W S


already been proven to control the dif-ferentiation of hematopoietic stem andprogenitor cells, GATA-1 and GATA-2.

Previous research in the lab ofASBMB member Stuart Orkin, Profes-sor and Chairman of Pediatric Oncol-ogy at the Dana Farber CancerInstitute and Harvard Medical School,had shown that GATA-2 is necessaryfor hematopoietic stem and progenitorcells to function and that GATA-1 isrequired for hematopoietic stem cellsto differentiate into red blood cells,megakaryocytes and eosinophils. Dr.Orkin’s lab also determined that GATA-2 is present in the stem cells at first,and then its production decreases asGATA-1 levels increase during differen-tiation. After differentiation, onlyGATA-1 is present in the blood cells.Dr. Bresnick and his colleagues contin-ued the story from this point to dis-cover why expression of the GATA-1and GATA-2 genes differed betweenthe undifferentiated and fully differen-tiated blood cells.

“We are interested in how chro-matin domains assemble in stem cellsversus progenitor cells versus differen-tiated cells,” he says. “We asked, howdoes the gene get assembled into aform in which it can become active inhematopoietic stem cells and thenreconfigured into a form in which itcan become inactive?”

The answer lies in the specific sixbase pair sequences that are found allover the genome and recognized byGATA proteins. The Wisconsinresearchers suspected that GATA-1 pro-teins were directly involved in the reg-ulation of the expression of theGATA-2 gene. That is, once GATA-1 isproduced, it binds to the GATA-2 genein such a way that production ofGATA-2 is shut off and differentiationcan continue. On the GATA-2 gene,the researchers found more than 80 ofthe recognized sites, called motifs.However, further investigation showedthat GATA-1 binds only to a regioncontaining just four of the 80 motifs,all in one small area of approximately3,000 base pairs upstream of the first oftwo promoters on the GATA-2 gene.Thirty minutes to one hour afterGATA-1 binds to the GATA-2 gene,production of GATA-2 ceases, allowingdifferentiation to occur.

An additional surprise was the dis-covery that GATA-2 proteins act astheir own enhancers. The proteinsbind to the same region containing thefour motifs that GATA-1 does andincreases expression of the gene. Once

mery Bresnick, Professor ofPharmacology at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin Medical

School and an ASBMB member, hasbegun to clear the path to what hecalls one of the “Holy Grails” of bio-medical research, self-renewable adultstem cells. His contribution to thisquest is an understanding of howhematopoietic stem cells and multipo-tent hematopoietic progenitors differ-entiate into all types of blood cells,published in a paper in the July 11,2003, issue of Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences Online. The otherauthors of the paper are Jeffrey Grassand Meghan Boyer, Research Associ-ates, Saumen Pal, Postdoctoral Fellowand Jing Wu, Graduate Student, all inthe Department of Pharmacology atthe University of Wisconsin MedicalSchool; with the collaboration ofMitchell Weiss, Assistant Professor ofPediatrics at the Children’s Hospital ofPhiladelphia.

Differentiation of hematopoieticstem cells and progenitors relies on twoproteins of the GATA family, which Dr.Bresnick describes as “a family of pro-teins required for the development ofmany of our organs, which are con-served from worm to man.” The sixGATA proteins were known to havenearly identical DNA-binding domains,but extremely different functions. Toinvestigate why the proteins do notregulate the same genes and elicit iden-tical cellular responses, he focused onthe two GATA proteins that had

E

Different iat ion of Hematopoie t ic Stem Cells

By L isa Samo ls

Dr. B re sn i ck ’swork r e v ea l s n ewp o s s i b i l i t i e s f o rg e n e r a t i n g l a r g en u m b e r s o f s t e mc e l l s f ro m j u s t a

f ew har ve s t eda d u l t s t e m c e l l s .


versus GATA-1 might expand the stemcells or preserve them at their existingnumbers, while suppressing differentia-tion, a process in which the stem cell isconsumed,” says Dr. Bresnick.

Though they may not be answeredany time soon, this question as well asthat of finding a molecule that couldeffectively shift the balance of GATA fac-tors may lead to that “Holy Grail.”

Chairman of the Division of MedicalScience and Acting Head of theDepartment of Microbiology andMolecular Genetics.

He has been recognized for hismany contributions with a numberof honors including the Eli LillyAward in Microbiology andImmunology in 1972, the PierceImmunotoxin Award in 1988, thePaul Ehrlich Prize in 1990, the Sel-man A. Waksman Award in Microbi-ology from the National Academy ofSciences in 1999, and with his elec-tion to the National Academy of Sci-ences, the American Academy of Artsand Sciences and the American Acad-emy of Microbiology. His work onanthrax and other toxins also has ledto his membership on a number ofdistinguished panels exploringbiowarfare and science, including anAdvisory Panel for the DefenseAdvanced Research Projects Agencyand the NIAID Blue Ribbon Panel onBioterrorism.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Unre-stricted Biomedical Research GrantsProgram, under which the Distin-guished Achievement Award is pre-sented, was initiated in 1977. Therecipient is selected by peer review.The award, a $50,000 cash prize anda silver commemorative medallion, isgiven annually in each of the sixtherapeutic areas. Dr. Collier willofficially receive the infectious dis-ease award at the annual Bristol-Myers Squibb DistinguishedAchievement Award dinner in NewYork City on October 16

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a globalpharmaceutical and related healthcare products company whose mis-sion is to extend and enhancehuman life.

GATA-1 is produced, it displaces theGATA-2 proteins to silence the gene.

The clinical application of theresearch is a long way off, but Dr. Bres-nick’s work reveals new possibilities forgenerating large numbers of stem cellsfrom just a few harvested adult stemcells. Given that GATA-2 keepshematopoietic cells functioning andthe presence of GATA-1 directlyrepresses GATA-2, stimulating the cellsto differentiate, increas-ing the strength of theGATA-2-dependent posi-tive autoregulation orsuppressing the expres-sion or activity of GATA-1 could theoreticallykeep the cell in a stemcell state indefinitely,possibly resulting inexpansion of stem cellnumbers.

“The concentrations ofthe two highly relatedGATA factors, GATA-1and GATA-2, determinethe activity of the stemand progenitor cells.Thus, increasing the rela-tive activity of GATA-2

From left to right are Jing Wu, Saumen Pal, Dr. Bresnick, Jeffrey Grass, Meghan Boyer.

Continued from page 6

Coll ier Wins cont inued

Con

ceptual computer artw

ork of a bundle of stem

cells in culture. ©

Laguna D

esign

New Approach


oward Hughes Medical Insti-tute researchers are movingcloser to understanding how

the global pattern of the skeleton ofmammals is formed during develop-ment. In a demanding series of experi-ments, the researchers knocked outentire sets of two families of genes sus-pected of playing a central role inestablishing the pattern of the skeletonin the mammalian embryo.

Their findings regarding the “paralo-gous” gene families known as Hox10and Hox11 establish that the genesplay important roles in orchestratingthe construction of the ribs, spine andlimb bones. Paralogous genes are setsof genes that have overlapping func-tion. They arose during evolutionthrough gene duplication.

The studies on Hox10 and Hox11were published in the July 18, 2003,issue of the journal Science by Mario R.Capecchi, HHMI Investigator and Pro-fessor in the Department of HumanGneetics at the University of Utah, andcolleague Deneen M. Wellik.

According to Dr. Capecchi, the find-ings should also spur other scientistsstudying mammalian development totest the effects of knocking out multi-ple members of the Hox gene families.Knocking out multiple genes willenable scientists to “peel away” thelayers of redundant gene function tomore closely discern the true develop-mental roles of specific members of theHox gene families.

The 13 sets of Hox genes, each withmultiple members, have long beenknown to be “transcriptional regula-

Hto Gene Knockouts Reveals the

“ In the end , wehave to figure outwhat i t means in amo lecu lar senseto make a r ib ornot to make ar ib , ” says ASBMBmember Dr. Mar ioCapecch i .

“The take-home lesson from research such asours is that you can generate all these differentbody plans using moderately simple rules and

the same set of genes, but just modulatingthem differently,” says Dr. Mario Capecchi.


“What’s interesting is that this is thebody plan of most fish as well as theearly tetrapods such as the dinosaurs.However, this plan resulted in aninflexible body, so mammals basicallyadapted the Hox genes to get rid ofsome of those ribs to increase flexibil-ity and speed.”

When the researchers knocked outthe Hox11 genes, the animals’ lower,or sacral, vertebrae assumed the iden-tity of lumbar vertebrae (thosebetween the sacral and the rib-support-ing thoracic vertebrae) and no sacralvertebrae developed in the animal.

The researchers also found thatknocking out the Hox10 or Hox11genes affected the length of specificlimb bones, demonstrating a role forthose genes in patterning of limbs.

“All these results tell us that thesegenes control global patterning of theskeletal structures, as opposed to form-ing the structures rib by rib, for exam-ple,” said Dr. Capecchi. “Thisunderstanding also suggests an evolu-tionary pathway by which vertebratescould evolve different patterns for dif-ferent species.”

A major challenge for researchersstudying the genetic control of devel-opment will be to detect where thepanoply of Hox genes are expressed inthe growing embryo, he explained.“We’ve demonstrated that the expres-sion patterns of these genes are fairlydynamic. So, when researchers arelooking for expression of specific Hoxgenes in a given tissue, they might notsee them because the genes areexpressed only during certain periods

of development.” Multiple knockoutstudies such as the ones done onHox10 and Hox11 may also yield valu-able clues into how the genes affectone another, he added.

Future experiments by theresearchers, as well as their colleaguesstudying other Hox genes, mayinvolve knocking out all genes in theindividual paralogous Hox gene setsand attempting to discern the roles ofthose gene sets from observing thealterations in development of the bodyplan.

“However, my guess is that naturewon’t be that kind to us,” said Dr.Capecchi. “I suspect that sometimesdevelopment of a particular structurewill involve using members of anentirely different paralogous family. So,our knockouts may have to be muchbroader than we now believe.”

Another major challenge, he added,will be determining which genes theHox genes target to control develop-ment. “In the end, we have to figureout what it means in a molecular senseto make a rib or not to make a rib,”said Dr. Capecchi. However, he addedthat the research thus far has yieldedimportant insights.

“Even among mammals, there areenormously different body shapes,from giraffes, to monkeys andhumans, to mice,” he noted. “Thetake-home lesson from research suchas ours is that you can generate allthese different body plans using mod-erately simple rules and the same set ofgenes, but just modulating them differ-ently.”

tors” that control the multitude ofgenes involved in embryonic develop-ment. However, he said, experimentsin which one or another of the Hoxgenes were knocked out provided littleinformation about the functions ofindividual Hox genes.

“It was confusing,” noted Dr. Capec-chi, referring to results from earliergene knockouts of Hox10 and Hox11.“When individual genes were knockedout, the resulting animals might havean extra rib or vertebrae or be missingone. And sometimes one structurewould transform to look like anotheror just be misshapen. Even if you inac-tivated five out of the six genes, youstill got very small effects. So, while itwas clear these genes were working inthe region of the ribs and spine, it was-n’t clear what they were doing.”

The Capecchi/Wellik teamattempted the difficult task of knock-ing out all of the Hox10 or Hox11 par-alogous gene forms, or alleles. Theexperiments were particularly chal-lenging because eliminating the genesprofoundly affected the embryonicdevelopment and survival of the mice.Another complication was that manyof the surviving animals were sterile.But when the scientists managed toproduce knockout mice that survivedto birth with the entire gene sets miss-ing, the effects on evelopment weredramatic.

“When we eliminated all the Hox10genes, we obtained animals that maderibs essentially all the way from thenormal thoracic region down throughthe tail,” reported Dr. Cappecchi.

‘Master Planners’ of the Skele ton


Herbert Tabor Lectureship Recipient

Dr. Robert Lefkowitz will be the recipient of the First Annual HerbertTabor/Journal of Biological Chemistry Lectureship

obert Lefkowitz, James B. Duke Professor andHoward Hughes Medical Institute Investigator atDuke University Medical Center, will be the recipi-

ent of the First Annual Herbert Tabor/Journal of BiologicalChemistry Lectureship, which will open the 2004 ASBMBAnnual Meeting in Boston on Saturday, June 12. He wasalso honored recently with the 500,000-euro (about$560,000) Scientific Grand Prize of the Institut de France,that country’s leading association of intellectual academies.That award is given each year to a “scientist who has madeimportant contributions to cardiovascular physiology, biol-ogy, or medicine.”

Starting with the 2004 meeting, the HerbertTabor/Journal of Biological Chemistry Lecture will be theopening lecture of every ASBMB Annual Meeting. Theaward honors Dr. Tabor for his long service to theSociety and to the JBC. Future recipients will beselected from among those whose names representoutstanding research in addition to service to the Soci-ety, including its publication efforts.

Dr. Lefkowitz, an ASBMB member, is known for his semi-nal research on “seven transmembrane spanning recep-tors,” a group that constitutes by far the largest and mostubiquitous family of receptors in nature. These receptors—protein switches that nestle themselves in the cell mem-brane—include the beta adrenergic receptors that mediatethe body’s fight-or-flight response, as well as virtually allsensory receptors.

Seven transmembrane spanning receptors respond toexternal signals such as hormones, switching on machinerywithin the cell to respond to those signals. The beta adren-ergic receptors, for example, respond to the hormoneadrenaline, which acts on cells to increase heart rate, bloodpressure, breathing and metabolic energy production.

Basic research on such receptors in the Lefkowitz labora-tory is contributing to the development of a wide array ofdrugs to treat disorders including heart disease, high bloodpressure, asthma and pain.

Said Dr. Lefkowitz of the Institut de France award, “I amthrilled and rather awestruck by the size of the award. And

R


I’m cognizant that the research thatled to the award was made possibleonly by the fact that I was fortunateenough to lead a talented and dedi-cated group of fellows and studentsover the years.

“I’m also very excited about beingthe first Herbert Tabor/Journal of Biolog-ical Chemistry Lecture Award recipientat next year’s annual meeting. I con-sider this a great honor indeed.”

“I’ve spent my entire career atDuke and have enjoyed extraordinary

more, the extraordinary number ofyoung scientists he has trained hasmagnified that effect, to the incalcula-ble benefit of our society. We are soproud that he has chosen to do hisexcellent scientific work at Duke andso inspired by his spirit of basic scien-tific inquiry.”

Dr. Lefkowitz will receive the award,the Lefoulon Delalande FoundationScientific Grand Prize 2003, in January2004 in a ceremony at the Institut deFrance in Paris.

The superfamily of seven mem-brane spanning receptors, comprisingmore than 1,000 members in thehuman genome, constitute by far thelargest, most versatile and most ubiq-uitous type of plasma membranereceptor. Moreover, they comprisethe major target of current therapeu-tic drugs.

Drug receptors have fascinatedbiologists for more than a hundredyears, but as recently as the 1970s,much skepticism persisted as to theirexistence as molecular entities. Withthe advent of radioligand binding,detergent solubilization, photoaffin-ity labeling, affinity chromatographyand lipid reconstitution, the b1, b2,a1 and a2 adrenergic receptors were

all purified 100-200,000 fold by themid-80’s. This led to cloning of theb2 AR (1986) unexpectedly revealingits seven transmembrane architectureand homology with rhodopsin.

Cloning of the family of adrenergicreceptors and others confirmed theexistence of a superfamily of sevenmembrane spanning receptors(7MSRs). Contemporaneously, a uni-versal mechanism of 7MSR desensiti-zation by G protein-coupled receptorkinases (GRKs) and b-arrestins wasdiscovered. However, these proteinsare increasingly appreciated as playingwider roles in 7MSR signaling and reg-ulation. For example, b-arrestins facili-tate clathrin mediated endocytosis byserving as adaptors which recruit ele-

ments of the endocytic machinerysuch as clathrin, AP2, NSF, and ARF6among others, in a process which iscontrolled by b-arrestin ubiquitina-tion by the E3 ligase, MDM2.

Moreover, for a rapidly expandinglist of pathways, b-arrestins serve asadaptors or scaffolds which link thereceptors to signaling systems such asMAP kinases, non-receptor tyrosinekinases and others. In the case of theAngiotensin II receptor, this arrestin-mediated signaling functions entirelyindependent of and parallel to G pro-tein signaling. Thus, the b-arrestin-GRK system operates not only todesensitize G protein signaling but, likethe G proteins themselves, also servesas an alternative signal transducer.

Also Honored by French Inst i tute

Seven Membrane Spanning Receptorsby Robert J . Le fkow i tz , M .D .

support by the Howard HughesMedical Institute,” he added. “Thatsupport and the rich intellectualatmosphere at Duke have inspiredmy work and that of my colleaguesin the laboratory.”

Said Duke Medical School DeanSandy Williams, “This latest in along line of honors for BobLefkowitz is yet another fittingrecognition of the profound impacthis research has had on medical sci-ence and human health. What’s


in which each of 3 genes that are crit-ical for phosphatidylcholine biosyn-thesis has been disrupted.Historically, phosphatidylcholine hasbeen considered to be present only ina few bacteria. However, Dr. Geigerhas discovered a new pathway inbacteria that reacts choline withCDP-diacylglycerol to form phos-phatidylcholine. The discovery ofphosphocholine substitution on cellsurface components in certain bacte-ria has also emphasized a role for theCDP-choline pathway in eubacteriaeven though these bacteria do notmake phosphatidylcholine.

Gene Expression and the Regulation ofPhosphatidylcholine BiosynthesisSuzy Jackowski, St. Jude Children’sResearch Hospital

Regulation of Membrane LipidBiosynthesis in EubacteriaOtto Geiger, Universidad NacionalAutonoma de Mexico

Sympos ium 2 , L ip idsand Obes ityLipid Synthesis Enzymes and ObesityChair, Robert Farese, Jr., GladstoneResearch Laboratory

Obesity and related diseases, suchas diabetes, are fast becoming amajor concern for worldwide publichealth. Fortunately, knowlege of thebasic biology that underlies the reg-ulation of body weight is growingrapidly. This symposium will focus

on the relationship of lipid (or fat)metabolism and obesity. Dr. RobertFarese, Jr., will discuss recent insightsinto the enzymes that catalyze fatsynthesis, some of which may be tar-gets for drug therapies. Dr. RudolfZechner will discuss the other side ofthe coin — fat breakdown. He willshare recent knowledge of theenzymes involved in hydrolyzingfat. Dr. Johan Auwerx will discussdevelopments in understanding ofthe nuclear hormone receptors thatcontrol processes such as fat synthe-sis and fat breakdown. A goal of thissession will be to provide a betterunderstanding of the cell biology ofthe adipocyte and how changes infat cells influence energy metabo-lism of the organism.

Adipose Tissue Lipases and ObesityRudolf Zechner, Karl FranzensUniversity, Austria

Metabolic control by nuclear receptorsJohan Auwerx, University of Strasburg,France

Sympos ium 3 ,Cho lestero lHomeostas isReceptors for Lipoprotein Transportand Signal TransductionChair, Wolfgang Schneider, Universityof Vienna, Austria

Cholesterol homeostasis is main-tained by the products of tightly reg-ulated genes, among whichreceptors and transporters play indis-pensable roles. The session will focuson membrane-localized moleculesfor the cellular import and export,respectively, of lipoproteins and/ortheir lipid components, notably cho-lesterol. Molecular defects in any ofthese proteins lead to dramaticpathobiological phenotypes. Thefirst example are mutations disrupt-ing the function of members of the

ollowing on the success of the2003 Annual Meeting format,the 2004 meeting will again

feature a series of meetings-within-a-meeting, all of them focused on timelytopics of major importance to ourmembers. Following is the first in aseries of ASBMB Today articles describ-ing the content of each meeting-within-a-meeting.

Meet ing V : Mo lecu larand Ce l lu lar B io logyof L ip idsOrganizer: Dennis Vance, Professor,Department of Biochemistry, University ofAlberta

During the last decade Lipid Bio-chemistry has evolved from a subjectthat has been handicapped by theinnate problems of membrane associ-ated enzymes to a discipline greatlyempowered by the modern tech-niques of molecular and cell biology.The theme of Molecular and CellularBiology of Lipids at the 2004ASBMB/IUBMB meeting in Bostonwill reflect that transition. The pro-gram will feature the use of gene-dis-rupted mice to address questionsabout the regulation of lipid biosyn-thesis and the function of variouslipids and lipid metabolizingenzyme/proteins in the intact organ-ism. A second focus of the meetingwill be lipid signaling and its function.

Sympos ium 1 ,Regu lat ion of L ip idB iosynthes is

Chair of this symposium will beDr. Vance, who will discuss MetabolicInsights From Murine Knockouts inHepatic Phosphatidylcholine Bio-synthesis.

Phosphatidylcholine is an essentialmolecule in most eukaryotic cells.This symposium will focus on mice

F

AS BM B 2004Meet ings-Within-a-Meet ing

Meeting V Organizer Dennis Vance.

ASBMB MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY OF LIPIDS

MEETING planned for IUBMB/ASBMB 2004 in Boston!

Regulation of Lipid Biosynthesis

Metabolic insights from murine knockouts in hepaticphosphatidylcholine biosynthesisChair, Dennis Vance, Univ. of Alberta

Gene expression and the regulation ofphosphatidylcholine biosynthesisSuzanne Jackowski, St. Jude Children’s Res. Hosp.

Regulation of membrane lipid biosynthesis ineubacteriaOtto Geiger, Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Lipids and Obesity

Lipid synthesis enzymes and obesityChair, Robert Farese, Jr., Gladstone Res. Lab.

Adipose tissue lipases and obesityRudolf Zechner, Karl Franzens Univ., Austria

Metabolic control by nuclear receptorsJohan Auwerx, Univ. of Strasburg, France

Cholesterol Homeostasis

Receptors for lipoprotein transport and signaltransductionChair, Wolfgang Schneider, Univ. of Vienna, Austria

ABCG5 and ABCG8: limiting cholesterol homeostasisHelen Hobbs, Univ. of Texas, Southwestern

Characterization of the HDL receptor SR-BI and itsinfluence on lipoprotein metabolism, red blood cellmaturation, female fertility and coronary arterydiseaseMonty Krieger, MIT

Sphingolipid Homeostasis

Sphingolipids: Metabolism at membrane-waterinterphases and its diseasesChair, Konrad Sandhoff, Univ. of Bonn, Germany

Sphingolipids and cell growth controlJoseph Nickels, Drexel Univ.

Molecular machinery for intracellular ceramidetraffickingKentaro Hanada, Natl. Inst. of Infectious Dis., Tokyo, Japan

Phospholipases/Eicosanoids

Regulation of cytosolic phospholipase A2 alphatranslocationChair, Christina Leslie, Natl. Jewish Med. and Res. Ctr.

Mammalian phospholipases A2: deciphering theircellular functions using biochemical and geneticapproachesMichael Gelb, Univ. of Washington

Cyclooxygenase structure and catalysisWilliam Smith, Univ. of Michigan

Phosphoinositides/InositolPhosphates

Inositol signaling reactionsChair, Philip Majerus, Washington Univ.

Role of lipid phosphatases in cell signalingChristina Mitchell, Monash Univ., Australia

Phosphoinositide signaling in cell motilityRichard Anderson, Univ. of Wisconsin

Obesity and Minority Populationssponsored by the ASBMB Minority Affairs CommitteeChair, Phillip A. Ortiz, SUNY, Empire State Col.

Addressing the prevalence of obesity in minoritypopulations with legislationFelix Ortiz, New York State Assemblyman, 51st District

Adipose cell turnover and its role in insulin resistanceDesmond G. Hunt, NIDDK/NIH

“Rolling Store”: an environmental approach to theprevention of weight gain in African American womenBetty Monroe Kennedy, Pennington Biomed. Res. Ctr.,Baton Rouge, LA

Title TBDKristie J. Lancaster, New York Univ.

ASBMB Annual Meeting and 8th IUBMB ConferenceJune 12 – 16, 2004 • Boston, Massachusetts

Organized by Dennis Vance, University of Alberta

Additional Speakers will bechosen from the abstractssubmitted to the ASBMBMolecular and Cellular Biologyof Lipids topic categories.Abstract deadline: 2/4/004

Travel Awards Available forUndergraduates, Graduates,Postdoctoral Fellows andUndergraduate Faculty

More Information: ASBMB Meetings Office 9650 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20814Tel: 301-634-7145Fax: 301-634-7126Email: [email protected]


which are the physio-logical surroundings ofmembrane proteins.They are involved inthe regulation of mem-brane-bound receptorsand signal transduc-tion. Sphingolipidmetabolism is distrib-uted between differentsubcellular compart-ments. It controls thegeneration of primaryand secondary messengers likesphingosine, sphingosine-1-phos-phate, ceramide and ceramide-1-phosphate involved in cell growthand apoptosis, and that ofmicrodomain forming membranecomponents such as sphingomyelinand cell type specific neutral gly-cosphingolipids and gangliosides.

Dr. Sandhoff will begin this ses-sion with an overview on mam-malian sphingolipid metabolismand the function of sphingolipids asrevealed by analysis of knock outanimals and human diseases.

Joseph Nickels of Drexel Univer-sity will present recent findings onthe homeostasis of sphingolipid andsterol metabolism involved in theregulation of cell growth, and Ken-taro Hanada will present new find-ings on the intracellular traffickingof ceramide and its functions.

Sphingolipids and Cell Growth ControlJoseph Nickels, Drexel University

Molecular Machinery for IntracellularCeramide TraffickingKentaro Hanada, National Institute ofInfectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

Sympos ium 5 ,Phospho l ipasesE icosano idsRegulation of Cytosolic ChospholipaseA2 Alpha TranslocationChair, Christina Leslie, NationalJewish Medical and Research Center

MammalianPhospholipases A2:Deciphering TheirCellular Functions UsingBiochemical and GeneticApproachesMichael Gelb, Universityof Washington

Cyclooxygenase Structureand CatalysisWilliam Smith, Universityof Michigan

Sympos ium 6 ,Phospho inos it idesInos ito l PhosphatesChair: Philip Majerus, WashingtonUniversityInositol Signaling Reactions

The phosphatidylinositol signalingsystem, notes Dr. Majerus, is a robustand complex system that participatesin essentially all intracellular func-tions including response to agonists,cell motility, vesicular trafficking, cellproliferation and differentiation.There are 8 different inositol lipidsthat are signaling molecules and over50 water soluble inositol phosphates.Mutations in genes encodingenzymes of inositol phosphatemetabolism cause an increasing arrayof diverse diseases including Lowesyndrome, myotonic myopathy,Charcot-Marie-Tooth neurodegenera-tion, the Weeble mouse neurodegen-eration, etc.

Knowledge of the pathways andprocesses that are controlled by theinositol signals are expanding rap-idly and will also be discussed at thesession.

Role of Lipid Phosphatases in CellSignalingChristina Mitchell, Monash University,Australia

Phosphoinositide Signaling in CellMotilityRichard Anderson, University ofWisconsin

superfamily of low-density lipopro-tein (LDL) receptors, which maycause severe hyperlipidaemias withassociated premature atherogenesis,birth defects or lethality, femalesterility, and abnormal brain devel-opment. Another family of mem-brane proteins with importantfunctions in cholesterol homeostasisis that of ATP-Binding Cassette(ABC) transporters. Two of thesehave been found to be specified byadjacent genes, and their productscooperate so as to limit the intestinalabsorption of dietary sterols; muta-tions in the genes predispose tosterol accumulation and atheroscle-rosis. The third player to be dis-cussed is a receptor originallycharacterized as so-called scavengerreceptor (SR) for high-densitylipoproteins (HDL). The subtype B,Class I, receptor (SR-BI) is believed toinfluence lipoprotein metabolism,red blood cell maturation, femalefertility, and atherogenicity by mod-ulating the transport of HDL or lipidcomponent(s) thereof.

ABCG5 and ABCG8: limitingcholesterol homeostasisHelen Hobbs, University of Texas,Southwestern

Characterization of the HDL receptorSR-BI and its influence on lipoproteinmetabolism, red blood cell maturation,female fertility and coronary arterydiseaseMonty Krieger, Massachusetts Instituteof Technology

Sympos ium 4 ,Sph ingo l ip idHomeostas isSphingolipids: Metabolism at membrane-water interphases and its diseasesChair, Konrad Sandhoff, University ofBonn, Germany

Sphingolipids and glycosphin-golipids form a group of cell typespecific membrane components

Biophysical Society 48th Annual MeetingFebruary 14–18, 2004 Baltimore, Maryland

Abstract Deadline: October 5, 2003 � Early Registration Deadline: December 12, 2003

The World’s Largest Meeting of Biophysicists!

Visit http://www.biophysics.org for More Informationor contact the Biophysical Society at

9650 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20814 Phone: (301) 634-7114; Fax: (301) 634-7133 [email protected]

Protein Misfolding and AmyloidogenesisRobert Griffin, Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology

Flexibility and Allostery in Signaling Proteins

Susan Taylor, University of California, SanDiego

RNA Structure and ProcessingKathleen Hall, Washington University

Multi-Protein Nucleic Acid ComplexesJohn Bushweller, University of Virginia

Non-Classical Molecular MotorsSteven Chu, Stanford University

Structural Dynamics of MyosinDavid Thomas, University of Minnesota

Structural Basis of Viral PathogenesisMichael Rossman, Purdue University

Visualizing Cells And OrganellesWolfgang Baumeister, Max Planck Institute forBiochemistry, Martinsried

SSymposia & Chairsymposia & ChairsMembrane Biomechanics and Mechano-Sensitive ChannelsSergei Sukharev, University of Maryland

Structural Views Into Ligand & Voltage Channel Gating

Francisco Bezanilla, University of California,Los Angeles

Signaling Through Phospholipids and their Metabolites

Don Hilgemann, University of Texas SouthwestMedical Center

The Structure of Coupled TransportErnest M. Wright, University of California, LosAngeles

Membrane Protein Folding In Vivo and In Vitro

J. Antoinette Killian, University of Utrecht

Membrane Protein Structural DynamicsAlbert Beth, Vanderbilt University

WWororkshops & Chairskshops & ChairsMembranes on Solid Supports:

Scientific and Nano/Technological Applications

Lukas Tamm, University of Virginia

Health Science Center

Applied Biocomputations James Andrew Mccammon,

University of California, San Diego

New Technology In Site-Directed Spin Labeling

Christen Altenbach, University of California, Los Angeles

Polyunsaturated Lipid Membranes Burton Litman, National Institutes of Health, Kevin Keough, Memorial University of Newfoundland

RNAiBrian Cullen, Duke University

Functional NeuroimagingKamil Ugurbil, University of Minnesota

Protein Aggregation and Disease Pathogenesis

Paul Axelsen, University of Pennsylvania

How Hearing Happens: The Role ofMolecular Motors and Ion Channels in Adaptation and Amplification by Hair Cells

James A. Hudspeth, Rockefeller University

Awards SymposiumYale Goldman, University of Pennsylvania,Society President

Theoretical Cell BiophysicsKen Dill, University of California, SanFrancisco

New and NotableTim Cross, Florida State University, andPaul Axelsen, University of Pennsylvania

Forces and Dynamics in the CytoskeletonPaul Janmey, University of Pennsylvania

NNational Lecturational LecturererRoderick MacKinnon

Rockefeller University,Howard Hughes Medical Institute

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 8:00 PM

Atomic Basis of IonChannel Function

N E W S F R O M T H E H I L L

ASBMBToday 200320

Fortunately, Arlen Specter alongwith Democrats Tim Harkin and DianeFeinstein is expected to offer anamendment during floor debate inSeptember that would add an addi-tional $1.5 billion to NIH above thecommittee-approved figure, giving theagency a total increase this year of $2.5billion, or about 9%. This increase gen-erally mirrors a non-binding resolutionintroduced by Senator Specter that theSenate approved earlier this year. Thisresolution, which would increase theNIH budget by 8.5% for each of thenext five years, passed 96-1. Of course,no money was involved; it was strictlya statement of Senate support for NIH.

In addition, support for the Senateimproving on the House mark is com-ing from an unusual place—theHouse! In mid-July, RepresentativesChris Bell (D-TX) and Lois Capps (D-CA) began circulating a “dear colleague” letter to their House col-leagues calling for increases at NIH in

the range of 8%-10%. Once a largenumber of signatures have been col-lected, the letter will be sent to the

chairs and ranking members of theHouse and Senate appropriations sub-committees that fund NIH—SenatorsSpecter and Harkin, and Representa-tives Ralph Regula (R-OH) and DavidObey (D-WI). By mid-August, Repre-sentatives Bell and Capps had col-lected 64 signatures, and intended tospend the rest of August collectingadditional signatures. The letter willbe delivered in September.

It would be very helpful for allASBMB members to contact their rep-resentatives in the next few weeksabout signing onto this letter. Themore signatures that can be added tothe letter, the more impact it will have.All representatives can be reachedthrough the House website(http://www.house.gov) and they canalso be reached by phone through thecapitol switchboard at 202/224-3121.You might check the ASBMB home-page to see which members of theHouse have signed the dear colleagueletter already. This information isposted under “What’s New.”

embers of the House of Rep-resentatives began theirannual summer recess at

the end of July, and headed homeafter having approved a 2004 budgetfor the National Institutes of Healththat contains only a 2.5% increase,$681 million more than fiscal year2003. The House action closely mir-rors the President’s proposed budgetfor NIH, released in February. TheHouse appropriation for NIH is about$27.66 billion.

In the Senate, the NIH appropria-tion has progressed only through theAppropriations Committee and willnot reach the Senate floor until early

September. However, the news here islittle better than in the House. TheSenate Appropriations Committeehas approved a funding increase forNIH of only 3.7%, about $1 billion,for a total of just under $28 billion.Thus, unless something dramatichappens, the best the NIH can expectby way of an increase this year is theSenate figure. ASBMB and most of thebiomedical research community issupporting an increase for NIH thisyear of 10%.

N I H 2004 Funding Picture Not Pre tty—But Hope RemainsBy Peter Farnham , Pub l i c A f fa i rs O f ficer

M

Representatives ChrisBell (D-TX), right, andLois Capps (D-CA) havecirculated a “dear col-league” letter to theirHouse colleagues callingfor increases at NIH inthe range of 8%-10%.

Senator Diane Feinstein(D-CA) is expected tooffer an amendment during Senate floordebate in Septemberthat would add anadditional $1.3 billionto NIH

T h e S e n a t e

A p p ro p r i a t i o n s

C o m m i t t e e h a s

a p p ro v e d a f u n d i n g

i nc rea s e f o r N IH o f

o n l y 3 . 7%. A SBMB i s

s u p p o r t i n g a t o t a l

a p p ro p r i a t i o n f o r

NIH th i s y ea r

o f 10%.


entific enterprise. This bill providedNSF with its largest budget ever -$5.689 billion, which is $329.1 millionor 6.2% over FY ‘03. I will continue towork...to find additional resources forNSF as this bill moves through theprocess. But in this constrainedbudget, this bill signals continuingsupport for NSF and its mission.”

The bill has not yet begun to movein the Senate.

The House report for the VA/HUD billhas not been released yet, but ASBMBToday has learned of language in thereport regarding the recent effort at theVA’s Office of Research and Developmentto “defund” 18 VA research grants. Thelanguage “urges” VA Secretary Principi to“submit an explanation of [VA’s] researchpriorities for medical and prostheticresearch, including any changes in rela-tive priority of basic and clinical researchin a report due 90 days after enactment.The report should also explain anychanges in the peer review system usedto evaluate research proposals within theMedical Research Service.”

FAS E B PresidentWells Meets withNS F Director

FASEB President Bob Wells met onJuly 2 with National Science Foun-dation Director Rita Colwell at theNSF offices in Arlington, VA.. Hewas accompanied by Dr. Elsa Reich-manis, President of the AmericanChemical Society. The meetingwith Dr. Colwell was to demonstrateFASEB’s continuing support for theNSF, and for Dr. Wells to renew hisacquaintanceship with her.

Dr. Wells said,“It was wonderfulto meet with Dr.Colwell to discussissues related tothe National Sci-ence Foundation.The NSF funds abroad range ofscientific programs related to theinterests of ASBMB members. As along time NSF grantee, I am pleasedthat FASEB has identified thisimportant agency as a priority for itsadvocacy. NSF’s research and educa-tion initiatives occupy a uniqueniche in science. I am also delightedthat Dr. Elsa Reichmanis, Presidentof the American Chemical Society,was present at this visit. On behalfof FASEB, I look forward to continu-ing our joint efforts with ACS.”

Dr. Wells was an NSF grantee forover 25 years, and in April 2001,while serving as ASBMB’s president,he testified in the House of Repre-sentatives in favor of a 15 percentincrease for NSF.

The House passed the 2004VA/HUD appropriations bill on July25 and gave the National ScienceFoundation a 6.2% increase. Underthe House-approved spending plan,the NSF would be funded at $5.689billion. Within this proposedincrease, research would grow byalmost $250 million (More detailsare available at the NSF website, athttp://www.nsf.gov).

Following the bill’s passage, HouseScience Committee Chairman Sher-wood Boehlert (R-NY) said:

“The passage of today’s bill isanother feather in the cap for the sci-entific community. I am pleased thatthe House continues to recognize thevital role NSF plays in our nation’s sci-

NS F Appropriat ions—House Markof 6.2% Not Bad for a Tough Year

Dr. Robert Wells

“This bill signals con-tinuing support for

NSF and its mission,”according to HouseScience Committee

Chairman SherwoodBoehlert (R-NY).

AS BM B Welcomes New Ph.D.sASBMB extends its congratulations to these individuals who recently received

their Ph.D. degrees. In recognition of their achievement, ASBMB is presentingthem with a free one-year membership in the Society. The new Ph.D.s are listedbelow with the institution from which they received their degree.

Jonathon P. AudiaUniversity of South Alabama Col-lege of Medicine

Elizabeth Bull*NCI, NIH

Deborah EdwardsTulane University

Eric ShiozakiBrigham Young University

* Previous Associate member who met the requirements for a free one-year membership.

N E W S F R O M T H E H I L L

B I O T E C H B U S I N E S S N E W S


dropped nearly 40% since January 2001.The initial public offering (IPO) and

follow-on markets for biotech stockshave been slumping since the end of2000, with fewer than 10 IPOs in 2001and 2002 compared with nearly 60 in2000. The total market capitalization ofabout 300 U.S. biotech companies wasa staggering $353 billion in 2000, morethan 150% over the previous year, butby the end of 2002 the industry hadlost $170 billion in market value.

The most popular form of publicmarket financing over the past twoyears has been convertible debt, muchof it sold when stock prices were con-siderably higher. This debt is comingdue over the next several years and ifstocks remain depressed, loss-makingcompanies will face the need to repayhundreds of millions of dollars in cash,rather than equity.

Venture Financ ingStrong

One bright spot has been venturecapital funding, which has remainedstrong for emerging biotech companiessince 2000. Private companies haveexperienced decreased valuations, butventure capital is available for thosewith drugs in clinical development andtechnologies that have proven productdevelopment capabilities.

Cash reserves, however, are dwin-dling.The Ernst & Young SurvivalIndex shows an increase in 2002 over2001 in the percentage of companieswith less than two years of cash. Thatcould be critical if the capital marketsremain closed beyond 2003.

Product SetbacksIn addition to the general market

downturn, Recombinant Capital, a San

s the biotech industryapproaches 2004, the envi-ronment is one of survival

and success according to Ernst &Young’s report, Resilience: America’sBiotechnology Report 2003. There alwayshave been more companies strugglingto survive than building on successes,but the report finds tghat the differ-ence in 2002 and 2003 is the wideninggap between the haves and have-nots.

This century started with a bang in2000 and many companies benefitedfrom the celebration of great expecta-tions from remarkable scientific advance-ments, such as the mapping of thehuman genome. However, the NasdaqBiotech Index was down in March 2003more than 60% from October 2000, andthe AMEX Pharmaceutical Index had

The Biotech Environment: Survival and Success

by John D . Thompson , Ed i tor

Francisco consulting firm, reportedthat at least 30 medicines failed inPhase II or Phase III studies in 2002.Still, there are many success stories.The industry’s product sales and rev-enues in grew in 2002, the 14th con-secutive annual increase. TheBiotechnology Industry Organizationreported 35 product approvals in 2002by the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-tion (FDA) compared with 24 in 2001.The figures include approvals of exist-ing drugs for new indications. Thenumber of first-time I drug approvals,however, decreased. The number ofpublicly traded U.S. companiesdeclined by about seven percent, from342 to 318, in 2002 due to aggressivemerger and acquisition (M&A) activityand a higher incidence of bankrupt-cies. Bio World reported about 200M&As in the biotech industry world-wide in 2001 and 2002. The M&Aactivity is expected to continue accord-ing to Ernst & Young which considersthis a positive sign for a sector that haslong been described as overcrowdedand redundant.

On the Br ighter S ideThe total number of privately held

companies increased slightly basedon strong venture capital support fornew technologies. In addition, thenumber of employees increasedabout one percent from 193,000 tonearly 195,000.

Biotech’s top companies made sig-nificant progress in 2002. Amgenexpects worldwide product sales tomore than double between 2002 andthe end of 2005, and projects annualsales growth in the 30% range withadjusted earnings growth at about 25%over the next three years.

U K’s BioBankGoing to Universityof Manchester

The University of Manchester hasbeen named as the headquarters forBioBank, a new national genetics data-base project in the UK. BioBank is an$80 million project funded by the Well-come Trust, the UK government and theMedical Research Council to gathergenetic, medical, and lifestyle data on500,000 Britons, data that could proveinvaluable in correlating DNA variationswith common diseases. Volunteers cho-sen at random will be asked to donateDNA, and answer a detailed question-naire on their health and lifestyle. Theirhealth will be followed for decades tohelp discover the roles of genes andenvironment in developing cancer,heart disease, and other illnesses.

A

Fewer AmericansDying Of HeartDisease, ButBlacks Lag Behind

While America as a whole ismoving in the right directionwith respect to heart disease, dif-ferences between black and whiteAmericans persist when it comesto cardiovascular health, accord-ing to a new Pfizer Inc/NationalMedical Association study cover-ing the period 1992 to 2000.

A greater percentage of blackAmericans under the age of 60 aredying from heart disease andstroke than their white counter-parts, reports Pfizer Facts: RacialDifferences in CardiovascularHealth. The newly released datashows that age-adjusted deathrates from cardiovascular diseaseremain 29% higher for blacksthan whites, and age-adjustedstroke deaths remain 40% higher,despite an overall decrease inheart disease and stroke deathsfor both groups.

Genzyme Corp. has agreed to buySangStat Medical Corp. for about $600million in cash to gain products usedto treat organ-transplant patients. Thepurchase is seen as a step by CEO HenriTermeer to move Genzyme, whichnow focuses on rare diseases, intobroader markets to spur profit. Theacquisition allows Cambridge, Massa-chusetts-based Genzyme to compete ina $3 billion market for medicines thatprevent the body from rejecting atransplanted organ.

SangStat’s biggest product is Thy-moglobulin, which has U.S. approvalfor treatment of patients whose bodiesare rejecting donor kidneys. The medi-

cine had worldwide sales of $77.4 mil-lion last year and will complementGenzyme’s Renagel treatment for kid-ney disease, Genzyme said.

Genzyme plans to research new usesfor the product, such as in patients get-ting liver or bone marrow transplants.

SangStat also co-markets a transplantdrug called Gengraf with Abbott Labo-ratories. The medicine works by sup-pressing the body’s immune system tokeep it from rejecting an organ.

Transplant medications will probablygenerate sales of about $3.2 billion thisyear, climbing to $3.9 billion next year,according to estimates by LehmanBrothers Holdings Inc.

Genzyme to Buy SangStat for$600 Mil l ion in Cash


Many industry observers have notedthat funding of early tests has dried upof late, particularly for drugs with littlelikelihood of a quick return. Comment-ing on this trend, Floyd Bloom, Chairof the Neuropharmacology Depart-ment at Scripps Research Institute andalso of the American Association forthe Advancement of Science, told TheScientist, “The major drug companiesdon’t want to even start a trial if, at theend of that, they’re not going to have ahuge seller, blockbuster size.”

However, Bill Greene, a principal atlife sciences investor MPM Capital,told The Scientist that not all bigpharma money is being diverted fromearly research, and particularly promis-ing drugs, or those that have thepotential to treat many people, con-tinue to receive early testing fundsfrom traditional investors. “As in many

other things, there’s always room atthe top,” Greene noted.

ASBMB member Jerrold Olefsky, Pro-fessor of Medicine at UCSD and amember of the PharmaSTART steeringcommittee, acknowledged that moneyis always a problem but said that he isnot concerned. He noted that potentialfinancial backers may be more excitedto fund a project in which three of thenation’s top universities are workingtogether. “I have no doubt that thefunding is out there,” Dr. Olefsky said.

The PharmaSTART consortium, agroup of California universities and anonprofit research institute, SRI Inter-national, has been formed to help theuniversities conduct the early testing ofmolecules usually performed by non-academic institutions, such as biotechand pharmaceutical companies.

To help its partners carry out early test-ing of new molecules, SRI will work withresearchers at Stanford University andthe Universities of California in San Fran-cisco and San Diego (UCSD) to develop astrategy to determine if a drug is worthtesting in humans, according to GlennRice, Vice President of SRI’s BiosciencesDivision. He anticipates that if moleculespass early benchmarks, they maybecome more attractive to traditionalsources of funding, whose deep pocketscould provide the money needed to getthem approved for human use.

Cali fornia Universit ies Team With Nonprofi t to Develop Drugs

B I O T E C H B U S I N E S S N E W S

C a l e n d a r o f S c i e n t i f i c M e e t i n g s


AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition

October 26–30 • Salt Lake City, UtahContact: AAPS Meetings DepartmentPh: 703-243-2800; Fx: 703-243-9532; Email: [email protected]: http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/meetings

Cytokines, Signalling & Diseases

Oct. 26–30 • Cairns, AustraliaEvent Host: International Society for Interferon and CytokineResearch; Website: http://www.cytokines2003.conf.au/

American Association of Pharmaceutical ScientistsAnnual Meeting and Exposition

October 26–30 • Salt Lake CityPh: 703-243-2800; Fx: 703-243-9650; Email: [email protected]: http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/meetings/annualmeet/am03/index.asp

N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 3

Biomedical Information Science and TechnologyInitiative (BISTI) 2003 SymposiumDigital Biology: The Emerging Paradigm

November 6–7 • Natcher Conference Center, NIH, Bethesda, MDContact: Saundra Bromberg, Capital Consulting CorporationPh: 301-468-6004, ext. 406Email: [email protected].

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 3

American Society for Cell Biology 43rd Annual Meeting

December 13–17 • San Francisco, CaliforniaLate Abstract Submission/Revision Deadline: October 14, 2003Ph: 301-347-9300; Fx: 301-347-9310Website: http://www.ascb.org/meetings/am2003/main03mtg.htm

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4

Biophysical Society 48th Annual Meeting

February 14–18 • Baltimore, MarylandAbstract Deadline: October 5, 2003Early Registration Deadline: December 12, 2003Ph: 301-634-7114; Fx: 301-634-7133Website: http://www.biophysics.org/annmtg/site-index.htm

50th Anniversary Gordon Conference on Isotopesin Biological and Chemical SciencesFebruary 15–20 • Ventura, CaliforniaChair: David N. Silverman, Vice Chair: Charles L. PerrinEmail: [email protected]: http://www.grc.org/programs/2004/isotopes.htm

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 3

NMR in Molecular Biology EuroConference on Structural Genomics: From Gene toStructure as viewed by NMR

September 5–10 • Obernai (near Strasbourg), FranceContact: Dr. Josip Hendekovic or Anne-Sophie GablinPh: + 33 388 76 71 35; Fx: + 33 388 36 69 87Website: http://www.esf.org/esf_eurescoPlease quote 2003–14 in any correspondence

Sixth Conference on Protein Expression in Animal CellsSeptember 7–11 • Mont-Tremblant, QC, Canada Contact: Marc Aucoin, Technical Officer Biotechnology Research Institute; Email: [email protected]: http://www.bri.nrc.ca/6thPEACe

American Society for Bone and Mineral Research(ASBMR) 25th Annual Meeting and AnniversaryCelebration

September 19–23 • Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.Late-Breaking Abstract Submission Deadline is July 15, 2003.Ph: 202-367-1161; Email: [email protected]; www.asbmr.org

Third International Conference on the Pathobiology ofProteoglycans

September 20–25 • Parma, ItalyContacts: Roberto Perris, Chair and Ariane De Agostini, Co-chairClinique de Stérilité de d’Endocrinologie gynécologique,Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire de GenèvePh: 41-22 / 382.43.46; Fx: 41-22 / 347.59.79Email: [email protected]: http://www.assb.biol.unipr.it/PG2003

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3

OARSI’s 2003 World Congress on Osteoarthritis

October 12–15 • Palais am Funkturm, BerlinContact: OARSI Headquarters; Ph: 202-367-1177; Fx: 202-367-2177Email: [email protected]; Website: http://www.oarsi.org

AAPS Workshop on Method Validation and Measurementof Biomarkers in Nonclinical and Clinical Samples inDrug Development

Cosponsored with Clinical Ligand Assay SocietyOctober 24–25 • Salt Lake City, UtahContact: AAPS Meetings DepartmentPh: 703-243-2800; Fx: 703-243-9532; Email: [email protected]: http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/meetings

The 1st Gordon Research Conference on The Biology of14-3-3 Proteins

February 22–27 • Ventura, CaliforniaChairs: Haian Fu & David Klein, Vice-Chair: Alastair AitkenEmail: [email protected] Website: http://www.grc.org/programs/2004/14-3-3.htm

A P R I L 2 0 0 4

Experimental Biology 2004

April 17–21 • Washington, DCDeadline for Submission of Abstracts: November 12, 2003Website: http://www.faseb.org/meetings/eb2004/

J U N E 2 0 0 4

American Society for Biochemistry and MolecularBiology Annual Meeting and 8th IUBMB Conference

June 12–16 • Boston, MassachusettsContact: Kelly Gull; Ph: 301-634-7145; Fx: 301-634-7126Email: [email protected]; Website: www.asbmb.org/meetings

A U G U S T 2 0 0 4

12th International Conference on Second Messengersand Phospoproteins

August 3–7 • Montreal, CanadaContact: [email protected]: http://www.secondmessengers2004.ca

N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4

4th International Congress on Autoimmunity

November 3–7 • Budapest, HungaryDeadline for Receipt of Abstracts: June 20, 2004 Contact: 4th International Congress on Autoimmunity KenesInternational—Global Congress Organisers and AssociationManagement Services17 Rue du Cendrier, PO Box 1726 CH-1211 Geneva 1, SWITZERLAND Ph: +41 22 908 0488; Fx: +41 22 732 2850 Email: [email protected]: www.kenes.com/autoim2004

J U LY 2 0 0 5

30th FEBS Congress — 9th IUBMB Conference, 2005 The Protein World; Proteins and Peptides: Structure, Function and Organization; Science is Fun: A Conference for Your Creativity

July 2–5 • Budapest, HungaryContact: Ms. Franciska Morlin, Chemol Travel Congress Dept.H-1366 Budapest, P.O.Box 28, HungaryPh:+36-1-266-7032, Fx: +36-1-266-7033Email: [email protected]; www.febs-iubmb-2005.com

Department Heads Take Note:

AS BM B Offers Free Membership to

New Ph.D.s ASBMB is now offering a free one-year

Associate membership to all students whohave, within the past year, earned a Ph.D.

degree in the molecular life sciences or related areas.

ASBMB implemented this program as away to recognize the significant

accomplishment of earning the Ph.D., and toprovide new Ph.D.s with something tangible

and of economic value. Membership inASBMB brings with it a free subscription to

the online versions of the Journal of BiologicalChemistry and Molecular and Cellular

Proteomics, as well as subscriptions to TheScientist and the Society’s magazine, ASBMBToday, discounts on other publications, and a

host of other benefits.

The Society is asking department chairs to provide ASBMB with the names and

addresses of each new Ph.D. recipient fromtheir institutions. Upon receipt of this

information, we will write the new Ph.D.s tocongratulate them on their accomplishmentand offer the free one-year membership inASBMB. Names and addresses of the new

Ph.D.s should be sent to:

Kathie CullinsMembership and Subscriptions ManagerAmerican Society for Biochemistry

& Molecular Biology9650 Rockville PikeBethesda, MD 20814Email: [email protected]

This is an ongoing project; please advise uswhenever a student in your department earns thePh.D., so that we can make this free membershipoffer to him or her.

EditorRalph A. BradshawUniversity of California Irvine

Deputy EditorA.L. BurlingameUniversity of California San Francisco

Associate EditorsRuedi H. AebersoldInstitute for Systems BiologySeattle

Patricia C. BabbittUniversity of California San Francisco

Steven A. CarrMillennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.Cambridge

Julio E. CelisInstitute of Cancer Biology andDanish Center for HumanGenome Research Copenhagen

Raymond DeshaiesCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPasadena

Kevan M. ShokatUniversity of California San Francisco

Submit your significant research today!

www.mcponline.org

Q: WHAT IS BLACK, WHITE, ANDREAD ALL OVER?

Molecular & CellularProteomics (MCP),published by theAmerican Society forBiochemistry andMolecular Biology (ASBMB), actively encouragesresearchers to submit original papers in the areas ofstructural and functional properties of proteins andtheir expression.

Why submit your research to MCP?

LEGACY OF HIGH EDITORIAL STAN-DARDS… As part of the family of ASBMB publications, MCP adheres to the same high level ofeditorial standards adopted nearly 100 years ago bythe ASBMB flagship publication and most cited journal in biochemistry*, Journal of BiologicalChemistry (JBC). Consequently, your research com-mands attention and earns the respect of your peers.

EDITORIAL FOCUS… MCP advances theunderstanding of the structural and functional

properties of proteins and theirexpression through originalhigh quality research. In addition, MCP showcasesemerging technologies used to

determine how the presence or absence of proteinsaffects biological responses, and how interaction ofproteins with germane cellular partners allows themto function.

VISIBILITY OF YOUR RESEARCH… MCP is indexed in Medline, Index Medicus, Google,Yahoo, Altavista, AOL, and MSN; therefore yourresearch will be seen around the world by moreresearchers than ever before.

OPEN ACCESS… MCP’s latest online feature,Papers in Press, provides free, worldwide access toyour research on the day it is accepted for publication. The result… faster publication, andgreater exposure for your research.* Based on the ISI Journal Citation Reports® 2002 Edition

Published by the American Society for Biochemistry andMolecular Biology

“Promoting understanding of the molecular nature of life processes”

A:

constituent society of faseb american society …...charles c. (“chuck”) hancock, jr., who has...

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