Academic Life: The Whole Package

Christopher K Mathews

doi:10.1074/jbc.x800004200

Abstract

When I received the unexpected but welcome invitation to write a Reflections article, I wondered which aspects of my life in science are sufficiently distinctive to make the article worth reading. One aspect may be my survival as a department chair for nearly 25 years while struggling to contribute as well in teaching and research, in other words, embracing the “whole package” of academic life: teaching, research, and service. Another part may be my experience as coauthor of a biochemistry textbook. To deal with both, I will begin with my introduction to biochemistry.

Highlights

My nascent interest in biochemistry became full-blown during my junior year at Reed College, when I read Currents in Biochemical Research 1956, a compendium edited by David E
When I visited Brookhaven National Laboratory, my host, Dr Robert Steele, asked, “Why are you considering universities in the East when one of the best biochemistry departments in the country is right in your own back yard, in Seattle?” So I arranged a visit to the University of Washington, where I met, among others, Ed Krebs, who reminded me gently that he was not Krebs of the cycle
Who might have predicted that some 35 years later Ed Krebs would become as famous as Sir Hans when he and Eddie Fischer would share the Nobel Prize for discovering protein phosphorylation, work that was under way in Seattle at that very moment?

Summary

College and Graduate School

My nascent interest in biochemistry became full-blown during my junior year at Reed College, when I read Currents in Biochemical Research 1956, a compendium edited by David E. Frank suggested as an introductory project that I develop an enzymatic method for preparative-scale synthesis of the biologically active stereoisomer of tetrahydrofolate. This was done by treating dihydrofolate with DHFR and NADPH, followed by DEAE-cellulose column purification. Reading Cohen’s papers, I learned that the phage-induced enzymes discovered in his lab (thymidylate synthase and deoxycytidylate hydroxymethylase) used folate coenzymes. His laboratory provided an excellent link between my training with Frank and the more biological work I hoped to do

Postdoctoral Training

Four Years at Yale

Ten Years at the University of Arizona

Thirty Years and Counting at Oregon State University

Findings

The End Game