newsletter

NEWSLETTERASCB

V O L U M E 3 2 , N U M B E R 6

J U N E 2 0 0 9

InsidePresident’s Column 2

WICB Awards 4

Early Career Award 7

Annual Meeting Program 8

Dear Labby 10

International Affairs 11

Call for Nominations 13

Letter to the Editor 14

ASCB Profile 15

Public Policy Briefing 19

InCytes from MBC 22

WICB Column 23

Did You Know...? 24

PIC Associates Wanted 24

Members in the News 25

Member Gifts 25

Grants & Opportunities 26

Calendar 28

When to Repeat an Experiment

0

Portugal: A Great Place to Do Research

Page 11

Own Your Career

Page 23

Walter Named E.B. Wilson MedalistPeter Walter, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, has been awarded ASCB’s highest honor for his seminal discoveries regarding the cell biology of the endoplasmic reticulum. Walter’s contributions range from groundbreaking insights into the translocation of secretory proteins to a masterful dissection of the unfolded protein response. This includes delineating the response’s novel molecular mechanisms, essential roles in physiology, and broad involvement in disease. In this way, Walter established a paradigm for cellular communication from organelle to the nucleus.

Throughout his career, Walter has received numerous awards and honors, including the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s George E. Palade Gold Medal and Distinguished Lecture, and the 47th Stadtler Lecture, University of Texas. He has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves on multiple advisory committees and editorial boards.

Walter will present the E.B. Wilson Lecture on Tuesday, December 8, at 6:00 pm at the ASCB Annual Meeting in San Diego. n

—Cheryl Lehr

Peter WalterUniversity of

California, San Francisco

EdComm Holds First Virtual MeetingWould members of the ASCB Education Committee (EdComm) find meeting virtually (via Web cameras and phone) an efficient way to conduct business? The answer was a resounding “yes!” The net result: savings of money and time, plus a reduced carbon footprint.

At the meeting on April 29, Committee members discussed plans for many educational programs at the 2009 ASCB Annual Meeting: n Education Minisymposium: Entitled

“Undergraduate Biology Curriculum in the 21st Century,” the first-ever education minisymposium will be held on Wednesday, December 9. Speakers invited by EdComm Co-Chairs Caroline

WICB Names Awardees, Discusses ProgramsChoosing from a large pool of excellent candidates, the Women in Cell Biology (WICB) Committee met virtually on April 24 to select 2009 awardees. Yukiko Yamashita was named recipient of the WICB Junior Award, and Janet Rossant was selected for the WICB Senior Award (see page 4).

The Committee also discussed ASCB Annual Meeting programming, recent WICB accomplishments, and future plans. In virtual attendance were Ursula Goodenough (Chair), and members Alexandra Ainsztein, Caroline Kane, Harvey Lodish, Elizabeth Marincola, Sandy Masur, Inke Näthke, James Nelson, Lynne Quarmby, Jennifer Roecklein-

WICB, continued on page 4EdComm, continued on page 6

PRESIDENT’S Column

2 ASCB NEWSLETTER JUNE 2009

The American Society for Cell Biology

8120 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 750Bethesda, MD 20814-2762

Tel: (301) 347-9300Fax: (301) 347-9310

[email protected], www.ascb.org

Joan R. GoldbergExecutive Director

Officers

Brigid Hogan PresidentTimothy J. Mitchison President-ElectBob Goldman Past PresidentThoru Pederson TreasurerJean E. Schwarzbauer Secretary

Council

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Scott D. EmrJoan R. Goldberg, ex officio

Holly V. GoodsonKathleen J. GreenPaul W. Sternberg

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The ASCB Newsletter is published 12 times per year

by The American Society for Cell Biology.

Joan R. Goldberg EditorW. Mark Leader EditorElizabeth M. Rich Production ManagerKevin Wilson Public Policy DirectorEd Newman Advertising ManagerJohn Fleischman Science WriterThea Clarke Editorial Manager

Deadlines for submission of articles and advertising

materials:

Issue Deadline August July 1 September August 1 October September 1

ASCB Newsletter ISSN 1060-8982

Volume 32, Number 6June 2009

© 2009The American Society for Cell Biology

Postmaster: Send change of address to ASCB Newsletter

The American Society for Cell Biology8120 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 750

Bethesda, MD 20814-2762

ASCB: The Big Tent SocietyAs a “big tent” society, the ASCB provides resources, support, and advocacy for cell biologists of diverse backgrounds and interests. It is wonderful to be part of this large community. What I find particularly exciting is the potential for welcoming scientists working in other fields—medicine and developmental biology, for example—into the fold. Our Annual Meeting, iBioSeminars series, and collection of images and videos (the ASCB Image & Video Library) illuminate how these fields are interwoven.

Advances in technologies such as high-resolution, real-time imaging, genomics, and bioinformatics have made building bonds between cell biology and these disciplines much easier over the past few years. These common tools are helping us to understand how individual cells build tissues and organs, and how the organization of these dynamic, three-dimensional cellular structures goes awry in some human disorders and in cancer.

Cell Biology and Human Genetic Disorders: A Two-way Information Flow The message that cell biology is providing important insights into human genetic disorders was highlighted at last year’s ASCB Annual Meeting (see www.ascb.org/progeria). The theme will be taken up again this December in several different ways. An ASCB Annual Meeting Symposium on December 6, 2009, will feature Christine Petit, Val Sheffield, and Christopher Walsh. It will illustrate the fact that the information flow between cell biology and the clinic runs in two directions. On one hand, the study of proteins first identified by cell biologists has revealed the molecular basis of specific diseases. Conversely, the mapping of genes associated with inherited disorders—such as deafness, glaucoma, and mental retardation—has led to the identification of gene products not previously known to cell biologists. These proteins have turned out to be essential for processes like exocytosis, cell migration, and

ciliary function. As we associate more and more genes with human disorders, this information

flow will only increase, helping us to piece together the complex machinery of the cell.

Other Opportunities for Give and TakeLater at the ASCB meeting there will be a “Working Group” organized by Kevin Campbell, Michael Caplan, and Christine Seidman. These leading scientists will also illustrate how their work bridges cell biology and human disease. The format of the Working Group

allows ideas to be developed in a more informal atmosphere than a Symposium. There are greater opportunities for give and take between the speakers and the audience. Come prepared to ask questions, and bring along a medical student or colleague and learn how you can both contribute to the new synthesis of ideas.

Ciliopathies—A Cluster of Human Disorders Also featured at the ASCB Annual Meeting in San Diego will be one of the hottest topics in human genetics: the recent discovery that a whole range of human disorders that seem to have no connection—renal cysts, obesity, retinopathy, hypertension, anosmia, infertility, and mental retardation—all involve defects in proteins used for the generation and function of primary cilia. Cilia, and the connection between cilia and disease, will be topics of a Minisymposium and a Translational Session at the December meeting.

Developmental Biology = Cell Biology in Four DimensionsOne of the most rewarding aspects of being chair of a cell biology department and President of the ASCB is being able to foster closer collaborations between cell and developmental biologists. I have been in love with embryos, both normal and abnormal, from an early age. I remember as a child visiting my uncle, who was a pathologist in a London hospital, and being fascinated by the abnormal fetuses that were

Brigid Hogan

3JUNE 2009 ASCB NEWSLETTER

then displayed in glass jars along the corridor to his lab. My mother had to drag me away!

My mother had no scientific background and worked as a dressmaker at home. But there was a deep fascination for me there too, in watching her produce complex three-dimensional dresses and hats out of fabrics of different consistencies and textures. These early captivations have led me to the pursuit of understanding how the organs of the embryo develop through the stretching, nipping, folding, budding, branching, and fusing together of tissue sheets. The embryo uses these cellular rearrangements again and again, in different combinations, to make different organs, and even something as deeply personal as a human face.

Translating Morphogenesis into Changes in Cell BehaviorAs I outlined, for human disorders there has been tremendous progress over the past few years in understanding the cellular basis of morphogenesis. In part this has resulted from advances in high-resolution microscopy and the development of tools such as fluorescently labeled proteins that enable scientists to image individual cells and organelles in real time. (For more on this, see the presentations by 2008 ASCB E.B. Wilson Medalists Roger Tsien and Martin Chalfie at www.ascb.org/files/2008/1900-ascb-134-121608.wmv.)

Time-lapse videos of developing embryos show the dynamic changes in cell shape and arrangements that we need to understand in molecular terms. This challenge—to show how changes in embryo morphology are regulated by changes in the behavior of individual cells, and ultimately by the activity of specific genes—is masterfully discussed by Eric Weischaus in his iBioSeminars presentation on the patterning of the early Drosophila embryo. These seminars are sponsored by the ASCB with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. They have become an important teaching tool (see www.ibioseminars.org).

Other iBioSeminars cover the cytoskeleton and how simple changes in the structure of its components may have enabled the evolution of complex multicellular organisms (Julie Theriot), how cells respond to mechanical cues in the extracellular matrix (Mary Beckerle), and the regulation of organ size (Martin Raff ).

These are all topics that are highly relevant to our understanding of how organs and tissues develop.

More exciting advances will likely feature in the Minisymposium on “The Cellular Basis of Morphogenesis” being organized for the ASCB Annual Meeting by developmental biologists John Wallingford and Gail Martin. A Symposium entitled “Cellular Sociology: Working Together in Morphogenesis” will feature Suzanne Eaton, Mark Krasnow, and Olivier Pourquié. These scientists are using cell biology and genetics, as well as bioengineering concepts and computation tools, to understand how cells work together to build structures like a wing, a branched lung, and a spinal column. I hope that their presentations will inspire new collaborations between cell and developmental biologists. I hope, too, that these themes will inspire videos and images for the 2009 Celldance competition (visit www.ascb.org/meetings for more information).

Embryos, Cells, and ArtImages of cells and embryos make for amazing art! Anyone who’s ever looked at microscopic images knows this. However, I want to close by bringing to your attention a program called Bioartography organized by my friends at the University of Michigan (www.bioartography.com). It started as a project to sell images at the Ann Arbor Art Fair to support graduate and postgraduate students in the Center for Organogenesis. It has been very successful, and images can now be purchased online. Not only do the pictures inspire other biologists, they also help to inform the general public about science and about the cellular basis of development and disease—goals that all members of the ASCB should aspire to. And if you’re fond of images you’ve seen in Molecular Biology of the Cell, CBE—Life Sciences Education, or on one of the ASCB websites, why not visit the ASCB Online Store to design and purchase your own t-shirt? Cells make good art, and cell biologists make good artists. Let the ASCB be your source, supply your medium, and provide your big tent. n

Comments are welcome and should be sent to [email protected].

[P]articularly exciting is the potential for welcoming scientists working in other fields—medicine and developmental biology, for example—into the fold.

An ASCB Annual Meeting Symposium... will illustrate the fact that the information flow between cell biology and the clinic runs in two directions.


Canfield, Sandy Schmid, Brookhart Shields, Vivian Siegel, and Anne Spang. They were joined by ASCB Executive Director Joan Goldberg and Committee Liaison and Office Manager Cheryl Lehr.

WICB’s annual career discussion (formerly the Career Discussion Lunch) will be at a new time this year (2:00 pm on Monday, December 7) and will be named the WICB Career Discussion & Mentoring Roundtables. WICB discussed modifying table topics to reflect the popularity of some tables as well as the request by participants for new topics.

WICB will highlight “Negotiation Strategies for Work and Life” this year in its workshop on Saturday, December 5, at the Annual Meeting (2:00 pm). Thespians

will perform at the WICB Awards and Mentoring Theater (formerly the WICB Evening Program) on a new day and time (Tuesday, December 8, at 2:00 pm) on “Muddling through Mentoring.” The WICB Network will again host a reception this year on Sunday, December 6, at the Annual Meeting (2:30 pm).

With last year’s grant from Elsevier Foundation, WICB can once again offer childcare awards for attendees of the Annual Meeting. Visit http://www.ascb.org/meetings/trave_childcare.cfm#2 for information and applications. WICB has also launched a blog (http://tinyurl.com/qq8vp4) and a Facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/06zvlk) to encourage members to interact. n

—Cheryl Lehr

WICB, continued from page 1

WICB Junior, Senior Award Recipients Announced

Janet Rossant, chief of research and senior scientist at the Research Institute of The Hospital for Sick

Children in Toronto, was named by the ASCB’s Women in Cell Biology (WICB) Committee to receive the 2009 WICB Senior Award. Yukiko Yamashita of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, will receive the WICB Junior Award.

Rossant is one of the world’s leading developmental biologists. An internationally prominent biomedical researcher, she has made enormous contributions through her research and extraordinary involvement in virtually every facet of the scientific enterprise. Rossant is a fellow of numerous institutions, has received countless awards, and has served on many important committees, panels, and editorial boards.

During her career, Rossant has trained 26 graduate students and 44 postdoctoral fellows; many have gone on to become research leaders and hold faculty appointments. Rossant creates an environment in her lab where all trainees are nurtured to the extent they need to be to become independent investigators. For 25 years, Rossant has been the organizer for the Great

Lakes Mammalian Development Meeting, where a strong focus on trainees prevails. She has served on the Organizing Committee of the Cold Spring Harbor/European Molecular Biology Laboratory Mouse Molecular Genetics meeting for four years, and for three years has been an instructor or co-instructor of the Cold Spring Harbor Course on Molecular Embryology of the Mouse.

Yamashita is a research assistant professor at the Life Sciences Institute, Center for Stem Cell Biology, and an assistant professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is an outstanding and productive stem cell biologist and has accomplished important, fundamental work at every stage of her career. When Yamashita discovered that the asymmetric division of Drosophila germline stem cells is regulated by the orientation of mother and daughter centrosomes, her career took off. This fundamental discovery opened up new areas of inquiry in stem cell biology and led to the publication of two first-author papers in Science, further publications in Nature, and additional discoveries in her own lab.

The awards will be presented at the WICB Awards and Mentoring Theater on Tuesday, December 8, at 2:00 pm at the ASCB Annual Meeting in San Diego. n

—Cheryl Lehr

Janet RossantHospital for Sick Children, Toronto

Yukiko YamashitaUniversity of

Michigan

Monument to the Age of Discovery, Lisbon, Portugal

Cellular and Cytokine Interactions in Health and Disease

For additional information, email [email protected]. See www.leukocytebiology.org for updates.

Keynote Sessions: MicroRNA, Epigenetics and Regulation by cytokines & interferons • Pattern Recognition Receptors • Control of Innate Immunity, Cytokines and Cancer • Macrophages: Health & Disease • New T-helper SubsetsTrack I: Basic Immunology. 8 sessions include: Recent Advance in Cytokine and IFN Signaling • Innate Recognition of Pathogens • Neutrophil biology and signal transduction • IFN-stimulated genes • Tregs and VaccinesTrack II: Disease Immunopathogenesis Mechanisms. 8 sessions include: Therapeutic Application of Cytokine Antagonists• Viral pathogenesis and interactions with Toll-Like receptors: HIV, CMV, HCV • Pathogen interactions with Toll-like receptors: TB and Malaria • Sensing Fungal infection and host response • Chronic Inflammatory Disease

48 INVITED SPEAKERS; and 48 SHoRT TALKS FRoM PoSTER SuBMISSIoNS to be selected for the program!Scientific organizing Committee: Thomas Decker • Scott Durum • David E. Levy • Alberto Mantovani • Luis J. Montaner • Michael Parkhouse • Ana Costa-Pereira • Giorgio Trinchieri • Michael Tovey • Rui Victorino

Explorewith usJoint International Meeting • october 17-21, 2009 • Lisbon, PortugalThe Society for Leukocyte Biology • The International Cytokine Society • The International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research


n Postdoc Workshop: “Getting Out of the Box: Transitioning to a Career Outside of Academic Research,” will be held on Sunday, December 6. The panel discussion format for postdocs, graduate students, and early career scientists will likely include scientists employed at a liberal arts college, community college, or science museum and/or in the fields of patent law, forensic science, and publishing.

n Undergraduate Program: Fern Finger, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will discuss “Worming Out Functions of Septins in Neurons” on Saturday, December 5. Following Finger’s presentation and a Q&A session, undergraduates will have an opportunity to present their posters.

n High School Program: The speaker and topic will be announced shortly. The program will be held on Sunday, December 6.Participants in the meeting included

Committee members Caroline Kane (Chair), Alison Adams, Jennifer Chua, Heidi Elmendorf, Shawn Galdeen, Triscia Hendrickson, Elisa Konieczko, Karen Kalumuck, Mark Rose, Kathy Schmeidler, Bill Wallace, Sue Wick, Bill Wood, and Robin Wright, and Executive Director Joan Goldberg and Editorial and Education Senior Manager Thea Clarke. n

—Thea Clarke

Kane and Mark Rose will include authors of submitted education abstracts.

n K–12 Science Education Workshop: David Epel, Stanford University, and Pam Miller, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, will offer “No More Eyelashes and Air Bubbles... New Ways to Use Microscopes in High School Labs” on Sunday, December 6. This tutorial was created to complement a National Science Foundation–funded project that uses sea urchins as experimental material in an Internet-based cell biology mini-curriculum.

n Education Workshop: This year’s workshop on Saturday, December 5, will focus on teaching methodology, so as not to overlap with the Education Minisymposium on curricula. The speaker will be announced shortly.

n Education Initiative Forums: One forum on Monday, December 7, held in conjunction with the International Affairs Committee, will be “Strategies for Teaching Cell Biology in Developing Nations.” It will highlight ASCB programs to teach cell biology in Africa. The Committees hope to encourage other ASCB members to join these efforts. A second forum on Tuesday, December 8, will focus on a subject chosen from submitted education abstracts. (For information about abstract submission and deadlines, visit www.ascb.org/meetings.)

EdComm, continued from page 1

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Martin Hetzer, associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has been named the Early Career Life Scientist Awardee. During his thesis work, Hetzer focused on autocatalytic RNAs and showed great

promise as a young scientist. He published several seminal papers; one on transactivation of group II intron splicing by nuclear U5 snRNA was published in Nature and won him the Austrian Science Medal. During his postdoctoral training, he used cell-free systems to dissect the complex process of nuclear assembly. Hetzer went on to develop biochemical and imaging assays to investigate nuclear membrane reconstitution, nuclear pore complex formation, and mitotic

chromatin organization. Hetzer published 13 research and review articles in less than five years in such publications as Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Molecular Cell, Science, and Cell; received an EMBO fellowship; and was ranked among the top five applicants, and received six grants and awards.

Hetzer is extremely broad in his research interests, and integrates the diverse disciplines of biology, physics, and computer science. He has a vibrant and dynamic group in his lab, attracting top students and postdocs. Currently, Hetzer is developing novel live imaging microscopy and a novel super-resolution imaging method in an effort to understand fundamental aspects of genome function and gene regulation.

The ASCB Early Career Award will be presented at an ASCB Annual Meeting minisymposium in San Diego. n

—Cheryl Lehr

Hetzer to Receive Early Career Award

Martin HetzerThe Salk Institute

for Biological Studies

Faculty Position in Vision Research

The Department of Ophthalmology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine is recruiting tenure-track research faculty at the Assistant, Associate, or full Professorial level. The Department of Ophthalmology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine has an extensive research portfolio focused on anterior segment and retina. Current approaches use cell biology, molecular biology, gene therapy, developmental biology and physiology including electrophysiology applied to stem cells, wound healing, glaucoma, eye movement, dry eye, uveitis, and AIDS. These activities are supported by multiple NIH grants, including an NIH-funded CORE grant in vision research. The Mount Sinai School of Medicine is consistently among the top 20 in NIH-funded medical schools in the United States and is located in New York, one of America’s most exciting cities. Cross-departmental collaboration is facilitated by interdepartmental institutes, including those in neuroscience, immunology, epidemiology, experimental therapeutics, imaging, stem cells, and personalized medicine. The Department of Ophthalmology is seeking to expand and complement its existing research portfolio including research in the areas such as retina/neuroscience, stem cells, neovascularization, and genetics. A joint appointment in a Basic Science Department, or one of the Institutes is available depending upon the applicant’s field of interest.

Requirements include a Ph.D. and/or M.D., relevant post-doctoral experience, an established track record of publications, the capacity to conduct an independent research program, and receive extramural support.

To apply, please forward a cover letter, curriculum vitae, one page research summary, and names of three references to Douglas A. Jabs, MD, MBA, Professor and Chair, Department of Ophthalmology at [email protected].

The Mount Sinai School of Medicine is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.


49th ASCB Annual Meeting ProgramDecember 5–9, 2009 n San Diego Convention Center

Brigid Hogan, President nVann Bennett, Program Chair

Breaking the Diffraction Barrier

New Meeting Format!Two concurrent symposia will be held each afternoon, Sunday through Tuesday, December 6–8, from 4:00 pm–5:30 pm, and a special closing symposium will be held on Wednesday, December 9, from 11:00 am–12:30 pm. Seven minisymposia and one working group will be scheduled each morning, Sunday through Wednesday, December 6–9, 2009, during the ASCB Annual Meeting. Co-chairs will select up to six speakers for

each minisymposium from regular abstracts submitted by July 30, 2009. Co-chairs are encouraged to present.

Christine Petit College de France

and Institut Pasteur

Christopher Walsh Harvard Medical School/Children’s Hospital Boston/

HHMI

Val Sheffield University of Iowa/

HHMI

The Human Model: Genetics as Two-Way Information

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz

National Institute of Child Health and

Human Development, NIH

Jonathan S. Weissman

University of California, San Francisco/HHMI

Jodi Nunnari University of

California, Davis

Under the Hood of the Cell: Dynamic Organelles

Ruth Lehmann Skirball Institute,

New York University Langone Medical

Center/HHMI

Amy Wagers Joslin Diabetes

Center and Harvard Stem Cell Institute

Marja Timmermans Cold Spring Harbor

Laboratory

All You Can Be—The Biology of Multipotency

Abby Dernburg University of California,

Berkeley/HHMI

Andrea Musacchio European Institute

of Oncology

Jan Lowe Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology

In a Pinch: Cell Division from Prokaryotes to Sex Cells

Suzanne Eaton Max Planck Institute

of Molecular Cell Biology and

Genetics

Olivier Pourquié Stowers Institute

for Medical Research/HHMI

Mark Krasnow Stanford University School of Medicine/

HHMI

Cellular Sociology: Working Together in Morphogenesis

Robert D. Goldman Northwestern

University

Wim Vermeulen Erasmus Medical

Center

Bas van Steensel Netherlands Cancer

Institute

Movers and Shapers: Nuclear Dynamics and Gene Regulation

Monday, December 7, 4:00 pm

Tuesday, December 8, 4:00 pm

Wednesday, December 9, 11:00 am

Saturday, December 512:30 pm–5:00 pm

Session titles and speakers will be announced in the fall.

Toshio AndoKanazawa University

Xiaowei ZhuangHarvard University/

HHMI

Stefan HellMax Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry

Saturday, December 5 6:00 pm

Stem Cells, Pluripotency, and Nuclear Reprogramming

Rudolf Jaenisch, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Keynote Symposium

SymposiaSunday, December 6, 4:00 pm

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Member-Organized SpecialInterest Subgroups


For more information,

contact the ASCB: (301) 347-9300

[email protected]

49th ASCB Annual Meeting ProgramDecember 5–9, 2009 n San Diego Convention Center

Brigid Hogan, President nVann Bennett, Program Chair

Autophagy and Organelle TurnoverJudith Klumperman, University Medical Center, UtrechtBeth Levine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/HHMI

Cancer CellsErik Sahai, Cancer Research UK London Research InstituteCharles J. Sherr, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/HHMI

Cell and Tissue MechanicsDan Kiehart, Duke UniversityEllen A. Lumpkin, Baylor College of Medicine

Cell Cortex and Membrane DynamicsBuzz Baum, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College LondonDoug Robinson, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Cell Matrix Interactions and SignalingMark Ginsberg, University of California, San DiegoErica A. Golemis, Fox Chase Cancer Center

Cell MigrationAlissa Weaver, Vanderbilt University Medical CenterJochen Wittbrodt, University of Heidelberg and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe

Cell PolarityJulie Ahringer, University of CambridgeJeremy Nance, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine

Cell Senescence and Cell DeathLaura Attardi, Stanford University School of MedicineNika N. Danial, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School

Cell–Cell InteractionW. James Nelson, Stanford UniversityErin Schuman, California Institute of Technology/HHMI, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research

Cellular Basis of MorphogenesisGail Martin, University of California, San FranciscoJohn Wallingford, University of Texas, Austin

Chromatin Organization and DynamicsAsifa Akhtar, European Molecular Biology Laboratory HeidelbergAndy Belmont, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Cilia and CentrosomesMonica Bettencourt-Dias, Instituto Gulbenkian de CiênciaMaxence Nachury, Stanford University School of Medicine

ClocksCarl H. Johnson, Vanderbilt UniversityAmita Sehgal, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine/ HHMI

ES Cells, iPS Cells, and Germ CellsLawrence S.B. Goldstein, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine/HHMIRenee A. Reijo Pera, Stanford University

Functional Organization of Plasma MembranesBenedicte Dargent, Université de la MéditerranéeMatthew Rasband, Baylor College of Medicine

Host-Pathogen InteractionsKasturi Haldar, University of Notre DameRoger Innes, Indiana University

Intracellular TraffickingElizabeth Miller, Columbia UniversityJoachim Seemann, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

Lipid DynamicsBenjamin Podbilewicz, Technion–Israel Institute of TechnologyPetra Schwille, Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC), Technische Universität Dresden

Mitosis and MeiosisJennifer DeLuca, Colorado State UniversityArshad Desai, University of California, San Diego

Molecular MotorsSamara Reck-Peterson, Harvard Medical SchoolLinda Wordeman, University of Washington School of Medicine

Nuclear StructureA. Gregory Matera, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLindsay Shopland, The Jackson Laboratory

Organization and Dynamics of the CytoskeletonJames Bear, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillGero Steinberg, University of Exeter

Regulation of Cell GrowthDuojia Pan, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine/HHMIDavid Sabatini, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology/HHMI

RNA BiologyBrenda Bass, University of UtahJames Eberwine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine/PENN Genome Frontiers Institute

Stress ResponsesRichard Morimoto, Northwestern UniversityDavid Ron, Skirball Institute of Biomedical Medicine, New York University

Systems BiologyAimée Dudley, Institute for Systems BiologyPeter K. Sorger, Harvard Medical School

The Nuclear Envelope and Nuclear Pore ComplexBeatriz Fontoura, University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterDirk Görlich, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry

Undergraduate Biology Curriculum in the 21st CenturyCaroline Kane, University of California, BerkeleyMark Rose, Princeton University

As an alternative to minisymposia, these sessions provide a more interactive experience for meeting attendees.

Cancer Stem Cells Peter Dirks, Hospital for Sick ChildrenFranziska Michor, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer CenterSean Morrison, University of Michigan/HHMI

Cell Biology of Disease Kevin Campbell, University of Iowa/HHMIMichael Caplan, Yale University School of MedicineChristine Seidman, Harvard Medical School

What Is Life? Zac Cande, University of California, BerkeleyNicole King, University of California, BerkeleyNorman R. Pace, University of Colorado at Boulder

What Is the Golgi? Benjamin Glick, University of ChicagoKathryn E. Howell, University of Colorado School of MedicineSean Munro, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular BiologyGraham Warren, Max F. Perutz Labs

Important DatesThe ASCB 2009 Annual Meeting registration, abstract submission, and housing sites are active.

DeadlinesJuly 30Member-Organized Special Interest Subgroup ApplicationRegular Abstract Submission (minisymposium talk or poster consideration)

September 1Regular Abstract Submission (poster consideration only)Travel Award Application

October 1Early Registration

October 15 Late Abstract Submission

www.ascb.org/meetings

Minisymposia

Working Groups


DEAR LabbyDear Labby,I have a question about repeating experiments. In my case it isn’t about how many times but whether to repeat at all. I know that sounds nonscientific, but here’s the situation. I’m a second-year graduate student just getting going on my thesis research. Our lab studies a growth factor signal transduction pathway in mouse ascites tumor cells. My project began with me perfecting the immunoselection of a certain protein complex. Then we sent it to a campus core facility for proteomics by mass spec. The results came back and revealed the presence of several novel proteins I have now cloned and am expressing as GFP fusion proteins. This will allow me to study their localization and dynamic behavior in these cells, plus I am designing siRNAs to do knockdown experiments. At a recent thesis advisory committee meeting one of the professors asked me about replication. I told her sure, I will repeat all my experiments, as is customary. But then she floored

me by saying “No, I mean the isolation of the complex and the mass spec.” My PI said this was “ridiculous,” adding, “Plus it’s too damned expensive.” She later apologized to the committee member for calling her question “ridiculous.” This got me wondering. Would Labby comment?

—A Nonrepeat Offender?

Dear Nonrepeat Offender,Let’s start by placing your question in the context of the three cornerstones of measurement: accuracy, sensitivity, and precision. Accuracy is the proximity of a measured parameter to the true value. This is unknown in many cell biology experiments and definitely unknown in your project (i.e., no Maxwell’s demon dove into your cells and reported back exactly what proteins are or are not in the complex you are studying). Sensitivity is the limit at which a given method can no longer detect the desired substance, event, or whatever. In your project, sensitivity is reasonably high given today’s proteomics; your sensitivity for detecting the expressed proteins is also reasonably good (but not at the single molecule level, for example). In addition, your sensitivity for detecting effects in siRNA knockdowns cannot be predicted (because, assuming you actually get good knockdown, you don’t know how dependent the observed phenomena are on the protein concentration, i.e., what is the shape of the concentration vs. effect curve?). Finally, precision refers to the degree to which replicated measurements will give the same reading or finding. That is, the first measurement has no greater meaning than any other—precision refers to the degree to which the whole set of measurements vary from one to another. Since this is the focus of your query, let’s look at the situation in detail. In principle, all experimental work should be repeated enough times to support a negatable hypothesis at some community-accepted standard(s) of statistical confidence. In many studies where adequate amounts of data can be collected in repeated experiments, the analysis of variance is straightforward. In much of cell biology, however, observations are presented as typifying a certain percentage of cells in a population. Thus, findings are said to have been “consistently observed in multiple experiments.” (This statement, of course, provides the reader with no information whatsoever regarding the precision involved.) Nevertheless, there is room for common sense. For example, if an investigator makes an antibody (in a rabbit, or camel, or a monoclonal), and it displays adequate high affinity for the job at hand, and demonstrably high specificity, should the investigator drop everything and raise it again? No. (Of course, it might not be a “replicate” experiment anyway, in the narrow sense, as the immunized animal will not likely construct the very same antibody the second time, i.e., the same amino acid sequence.) As to your PI’s point about cost, it can certainly be a valid factor depending on the context. Does anyone really think that any of the sequenced genomes should be re-done ab initio, given the precision inherent in the overlapping coverage and multiple reads? (This is not to say that regions that stubbornly resist cloning or sequencing should not be worked over again and again, or that intraspecific genome sequence variation should not be pursued, as it is being intensely. The point is that those represent different issues than questioning the precision by which the genome sequences were determined.) In your project, the question is whether the one immunoselection you did is sufficient. After considering questions of accuracy, sensitivity, precision, and cost, Labby would agree with your committee member that one immunoselection is insufficient. All sorts of variables may be at play. For one, you take your cells out of their only known, productive culture dish, the mouse’s peritoneum. Perhaps on a repeat (or in the first experiment) maybe the needle inadvertantly tore the intestine. Or maybe your conditions of cell lysis would not be quite the same. Might you go to lunch one time while the cells were in Triton (for a specified 20 minutes but actually 45) and not another time? And what about those proteomics results? You seem pleased by the presence of “novel” proteins, but is not this very attribute of the results all the more reason to conduct a repeat? Bear in mind that in your live cell experiments you will not be looking at the proteins’ actual associations, unless you plan to use FRET or related methods. Moreover, how de-riched was your first mass spec–analyzed complex in various proteins? You want to end up arguing that you started your project from the foundation of a “specific complex.” How enriched was it relative to, say, the ribosomal protein or cytokeratin content of your cells (assuming ribosomes and intermediate filaments are not suspected to be part of your complex)? On balance, it seems best to do at least one additional “replicate” immunoselection and mass spec run. You will likely see some variation from your first results, but if the same proteins show up once again and in similar abundance, you will never be sentenced as a nonrepeat offender. n

—Labby

Direct your questions to [email protected]. Authors of questions chosen for publication may indicate whether or not they wish to be identified. Submissions may be edited for space and style.


INTERNATIONAL Affairs

In

ternational Affairs

Cell Biology in Portugal: Navigating into the FutureIn the last 20 years, scientific research in Portugal has developed immensely. Now young investigators in the country are eager to show that Portugal is not just a tourist destination with sunny beaches and great food and wine. It is also a great place to do research! There are still challenges related to sustaining growth and promoting excellence, together with the need to attract international and private funding. But the future looks bright.

Expansion of the Scientific System in PortugalPortugal established democracy in 1974 and joined the European Union (EU) in 1986. These were turning points in Portuguese history that had major implications for the development of education, science, and technology, which are now national priorities.

International evaluation of its scientific institutions, together with structural funds from the EU, have allowed Portugal to massively reinforce its human resources and science infrastructures, as well as to put in practice a merit-based system for the use of public resources. Much of the public funding for scientific research in Portugal is provided by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), which succeeded Junta Nacional de Investigação Científica e Tecnológica (JNICT).

From 1990 to 2007 there was a five-fold increase in the number of Ph.D. students registered at Portuguese universities. Initially, with the need to expand the system into new fields of knowledge, approximately half of the Ph.D. fellowships awarded by JNICT/FCT were to students going abroad to well-regarded international laboratories. In this context, the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) Ph.D. programs (in biology, biomedicine, and computational biology) and the University of Porto’s Ph.D. program in areas of basic and applied biology (GABBA) have played a major role. GABBA extends across several programs and

institutes at the university. The IGC and GABBA programs provide initial training by international faculty in Portugal, followed by thesis research in very good international laboratories. The latter have already trained a new generation of researchers who returned to lead new research labs and projects.

Today, FCT is awarding yearly, on a competitive basis, more than 2,000 Ph.D. fellowships, 65% of the Ph.D. fellowships available in Portugal. (The population of Portugal is approximately 10.5 million.) It also awards 1,000 postdoctoral fellowships per year. In addition, 1,000 contracts for researchers with postdoctoral experience were established

in the last two years. These create new research groups and new facilities and make it possible for senior postdoctoral researchers to become independent.

The presence of a highly qualified population, together with reasonable salaries and a good quality of life, are attractive factors for pharma/biotech companies to become established in Portugal. The country’s expenditure in R&D increased steadily over the last 25 years, more than

four-fold in total and seven-fold in the private sector. Although the total R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP is low (1.18), it increased 30% in the last two years and is now similar to that of other southern European countries (Spain: 1.22; Italy: 1.09).

The number of scientific publications by Portuguese researchers increased more than 17-fold in the last 20 years, accompanied by an increase in the number of citations per publication. Cooperative programs have been established with internationally renowned universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon, to promote internationalization of Portuguese science and access to resources. To sustain this development, the Portuguese government has invested heavily in the promotion of teaching of

From 1990 to 2007 there was a five-fold increase in the number of Ph.D. students registered at Portuguese universities.


and structural biology, microbiology and biotechnology, and other areas.

IMM (www.imm.fm.ul.pt/wiki/doku.php) is located in the campus of the University of Lisbon Medical School. Its research activities are focused on biomedical research and are clustered in three major programs: cell and developmental biology, immunology and infectious diseases, and neurosciences.

Currently IMM hosts 25 research units, involving 120 Ph.D.s, but it continues to expand, typically recruiting two new group leaders each year. There is outstanding expertise and infrastructure, allowing a wide range of themes and approaches. These vary from development of new molecules with therapeutic potential to work on animal models of disease and translational research, which is facilitated by proximity to the University Hospital and Medical School.

IBMC (www.ibmc.up.pt), in partnership with Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica (INEB), was one of the first Associated Laboratories.

Located in the historic city of Porto, it was conceived as a multidisciplinary research institution focused in five broad scientific divisions: human genetics and genetic disorders, infectious diseases and immunology, structural and molecular biology, neuroscience, and cell adaptative mechanisms.

IBMC harbors 29 research groups with more than 500 research staff. It is one of the largest research centers in the life sciences in Portugal. IBMC/INEB is affiliated with the University of Porto. It recently formalized a consortium with a cancer-oriented research center (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto) to create the Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (I3S) and foster interaction among basic research, engineering, and clinical research.

The Attractions of Portugal for Cell BiologistsFor a young researcher Portugal offers many possibilities. The top-ranked institutes share many facilities and have a very collaborative environment, making it easy to start a laboratory. Complete scientific independence, ability to attract Ph.D. students, and competitive funding are perhaps the most

experimental science in schools and creation of science centers for the general public.

Cell Biology in PortugalSeveral universities in Portugal have groups working in the cell biology field, but the highest concentration is in three research institutes that are part of larger Associated Laboratories heavily financed by FCT: IGC, Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM), and Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (IBMC). All are headed by internationally renowned scientists (António Coutinho, Maria do Carmo-Fonseca, and Claudio Sunkel, respectively). These institutions have in common:n International,

multidisciplinary faculty and Ph.D. programs

n Large proportions of young PIs (30–40 years old)

n Highly dynamic environments

n English as an official language

n International scientific boardsn International visitors and seminar series

IGC (www.igc.gulbenkian.pt) is a multidisciplinary life-science research and graduate training institute established in 1961 by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. It is located 20 kilometers from Lisbon on the Atlantic Coast. IGC is envisioned as a host institution for international research groups with the aim of incubating the careers of new research leaders, providing them with state-of-the-art facilities and financial autonomy.

Typically three to six new group leaders are recruited every year. IGC has 43 small research groups with just under 300 research staff and 60 support staff and has excellent central services. It receives 300 visitors a year through regular programs for short-term visitors, international courses, workshops, seminars, and Ph.D. programs.

Research at IGC covers a wide range of themes, such as cell and developmental biology, evolution, human genetics, inflammation, immunology, neurosciences, and theoretical and computational biology. Research at neighboring institutes (Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica and Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Technologica) adds another 400 research staff and expertise in biochemistry

The presence of a highly qualified population, together with reasonable salaries and a good quality of life, are attractive factors for pharma/biotech companies to become established in Portugal.

Complete scientific independence, ability to attract Ph.D. students, and competitive funding are perhaps the most attractive points of being a young PI at one of the leading Portuguese institutes.


attractive points of being a young PI at one of the leading Portuguese institutes.

The presence of many young group leaders and Ph.D. graduates who have moved into grant administration and science communication leads to a dynamic atmosphere. There is a lot to be done, and many want to participate! Additionally, Portugal is an attractive country for women, scoring very high in measures of equality and having the highest percentage of women as full professors in the natural sciences in Europe (28%, compared with 8% in the UK and 12% in France).

Finally, researchers can have a great quality of life in Portugal. Both Lisbon and Porto are cosmopolitan cities. And even in January you can have a journal club meeting in the garden or have a lab surfing class.

Meeting Challenges The current challenges for life sciences in general in Portugal are to sustain growth, promote excellence, and further internationali-

zation. Although prospective Ph.D. candidates already consider Portugal for their studies, it is still difficult for a young PI in Portugal to compete internationally for the best pool of postdoctoral candidates.

Postdoctoral programs in collaboration with well-regarded international organizations are being discussed to help bring postdocs to Portugal. Moreover, as more people start laboratories in Portugal and the existing ones become more established, the system will become more mature and better known internationally.

Finally, there are now several programs for funding invited chairs, sabbaticals, workshops, and collaborations between scientists from other countries (in particular the U.S.) and Portuguese groups. Such programs allow others to participate in this transformation of Portuguese science. n—Mónica Bettencourt-Dias, Instituto Gulbenkian

de Ciência; Helder Maiato, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular; and António Jacinto,

Instituto de Medicina Molecular

The ASCB 2009 Call for Nominations

Norton B. Gilula Memorial AwardWho is Eligible: An outstanding graduate or undergraduate student who has excelled in research

How to Apply: The student or advisor should submit a one-page research statement, a list of publications, if any, the abstract submitted to the current year’s Annual Meeting, and the advisor’s letter of recommendation. Duplicate applications from graduate students may be submitted for the Gilula and Bernfield Memorial Awards.

Awards: The winner is presented a plaque and a ribbon at the poster board. Expenses to attend the Annual Meeting are paid.

Deadline: August 1

All applications and nominations should be submitted to:

The American Society for Cell Biology8120 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 750

Bethesda, MD 20814-2762, [email protected]

For names of prior awardees or more information, visit www.ascb.org, or contact the ASCB at (301) 347-9300 or [email protected].

Merton Bernfield Memorial AwardWho is Eligible: An outstanding graduate student or postdoctoral fellow who has excelled in research

How to Apply: The student or postdoc or his or her advisor should submit a one-page research statement, a list of publications, a copy of the abstract submitted to the current year’s Annual Meeting, and the advisor’s letter of recommendation. Postdocs may also submit the recommendation of their graduate student advisor. Duplicate applications from graduate students may be submitted for the Gilula and Bernfield Memorial Awards.

Awards: The winner is presented a plaque and $1,000 honorarium and will speak at a Minisymposium at the Annual Meeting. Expenses to attend the Annual Meeting are paid.

Deadline: August 1

LETTER to the Editor


To the Editor:It gave me pleasure to read ASCB President Brigid Hogan’s perceptive column in the March issue of the ASCB Newsletter. I’m writing from Santiago, Chile. I’m a faculty member at the medical school at Clínica Alemana-Universidad del Desarrollo.

I’m sure that Emma, Darwin’s wife, was the only witness of his sufferings as he declared—astonished—his coming to understand that he wasn’t God’s invention but a consequence of an animal process. Living in such a religious and sacred society, our icon must have suffered contempt and possibly disrespect among his equals.

In Chile we are interested in Darwin, evolution, Darwin’s work, and the misunderstanding of his theory and proposals. Furthermore, Chile was the only territory where he stayed for 22 months on terra firma during his five-year expedition.

Chile is about 8,000 kilometers from the U.S. We are now trying to improve ourselves and develop our underdeveloped people. Science and politics go together. Now that the U.S. has elected a black President, I’m sure that U.S. citizens are feeling that they belong to a bigger community. I too now feel a part of that community.

George E. SwaneckInstituto de Ciencias, Chile


ASCB Profile

George Vann BennettVann Bennett stood out in the 1970 entering class at Johns Hopkins Medical School, recalls his longtime friend, sometime collaborator, and Hopkins classmate Peter Agre. Agre remembers meeting the dark-haired surfer from Hawaii who had the compact physique of an ex-wrestler from Stanford but somehow spoke with an accent straight out of Gone with the Wind Atlanta. Agre, a self-described tall, pink-faced Norwegian from Minnesota, says he and the Hawaiian with the drawl hit it off at once. They ended up sharing a seedy apartment off-campus and a body in gross anatomy class. “We were the Cadaver Brothers,” Agre reports, adding that they were equally inept at dissection.

But whatever his struggles with routine coursework, Bennett stood out for his ahead-of-his-time grounding in molecular biology at Stanford and for his mind set, says Agre. “Vann was the most interesting person in our class and I think universally regarded as the smartest. He’s always had a way of looking critically at information.” Take the time the lecturer in obstetrics posed a trick question to the class: “What is the growth hormone responsible for fetal growth in utero?”

Agre describes the scene. “All the aces sitting in the front wave their hands and say it’s human growth hormone. The lecturer grins. And then there’s a voice from the very back row. It’s Bennett, saying, ‘Insulin.’ Someone knew! It almost knocked the lecturer off his podium.” Agre continues, “Vann didn’t know. He just figured it out. Insulin was a polypeptide with metabolic activity. He’s always been an insightful biologist and that’s followed him through his career.”

Academic GeographyThat career has covered a lot of academic geography. After a Ph.D. and then an M.D. from Hopkins, Bennett went north in 1976 to

Cambridge for a postdoc with Dan Branton at Harvard. A year later, he went south to North Carolina’s Research Triangle for a staff scientist position at Burroughs Wellcome under his Hopkins mentor, Pedro Cuatrecasas. Then it was back to Hopkins in 1981 to join the cell biology faculty. Finally, Bennett went back to North Carolina, where he was appointed one of the first Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators at Duke University Medical School in 1987.

Yet to a remarkable extent, Bennett’s career has followed a single protein. Working on red blood cells (his own), Bennett used careful proteolytic degradation in 1978 to pick out a fragment of an unknown protein that bound

to the cytoskeletal protein spectrin. He called it ankyrin. It was known that in red blood cells, spectrin served as a cytoskeletal tent pole holding up a membrane canopy. But no one knew what was actually pinning the canopy in place. Bennett believed that in ankyrin he had identified the membrane anchor. The following year, Bennett purified the other end of the ankyrin protein and found that it bound to an anion exchanger in the cytoplasmic domain.

It was and remains a revolutionary discovery, according to Agre, because it showed for the first time the localization of transport molecules at the site of their function. “It’s the kind of work that’s tough to do. Those first purifications were heroic—big centrifuge rotors going all night

in cold rooms. Vann is a workhorse for this kind of thing,” Agre explains. “This [ankyrin] was a unique kind of binding protein, never before purified or characterized. And Vann did it all. It’s really a fundamental breakthrough in biology.”

From Erythrocytes to NeuronsAnkyrin has become the Swiss Army knife of membrane binding proteins, at least in most

Agre describes the scene. “All the aces sitting in the front wave their hands and say it’s human growth hormone. The lecturer grins. And then there’s a voice from the very back row. It’s Bennett, saying, ‘Insulin.’ Someone knew! It almost knocked the lecturer off his podium.”

George Vann Bennett


“We moved from Atlanta, which at this time was very segregated. Suddenly I went from being in a white majority to being a member of a minority group. It was fascinating, seeing all the races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.” Bennett learned to surf, breezed through high

school science, and transferred in his junior year to the Punahou School, which is now more widely known as Barack Obama’s alma mater.

He chose Stanford because it was a good school and on the Pacific Coast. “After that,” Bennett observes, “I seemed to be migrating east.” He was influenced at Stanford by John Brauman’s organic chemistry course and by the famous introduction to biochemistry at the Stanford Medical School, which was team taught by Paul Berg, Arthur Kornberg, I.R. Lehmann, George Stark, and

Dale Kaiser. The experience made Stanford his first choice for medical school, but he didn’t get in. Johns Hopkins Medical School did take him, though. “In the long run, it was good for me to move out and get exposed to the East Coast,” he says.

Molecular ThinkingIn Baltimore, Bennett was impressed by his new friend Peter Agre and unimpressed by the Hopkins medical curriculum. “I’d been infected by the science virus [at Stanford]. I didn’t realize how deeply it went in until I was sitting there during [medical school] lectures and worrying that the lecturers didn’t understand how things were really working. They were not thinking on the molecular level.”

His medical training and the physiological slant that it gave to his thinking were powerful influences, Bennett believes, but he realized during clinical rotations that his talents lay elsewhere. “There were superb clinicians at Hopkins and elsewhere, so I thought I should concentrate on the basic science end.”

Bennett found his own mentor in Cuatrecasas, a young Spanish-born, American-educated pharmacologist who developed affinity chromatography as a breakthrough drug-discovery tool. Agre remembers Bennett’s “discovery” of Cuatrecasas. “It was Vann who identified Pedro as a really exciting and creative scientist,” Agre recalls. “How did Vann do it? He heard Pedro lecture. The rest of us were there too, but these people are all so brilliant, who’s to

animals. Over time, Bennett has revealed ankyrin to play key roles in human cells from erythrocytes to neurons to cardiac myocytes. He has discovered three human ankyrin genes, A, G, and B.

Through a variety of alternate splicings and foldings, the ankyrins are now believed to bind 14–15 different families of membrane proteins in addition to spectrin, according to Peter Michaely. A Bennett graduate student now on the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Michaely says that ankyrin is still gaining connections as it emerges as an essential part of the genetic kit for nearly all metazoans.

“It’s a new class of protein,” Bennett explains. “Recent findings suggest ankyrins are not only required to localize proteins within membrane domains such as epithelial lateral membranes and the sensory cilia of rod photoreceptors, but they also are required to form these domains.” It’s an intriguing combination of functions. “How would you describe something that both stabilized and helped form the structure?” Bennett asks.

A PubMed Search“Adaptor protein” is the best anyone can come up with now, but ankyrin continues to lead the Bennett lab in unexpected directions, many with clear connections to human health. Bennett has published on topics as diverse as electrical regulation of photoreceptors, defects in skeletal muscle organization in muscular dystrophy, mechanisms of cell junction formation, protein structure, mechanisms for arrhythmia and senescence, neuronal migration, and design of nanodevices.

“Perform a PubMed search on Vann,” suggests Peter Mohler, a former Bennett postdoc who now runs his own ankyrin lab at the University of Iowa, “and you will see all sorts of high-profile manuscripts. This guy’s on a whole different level.”

The Bennett level began in Morganton, NC, in 1948. “I do tell people that I’m a native,” Bennett explains, “but they don’t believe me because I am this bearded academic type.” Bennett left North Carolina soon after he was born as his father pursued a successful practice as an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, first in Atlanta and then in Honolulu. His son was 14 when they arrived in Hawaii.

It was and remains a “revolutionary” discovery, according to Agre, because it showed for the first time the localization of transport molecules at the site of their function.


know who is the most brilliant? But Vann knew. He said, ‘Pedro’s the one.’”

Finding AnkyrinCuatrecasas left Hopkins to direct basic research at Burroughs Wellcome, the first of many high-level posts he would hold in pharmaceutical development. He quickly recruited Bennett. It was a fateful move both for Bennett, who first purified ankyrin there, and for Agre, who was doing a clinical residence in hematology nearby at the University of North Carolina (UNC) medical center. Agre was still torn between bench and clinical research.

Agre says straight out that he owes his own scientific career to the direct influence of Vann Bennett. That career includes winning the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of aquaporin membrane channels. “I would never have become a basic scientist without Vann,” Agre declares.

It was Bennett who got Agre a summer place in the Cuatrecasas lab at Hopkins when a clinical research fellowship fell through. It was Bennett who took Agre into his Burroughs Wellcome lab to study the role of ankyrin and spectrin in human hemolytic anemias. Later when they both landed back at Hopkins, Bennett offered Agre bench space while Agre scrambled for research funding to pursue the basic work that would culminate in the aquaporin channel.

“Maybe I would be practicing medicine in northern Minnesota or working as a missionary doc,” says Agre, “but I would never have had the confidence (for basic research). Vann made me change my career plans.”

Bennett has had a huge impact on others. Velia Fowler, who is now at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, credits Bennett’s example as an industrious postdoc when she was a green graduate student in the Branton lab. “Vann was just so full of energy that he inspired me,” Fowler recalls, particularly for his wisdom on experimental design. “He’d be working late and I’d be sitting there like a puppy dog asking him all sorts of questions.” Later, Fowler sought out a postdoc position in Bennett’s lab at Hopkins.

Why This and Not That? “Vann still has great intellectual influence on me,” Fowler explains. “I still read his papers and think, ‘How did he put this together? Why did he conceptualize the problem this way? Why did he put it together this way and not another way? And most of all, what can it tell me?’”

Mohler says he was extremely naive when he started his postdoc in 2000, and still laughs at himself for missing the whole point of the Bennett mentoring technique. “Every morning we’d sit down and talk, just the two of us, for 20–30 minutes about experiments, data, and manuscripts. At the time, I thought, ‘I am offering this great scientist some wonderful ideas that will change the way he thinks about science.’ In hindsight, I realize how ridiculous that was. He was doing it all for me. He was the ultimate mentor.”

Despite Bennett’s status as a great mentor and inspired scientist, Mohler still says he would never step into a canoe with Bennett on one of his famous northern wilderness river expeditions. “He’s too dangerous,” says Mohler. “I couldn’t handle it. Vann comes across as this totally reserved guy, but just under the surface he’s super intense.” From opening champagne bottles with a saber to paddling down arctic rivers in bear country, “He’s off the bell curve,” says Mohler.

Boundary WatersBennett has always had a taste for high-misery athletic performance. Back in their Baltimore student days, Agre and Bennett used to ride bicycles long distance on the hottest, stickiest days, their tires sucking on the melting asphalt with Agre growing pinker and Bennett sweatier, both of them grinning from ear to ear.

In respectable middle age, Bennett and Agre discovered their mutual interest in wilderness kayaking, exploring together the boundary waters of Minnesota and the arctic-running rivers of northern Canada and Alaska. “There’s something about the northern environment that I really like,” says Bennett.

At home, Bennett lives in the country outside Hillsborough, NC, with his wife, Bernadette Pelissier, who was just elected on the Democratic ticket to the Orange County Board of Commissioners. Born in Senegal of French parents but raised in New Jersey, Pelissier recently retired as a sociologist for the state prison system. She is a legendary cook. Bennett says that since they married in 1996, “My greatest challenge is not to double my weight every three years.” In his turn, Bennett is a legendary gardener and poultry raiser on what he insists on calling a “farmette.”

From his first marriage, Bennett has three grown children and a new grandchild, Arabella. Her mother is Bennett’s eldest daughter, Patricia, an artist who lives in Baltimore. His second daughter, Lisa, is a writer who just moved back to Chapel Hill. His son, Davis, is graduating this year as a philosophy major from UNC.

“That’s so Vann Bennett,” says Fowler of Bennett’s approach to programming the ASCB Annual Meeting, meaning understated and self-deprecating, but with sharp, strong opinions about what makes good science just millimeters beneath the surface.


High-Profile ProgrammingBennett is vice-chair of cell biology at Duke and has served on his share of academic, editorial, and meeting committees. But this year he has taken on the high-profile position of program chair for the ASCB Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego. In typical Bennett style, he credits his committee, the ASCB Council, and ASCB meeting staff for the excellence of the resulting program. “I just looked at the [final] program in the ASCB Newsletter and I can’t believe that I had something to do with this,” Bennett reports. “I mean, it looks really interesting.”

“That’s so Vann Bennett,” says Fowler of Bennett’s approach to programming the ASCB Annual Meeting, meaning understated and self-deprecating, but with sharp, strong opinions about what makes good science just millimeters beneath the surface. His work on the ASCB program this year, says Fowler, may mean that Bennett “is going to get a little more visibility, whether he’s ready or not.”

Agre agrees. Ankyrin was a discovery of historic importance, Agre declares, and the scientist who so painstakingly unfolded the ankyrin story will become far better known as its connections to diseases are traced. When deserved recognition finally catches up with his friend, Agre says he has no expectation of any change. “Vann’s always kept this kind of boyish inquisitiveness like the student at the back of the class who comes through with the brilliant observation. Vann is still doing that.” n

—John Fleischman

Register NOW for the Summer Meeting in KyotoRegistration, Abstract Submission, and Travel Award Applications are now available at www.ascb.org/JAPAN2009/index.cfm for the ASCB/JSCB/RIKEN CDB Meeting in Kyoto, Japan, September 21–23, 2009.

Some of the most exciting areas in biology today are at the interface between cell and developmental biology. Interact with other scientists and students who are trying to understand how cells integrate signaling events, cell adhesion, and cytoskeletal regulation to shape the body plan.

Deadlines:

Travel Award July 8

Abstract July 22

Registration August 20 n

Missing ASCB Emails?Not receiving emails from the ASCB? Wondering about ASCB meeting-related deadlines? Want to ensure that you learn about ASCB grant and award opportunities? Be sure to “whitelist” the ASCB in your email system. Including the ASCB on your whitelist ensures that ASCB emails won’t be marked as spam and automatically deleted or relegated to your spam folder.

An email whitelist names contacts you deem acceptable as sources for email communications. Whitelisting can be set up on the server-side or client-side. To enable server-side whitelisting, you will need to contact your system administrator (and request that email from *@ascb.org be allowed). Or, to enable client-side whitelisting, you can set up a spam filter to whitelist individual email addresses, domains, and/ or IP addresses. Consult the help menu in your email program for instructions. n

Check Out the ASCB T-Shirts!A wide variety of colors, designs, and sizes are available for men, women, and children in the “print-on-demand” store.

The ASCB has also drastically reduced prices on its remaining inventory of classic t-shirts and polo shirts. The prices are now $8 for all t-shirts and $14 for the classy polos.

Everything is available at www.ascb.org; click on “Online Store.” Besides shirts, the ASCB Online Store also offers notecards, Joseph Gall’s Views of

the Cell, career advice books, and an eye-catching poster from CBE—Life Sciences Education. n


PUBLIC POLICY Briefing

Sebelius Confirmed as HHS Secretary

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It took President Obama two tries, but he finally has a Secretary of Health & Human Services.

The U.S. Senate confirmed former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius on April 28, 2009, as head of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). Secretary of HHS was the final cabinet position needing to be filled. Republicans in the Senate had delayed her confirmation because of their concerns about her views on abortion and campaign contributions she had received from a Kansas abortion provider. n

—Kevin M. Wilson

Obama Makes First NIH Budget RequestPresident Obama has sent his budget request for FY10 to Congress, and it contains both good and bad news for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

What’s the bad news? The President is asking Congress to provide $30.996 billion for FY10, only $443 million or 1.4% more than the NIH’s FY09 budget. The NIH estimates that, if enacted, this budget would fund 38,042 Research Project Grants (RPGs), 171 more than FY09 with 9,849 competing RPGs, seven more than FY09. The NIH estimates that the overall success rate would remain at 20%.

The good news is that the 1.4% increase does not include the $10 billion the NIH received as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, often referred to as the stimulus package. Those funds will be available for use by the NIH until September 30, 2010. The large amount the NIH received in the stimulus package will mean that the FY10 NIH budget will be artificially high. Because of

the inflated FY2010 budget, Congress may agree with Obama’s budget request for the NIH.

The bad news is that when the stimulus funding runs out at the end of FY10, budgets for the NIH will return to the level in each annual appropriations bill, creating a funding cliff or shortfall. Unless Congress and the Obama Administration work to address the problem, the post-stimulus funding fall-off will have a very negative impact on grant funding and research employment. In her press conference announcing the budget for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), which includes NIH funding, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was asked about the funding cliff. Sebelius said, “We certainly need to begin working on what happens in 2011 and 2012.”

To read the details of the proposed FY10 NIH budget, go to http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/ui/2010/Press%20info%20_revised%202_%20for%20rollout.pdf. n

—Kevin M. Wilson

Kathleen Sebelius


FY10 2010 PBAppropriation FY08 FY09 FY09 President’s +/- Actual1,2 Omnibus Recovery Act3 Budget1,2 Omnibus

NCI $4,830,647,000 $4,968,973,000 $1,256,517,000 $5,150,170,000 $181,197,000

NHLBI 2,937,654,000 3,015,689,000 762,584,000 3,050,356,000 34,667,000

NIDCR 392,233,000 402,652,000 101,819,000 408,037,000 5,385,000

NIDDK2 1,865,761,000 1,911,338,000 445,393,000 1,931,494,000 20,156,000

NINDS 1,552,113,000 1,593,344,000 402,912,000 1,612,745,000 19,401,000

NIAID1 4,583,344,000 4,702,572,000 1,113,288,000 4,760,295,000 57,723,000

NIGMS 1,946,104,000 1,997,801,000 505,188,000 2,023,677,000 25,876,000

NICHD 1,261,381,000 1,294,894,000 327,443,000 1,313,674,000 18,780,000

NEI 670,664,000 688,480,000 174,097,000 695,789,000 7,309,000

NIEHS 645,669,000 662,820,000 168,057,000 684,257,000 21,437,000

NIA 1,052,830,000 1,080,796,000 273,303,000 1,093,143,000 12,347,000

NIAMS 511,291,000 524,872,000 132,726,000 530,825,000 5,953,000

NIDCD 396,234,000 407,259,000 102,984,000 413,026,000 5,767,000

NIMH 1,412,951,000 1,450,491,000 366,789,000 1,474,676,000 24,185,000

NIDA 1,006,022,000 1,032,759,000 261,156,000 1,045,384,000 12,625,000

NIAAA 438,579,000 450,230,000 113,851,000 455,149,000 4,919,000

NINR 138,207,000 141,879,000 35,877,000 143,749,000 1,870,000

NHGRI 489,368,000 502,367,000 127,035,000 509,594,000 7,227,000

NIBIB 300,233,000 308,208,000 77,937,000 312,687,000 4,479,000

NCRR 1,155,560,000 1,226,263,000 1,610,088,000 1,252,044,000 25,781,000

NCCAM 122,224,000 125,471,000 31,728,000 127,241,000 1,770,000

NCMHD 200,630,000 205,959,000 52,081,000 208,844,000 2,885,000

FIC 66,912,000 68,691,000 17,370,000 69,227,000 536,000

NLM 322,212,000 330,771,000 83,643,000 334,347,000 3,576,000

OD 1,111,735,000 1,246,864,000 1,336,837,0003 1,182,777,000 -64,087,000

B&F 118,966,000 125,581,000 500,000,000 125,581,000 0

Type 1 Diabetes2 -150,000,000 -150,000,000 0 -150,000,000 0

Subtotal, Labor/HHS 29,379,524,000 30,317,024,000 10,380,703,000 30,758,788,000 441,764,000

Interior/Superfund Research Program 77,546,000 78,074,000 19,297,000 79,212,000 1,138,000

Total, NIH Discretionary B.A. 29,457,070,000 30,395,098,000 10,400,000,000 30,838,000,000 442,902,000

Type 1 Diabetes2 150,000,000 150,000,000 0 150,000,000 0

Total, NIH Budget Authority 29,607,070,000 30,545,098,000 10,400,000,000 30,988,000,000 442,902,000

NLM Program Evaluation 8,200,000 8,200,000 0 8,200,000 0

Total, Prog. Level 29,615,270,000 30,553,298,000 10,400,000,000 30,996,200,000 442,902,000

1/ Includes funds to be transferred to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis (FY 2008 - $294,759,000; FY 2009 - $300,000,000; and FY 2010 - $300,000,000).

2/ Includes funds for the Type 1 Diabetes Initiative supported with mandatory funds (P.L. 107-360, P.L. 110-173, P.L. 110-275).

3/ Funds are appropriated from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009 (P.L. 111-5) and are available until September 30, 2010.

National Institutes of HealthFY10 President’s Budget Request


CLS Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus Held

Nathan Wolfe from the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative addressed attendees at the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus on April 22, 2009. His timely presentation, “Stalking the Next Pandemic,” was delivered to Members of Congress and their staff just as swine flu cases multiplied.

September 13-16, 2009San Diego Marriott - La JollaLa Jolla, CA

The importance of metabolism incancer growth and survival is a greatlyexpanding field. This conference willfocus on the basic biology as well asthe development of targetedtherapeutics that capitalize on ourunderstanding of key interventionpoints in these metabolic and growthcontrol pathways.

Abstract Submission, AwardApplication, and Early RegistrationDeadline: July 13, 2009

Conference Chairpersons:Ronald M. EvansThe Salk Institute, La Jolla, CAReuben J. ShawThe Salk Institute, La Jolla, CAM. Celeste SimonUniversity of Pennsylvania,Philadelphia, PA

www.aacr.org

New Galaxy® CO2 Incubators.

The Cell Culture Problem Solvers.

Problem 2: I need an small CO2 incubator, but have nospace for a bulky water-jacketed system.

Solution: NBS Galaxy incubators come in three sizes: 6.0cu. ft. models, plus convenient benchtop 1.7 cu. ft. & 0.5 cu.ft. systems, ideal for low-capacity applications and sample iso-lation. Galaxy’s unique fanless design provides the mostusable capacity on the smallest footprint of any incubator.

For more about Galaxy CO2 Incubators see: www.nbsc.com/a


InCYteS from MBCJune, Vol. 20, nos. 11 and 12

Nuclear Fusion and Genome Encounter During Yeast Zygote FormationAlan Michael Tartakoff and Purnima Jaiswal

When haploid cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are mated, parental nuclei congress and fuse in a process called karyogamy. By following cells that express differentially tagged proteins, the authors show that karyogamy involves a preliminary “parting” of the nuclear envelope at the apex of the nucleus, followed by slow flux first of outer and—minutes later—of inner membrane proteins. Using novel assays to investigate the impact of mutations and drugs on karyogamy, the authors document a requirement for two corresponding factors of distinct topology: 1) a protein that participates in membrane fusion in the cytoplasm (Sec18p/NSF), and 2) luminal factors that are sequestered when unfolded proteins accumulate in the ER. After karyogamy, the waist of the nucleus dilates and nuclear pores access the trans portion of the nuclear envelope, all before the spindle pole bodies coalesce. The authors also show that tagged loci of parental genomes remain in their respective nucleoplasmic domains after karyogamy, although they are mobile. This restriction reflects their tethering to spindle pole bodies, judging from a requirement for a centromere and intact kinetochores.

The Mating-Specific Ga Interacts with a Kinesin-14 and Regulates Pheromone-Induced Nuclear Migration in Budding YeastSofia V. Zaichick, Metodi V. Metodiev, Scott A. Nelson, Oleksii Durbrovskyi, Edward Draper, John A. Cooper, and David E. Stone

The regulation of the cytoskeleton by external stimuli is essential to many fundamental processes in eukaryotic cells. One well-studied phenomenon that depends on signal-induced changes in cytoskeletal polarity is the fusion of haploid yeast to produce zygotes. In mating mixtures, yeast cells interpret pheromone gradients to locate and grow toward the closest potential mating partner.

Preparatory to karyogamy, the nucleus is moved toward the eventual fusion site by the shortening of microtubules that tether it to the cell cortex. The Kar3 microtubule-associated motor protein both stimulates the depolymerization of these microtubules and maintains their cortical interaction as they shorten. It is not known, however, how Kar3 is anchored to the cortex, nor how pheromone regulates its function. Here the authors show that pheromone stimulates interaction between Kar3 and the mating-specific Ga protein Gpa1 and that Gpa1 affects both Kar3 localization and microtubule–cortex contact. These data provide the first example of a Ga protein–kinesin interaction and suggest that Gpa1 is an anchor and an externally regulated positional determinant for Kar3, a previously unappreciated role for Ga proteins. n

Vimentin Regulates Scribble Activity by Protecting It from Proteasomal DegradationDominic C. Y. Phua, Patrick O. Humbert, and Walter Hunziker

Cell polarization—the asymmetric distribution of cellular components into functionally separate regions—is fundamental to processes such as proliferation and movement. Its deregulation plays a central role in human diseases, in particular cancer. The multidomain protein Scribble (Scrib) is a key polarity regulator and neoplastic tumor suppressor in Drosophila. Mammalian Scrib is implicated in epithelial cell–cell adhesion and polarization during directed cell migration. The authors characterize a novel interaction between Scrib and the intermediate filament protein vimentin, which has a stabilizing effect on Scrib levels. Vimentin depletion results in the proteasome-dependent degradation of Scrib, which consequently leads to defective epithelial cell–cell adhesion and deregulated cell migration, closely phenocopying Scrib depletion. Double knockdown of Scrib and vimentin causes a phenotype similar to single silencing and suggests that the two proteins function in a single linear pathway. This stabilization of Scrib expression and function by vimentin is consistent with previously reported observations that vimentin is upregulated during epithelial wound healing. The findings imply a possible regulatory function for vimentin in Scrib homeostasis during epithelial migration.

Specificity of Cytoplasmic Dynein Subunits in Discrete Membrane Trafficking StepsKrysten J. Palmer, Helen Hughes, and David J. Stephens

The minus-end–directed microtubule motor protein complex cytoplasmic dynein can exist in multiple forms specified by assembly of distinct polypeptide subunits (heavy, intermediate, light intermediate, and light chains). By means of siRNA depletion and quantitative cell imaging, the authors reveal the specific role of individual subunits in different membrane trafficking events. Loss of heavy chain or intermediate chain subunits has global effects on dynein structure, but suppression of individual light intermediate chain (LIC) or light chain subunits leaves dynein intact. Futhermore, individual subunits are shown to be involved in ER-to-Golgi transport, endosome positioning, mitotic progression, and the completion of cytokinesis. Notably, LICs occur in separate dynein populations and, from cell imaging experiments, LIC1 is implicated in Golgi function, with LIC2 being involved in recycling endosome positioning. Dynein-2, which contains LIC3, was not involved in any of the trafficking events examined. These data show that specific forms of dynein differing in their subunit composition are involved in discrete membrane trafficking steps.


WOMen in Cell Biology

Strategic thinking about your career—that is, thinking about the future years down the road—can be very difficult. Even as you finish your degree, or write your grant, or convince your supervisor about the merits of a research direction, you are usually looking just two to five years into the future. But what would you like to accomplish 10 years from now?

From the time we are students and as we move through the more advanced stages of our careers, we all wonder how to break in, move forward, or change what we are doing to align our goals more directly with our interests. If we wait for others to do this for us, it ain’t gonna happen. Taking charge of our careers—owning our careers—is essential, and leads to rewarding outcomes.

Reluctant to Ask?Speakers at workshop after workshop enjoin participants to be proactive in careers. Why are some people reluctant to use the networking and communication skills that are essential to career advancement? How do others develop the comfort to do this?

Networking has become a worn term, but it is in fact front and center in your efforts to plan your career. You will not get career advancement in science based on family ties as you might in business. You will get career advancement in science when people know about you from your accomplishments and from your champions who speak highly of you for particular positions.

What if you want to take a path no one has walked, or “walk a border” between interests? In the settings in which most cell biologists traditionally work, you will have opportunities to talk with academics and researchers in colleges, institutes, or hospitals. In addition to this comfortable circle, talk with people whose career paths pique your professional curiosity. Computer graphics? Public policy? Research that bridges science and education? Literature? No one will invite you to an informational interview. You need to invite professionals in other fields for coffee or lunch to pick their brains, solicit their opinions, and cultivate them

as contacts. You may be surprised at what you find.

Contact MapPeople in your circle of acquaintances may very well be able to help your career move forward.

A contact map is the circle of people whom you know and also the circle of people whom THEY know. The “old boys’ network” is still a reality, but the old boys are not the only game in town. Networks work best when many people are involved, sharing their contacts.

A professional society such as ASCB is an excellent networking resource. An email or a tweet to another member with a query (in which you note that you too

are an ASCB member) can connect you with resources and a broader circle of people than you might have imagined. WICB has both a blog (http://tinyurl.com/qq8vp4) and a Facebook page (http://tinyurl.com/062vlk) set up for just this kind of purpose (see http://tinyurl.com/oj5m2o). Take the initiative. ASCB is your society too!

Strut Your Stuff!You are excited about what you have done and about what you want to do. So tell people—at scientific or even institutional meetings, at seminars, at dinners with seminar speakers, at social events, or during that five-hour coast-to-coast flight with an engaging aisle-mate. Raised to be humble about our accomplishments, many of us belittle those accomplishments. You do not have to be boastful, but you do need to make others aware of what you have contributed.

You shouldn’t expect that others will lay a path to your door because of what they know you have done. How would those others know? Unexpected personal intersections may lead you to new areas that are well complemented by your scientific training, be it a new area of research for the lab or a new career trajectory altogether.

Take the Initiative!There are many ways to make yourself and your accomplishments and your future goals

Networking has become a worn term, but it is in fact front and center in your efforts to plan your career.

Owning Your Own Career

Caroline Kane


available to you as of tomorrow morning. How would you get to that other or additional career path? Does that sound appealing?

ConfidenceConfidence is the most important component of career advancement. Owning your own career requires that you put confidence on your shoulder and carry it with you.

At the end of the day, after all the mentoring and external influence, it’s you who takes charge of your decisions about your future. You make the selections. Those selections are

not unchangeable, not written in stone. All of us learn as we go. Many scientists have made dramatic changes in career direction. There are many ways to contribute to society once you are equipped with scientific training, but taking the chance to make a change can be scary and takes confidence. Go ahead and own it. Do what you do because that is what you choose. n

—Caroline Kane, for the Women in Cell Biology Committee

known within and throughout your community of potential career colleagues. As a graduate student:n Take a seminar speaker to

lunch.n Ask questions during or after

a seminar.n Interact with visiting

sabbatical scientists.n Talk with faculty from other

departments whose academic arena interfaces with your interests.

n Talk with professionals in the region surrounding your campus. As a postdoc, participate in

your postdoctoral society, or start such a society to enable you and other postdocs to network with each other, with visiting scientists at your institution, and with professionals at large.

As a new scientist, be part of the fabric of your institution and community. Certainly use the common venues of scientific seminars and meetings, but step outside those venues as well, perhaps even taking classes in new areas. Every few years, ask yourself what you would like to be doing if your current career path were not

A professional society such as ASCB is an excellent networking resource.

Owning your own career requires that you put confidence on your shoulder and carry it with you.

Did You Know...?

You still have time to vote for next year’s ASCB President-Elect and four Council members.

n The President-Elect will serve as President in 2011 and Past President in 2012.

n The term of office for all positions is three years.n This year the Council, as empowered by the ASCB

Bylaws, has segmented the ballot to ensure continued minority representation on the Council. Two minority nominees are running against each other; all eligible voters (regular, postdoctoral, and emeritus members) are invited to vote for one of these nominees, along with three of the remaining six nominees.

The deadline to cast your ballot is June 26. Go to www.ascb.org to preview the ballot and/or cast your vote today! n

Science Newshounds Wanted The hottest discoveries and the coolest science are the quarry as the ASCB Public Information Committee (PIC) screens abstracts this August for Cell Biology 2009, the press book for journalists covering the ASCB Annual Meeting in December. PIC screening panels go through all 1,300 or more abstracts submitted for possible minisymposium presentation to run down the top-breaking science news stories. ASCB members with a nose for news and tireless eyeballs are welcome to volunteer as PIC Associates. The screening panels will work entirely online, from August 10–31.

PIC is also seeking PIC Associates to encourage social media interactions by blog, FaceBook, and/or Twitter at the meeting. Volunteers at the Annual Meeting can also help PIC with the Celldance Awards ceremony and CellSlam, the ASCB’s juried, stand-up science slam. Contact PIC Chair Rex Chisholm ([email protected]) or ASCB Science Writer John Fleischman ([email protected]) for details. n


MeMBeR in the newsWilliam Earnshaw of the University of Edinburgh, an ASCB member since 1983, was one of the 40 newly elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. The Academy’s Fellows are selected from the United Kingdom’s leading medical scientists from hospitals, academia, industry, and public service.

David AgardUniversity of California, San

FranciscoMember since 1990

Vann BennettDuke University Medical

CenterMember since 1983

Marianne Bronner-FraserCalifornia Institute of

TechnologyMember since 1981

ASCB Members Elected American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fellows

Ursula GoodenoughWashington University in

St. LouisMember since 1965

James E. HaberBrandeis University

Member since 2003

Mark Alan KrasnowStanford University School of

MedicineMember since 2008

W. James NelsonStanford University School of

MedicineMember since 1982

Robert H. SingerAlbert Einstein College of Medicine

Member since 1976

Gary G. BorisyMarine Biological Laboratory

Member since 19702002 ASCB President

Doug HanahanUniversity of California, San

FranciscoMember since 1996

Baldomero M. OliveraUniversity of Utah

First joined ASCB in 1994

ASCB Members Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Jay C. DunlapDartmouth Medical School

Member since 1994

Paul W. SternbergCalifornia Institute of Technology

Member since 1990

Foreign Associate Foreign Associate

Pascale CossartInstitut Pasteur

Member since 1993

Ari HeleniusSwiss Federal Institute of

TechnologyFirst joined ASCB in 1981

Nina Stromgren Allen

Celeste A. Berg

Dean Dawson

Richard A. Goldsby

Martin E. Hemler

Peter Hornbeck

Gary L. Sanford

MeMBeR GiftsThe ASCB is grateful to the following members and applicants who have recently given a gift to support Society activities:

GRAntS & OPPORtUnItIeS


The National Academies’ Research Associateship Programs administer postdoctoral (within five years of the doctorate) and senior (normally five years or more beyond the doctorate) research awards sponsored by federal laboratories at over 100 locations in the U.S. and overseas. Quarterly application deadlines. www7.nationalacademies.org/rap.

National Centers for Biomedical Computing (R01). This funding opportunity is for projects from individual investigators or small groups to collaborate with the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research National Centers for Biomedical Computing (NCBCs). Collaborating projects are intended to engage researchers in building an excellent biomedical computing environment, using the computational tools and biological and behavioral application drivers of the funded NCBCs as foundation stones. Expiration: September 8, 2011. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-08-184.html.

NIGMS Grants. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences is accepting applications for funding research in which several interdependent projects offer significant advantages over support of these same projects as individual research. Standard NIH application dates apply. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-07-030.html.

NIGMS Protein Structure Initiative Knowledgebase. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) is accepting applications to maintain and enhance the Protein Structure Initiative (PSI):Biology Knowledgebase in support of NIGMS PSI:Biology projects. As a central information hub, the Knowledgebase plays a critical role in making the research of PSI:Biology widely available to other scientists. It performs outreach activities to inform and solicit input from the scientific community to increase the impact of PSI:Biology. Letters of intent are due June 17, 2009; applications are due July 17, 2009. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-GM-10-004.html.

NIGMS Supplements for Functional Studies Based on High-Resolution Structures Obtained in the Protein Structure Initiative. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) announces the availability of administrative supplements to provide funds to enable investigators interested in protein function to capitalize on the information and material products of the Protein Structure Initiative. These supplements are available for 1) NIGMS-funded research grants (R01, R37, and P01) as well as 2) investigators with peer-reviewed research grants not funded by NIGMS, through the PSI research centers. www.nigms.nih.gov/initiatives/PSI/supplements.

NIH Educational Opportunity Administrative Supplements. NIH announced that $21 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for administrative supplements to existing NIH grants over two years has been allocated for educational opportunities in NIH-funded laboratories for summer students and science educators. Applications may be submitted throughout FY09 and FY10, but some NIH institutes and centers may have specific deadlines. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-060.html.

NIH Mentored Quantitative Research Development Award. The purpose of the Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25) is to attract to NIH-relevant research those investigators whose quantitative science and engineering research has thus far not been focused primarily on questions of health and disease. Expiration: January 8, 2012. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-039.html.

NIH Pathway to Independence Award. The primary purpose of the Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) program is to increase and maintain a strong cohort of new and talented NIH-supported independent investigators. The program is designed to facilitate a timely transition from a mentored postdoctoral research position to a stable independent research position with independent NIH or other independent research support at an earlier stage than is currently the norm. Expiration: January 8, 2012. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-036.html.

NRSA Awards. The NIH Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is accepting applications for the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards. The predoctoral fellowships promote diversity in health-related research. Application deadline is November 15, 2009. http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-06-481.html#SectionI.

Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-related Research. These supplements are intended to promote diversity in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social sciences research workforce. Expiration: September 30, 2011. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-08-190.html.

Research Supplements to Promote Re-entry into Biomedical and Behavioral Research Careers. These supplements are intended to encourage individuals to re-enter research careers within the missions of all NIH program areas. This program will provide administrative supplements to existing NIH research grants to support full-time or part-time research by individuals in a program geared to bring their existing research skills and knowledge up-to-date. Expiration: September 30, 2011. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-08-191.html.

In late April, ASCB sent each regular, postdoctoral, and emeritus member a link to the ASCB election site. Since spam filters may prevent some messages from being received, members are encouraged to go to www.ascb.org to vote. Your member number (the same number used to access MBC) will enable you to vote and ensure that each member votes just once. If you do not receive the link and/or do not know your member number, contact the ASCB at (301) 347-9300 or [email protected]. n

GRAntS & OPPORtUnItIeS


Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards for Individual Predoctoral Fellows in Pharm.D./Ph.D Programs. The objective of this funding opportunity announcement is to help ensure that highly trained Pharm.D./Ph.D. graduates will be available in adequate numbers and in appropriate research areas to carry out the U.S. biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research agenda. Expiration: January 8, 2012. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-029.html.

SCORE Awards. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences is accepting applications for its Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) developmental awards designed to increase faculty research competitiveness at minority-serving institutions. Multiple deadlines through May 18, 2010. The program announcement, as well as three other program announcements (PAR-06-491, PAR-06-492, PAR-06-493), can be found at http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-06-490.html#PartI.

Continued from p. 28September 12–15. San Francisco, CA49th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. www.icaac.org.

September 13–16. Hyannis, MANorth American Vascular Biology Organization Workshop: Genetics and Genomics of Vascular Disease. www.navbo.org/event/ggvd.

September 21–23. Kyoto, JapanJoint American Society for Cell Biology–Japan Society for Cell Biology –RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology Meeting, Building the Body Plan: How Cell Adhesion, Signaling, and Cytoskeletal Regulation Shape Morphogenesis. www.ascb.org./japan2009.

September 27–30. Aachen, GermanyTrinational Fall Meeting of the Biochemical Societies of Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands: Signal Transduction and Disease. www.gbm-online.de.

October 2–9. Heidelberg, GermanyEMBO Conference on Morphogenesis and Dynamics of Multicellular Systems. www-db.embl.de/jss/EmblGroupsOrg/conf_118.

October 16–17. Research Triangle Park, NCSymposium on RNA Biology. www.med.unc.edu/pmbb/symposium09.html.

October 17–21. Lisbon, PortugalInternational Cytokine Society, International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research, and Society of Leukocyte Biology Tri-Society Annual Conference: Cellular and Cytokine Interactions in Health and Disease. www.trisociety2009.org/registration_information.php.

October 20–24. Honolulu, HIAmerican Society of Human Genetics 59th Annual Meeting. www.ashg.org/2009meeting.

October 29–31. Leipzig, GermanyWorld Conference on Regenerative Medicine. www.wcrm-leipzig.de.

November 6–7. Heidelberg, Germany10th EMBL/EMBO Joint Conference on Science and Society. www.embo.org/policy-and-society/science-society/conferences/2009.html.

November 11–14. Denver, CO2009 National Association of Biology Teachers Professional Development Conference. www.NABT2009.org.

November 12–15. San Diego, CAAnnual Meeting of the Society for Glycobiology. www.glycobiology.org.

November 18–21. Barossa Valley, Australia4th Barossa Meeting: Cell Signalling in Cancer and Development. www.sapmea.asn.au/signalling09.

November 29–December 4. San Juan, PR20th International Symposium on Glycoconjugates. www.glyco20.org.

December 5–9. San Diego, CA49th ASCB Annual Meeting. www.ascb.org.

May 23–27, 2010. San Diego, CAAmerican Society for Microbiology 110th General Meeting. www.asm.org.

August 22–27, 2010. Kobe, Japan14th International Congress of Immunology. www.ici2010.org.

September 26–October 1, 2010. Melbourne, AustraliaOzBio2010: The Molecules of Life - Discovery to Biotechnology. www.asbmb.org.au/ozbio2010.

For additional listings, see http://ascb.org/othermeetings.psp.

MeetInGS Calendar

MeetInGS Calendar

ASCB Annual Meetings

8120 Woodmont AvenueSuite 750Bethesda, MD 20814-2762

Non-profitOrganizationUS Postage

PAIDYork, PA

Permit No. 356

2009San Diego

December 5–9

2010Philadelphia

December 11–15

2011Denver

December 3–7

2012San Francisco

December 15–19

2013New Orleans

December 14–18

2014Philadelphia

December 6–10

June 11–14. Ames, IASystems Biology: Integrative, Comparative, and Multi-Scale Modeling. www.bb.iastate.edu/~gfst/phomepg.html.

June 14–18. Zürich, SwitzerlandVIII European Symposium of The Protein Society. www.proteinsociety.org.

June 23–27. Boone, NC17th International Chromosome Conference. http://rydberg.biology.colostate.edu/icc2009.

June 28–July 3. Andover, NHGordon Research Conference: Stress Proteins in Growth, Development & Disease. www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2009&program=stressprot.

July 4–9. Prague, Czech Republic34th Congress of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies: Life’s Molecular Interactions. www.febs2009.org.

July 8–11. Barcelona, SpainInternational Society for Stem Cell Research 7th Annual Meeting. www.isscr.org/meetings/index.cfm.

July 14–20. Calgary, CanadaApplied Computational Genomics Course. www.gcbioinformatics.ca/training.

July 19–24. New London, NHGordon Research Conference: Cell–Cell Fusion. www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2009&program=cellcell.

July 23–27. San Francisco, CASociety for Developmental Biology 68th Annual Meeting. www.sdbonline.org/2009Mtg/Webpage.htm.

July 26–30. Richmond, VAMicroscopy & Microanalysis 2009. http://mm2009.microscopy.org.

August 2–7. Waterville Valley, NHGordon Research Conference: Mammalian Gametogenesis and Embryogenesis. www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2009&program=mammgamet.

August 9–12. Santa Cruz, CAEngineering Cell Biology Meeting. www.engconfintl.org/9ak.html.

August 29–September 1. Amsterdam, The NetherlandsThe EMBO Meeting 2009. www.the-embo-meeting.org.

September 3–7. Cambridge, UKStrategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), 4th Conference. www.sens.org/sens4.

September 5–8. Visegrád, Hungary12th European Meeting on Complement in Human Disease. www.chd2009.com.

September 6–10. Edinburgh, UK16th International Society of Developmental Biologists Congress. www.isdb2009.com.

September 9–12. Ericeira, PortugalAssociation for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology/International Society for Ocular Cell Biology. www.arvo.org/isocb.

September 9–13. Heidelberg, GermanyEMBO Conference on Protein Synthesis and Translational Control. www-db.embl.de/jss/EmblGroupsOrg/conf_115.

September 11–15. Denver, COAmerican Society for Bone and Mineral Research 31st Annual Meeting. www.asbmr.org.

Continued on p. 27

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