Rockefeller University Research Articles

Profile of Charles M. Rice, Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager, and Michael J. Sofia, 2016 Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Awardees

Hepatitis C: From chronic to curable Three researchers, Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager (University of Heidelberg), Charles M. Rice (The Rockefeller University), and Michael J. Sofia (Arbutus Biopharma, Inc.) (Fig. 1) share the 2016 Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their work, which has allowed for the development of a therapeutic drug against chronic hepatitis C. Finding a cure against this dreadful disease represents a major medical breakthrough, the importance of which cannot be overstated. Fig. 1. Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager, Charles M. Rice, and Michael J. Sofia, pictured in order above, shared the 2016 Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their work on hepatitis C. Images courtesy of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. Hepatitis viruses, as the name implies, infect the liver and can be associated with a variety of illnesses. Hepatitis A viruses lead to a self-limited disease, which can be seriously debilitating for months. Hepatitis B viruses can cause an acute, short-term illness, but can also be associated with long-term chronic infection resulting in cirrhosis or liver cancer. Both hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines are highly efficacious and have been available for decades in the United States. Consequently, hepatitis A and hepatitis B are both preventable diseases. What is different about hepatitis C? Critically, there is no vaccine available against this disease. Unfortunately, an estimated 170 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus and ∼350,000 lives are lost every year worldwide (1). These high numbers are comparable to the morbidity and mortality of other viral diseases, such as HIV and influenza. The WHO estimates that more than a million people die annually of AIDS-related illnesses and up to half a million people succumb to influenza globally every year (2, 3). The common trait shared by these top three viral diseases, hepatitis C, AIDS, and influenza, … [↵][1]1Email: peter.palese{at}mssm.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Charles William Lacaillade. Biologist, Parasitologist, Educator, and Mentor.

Charles William Lacaillade (1904-1978) was an eminent biologist in the middle decades of the twentieth century. He was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts of parents whose ancestors were French Canadians. His father, also named Charles William Lacaillade, was a dentist who graduated from Tufts University School of Dentistry in 1898. His mother, Elodia Eno, came from a family of very successful businessmen. Lacaillade was the third of six children. His two older brothers, Harold Carleton and Hector Eno, both graduated from the University of Louisville, School of Dentistry, while his younger brother, Lawrence, became a businessman. His sister, Luemma, married Dr. Henry Steadman, a veterinarian, while his youngest sister, Gloria, married a U.S. Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Anido. Lacaillade received his MS and PhD degrees in biology and zoology from Harvard University. He then became a fellow at The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. At both institutions, he studied under some of the most eminent biological scientists of the time. These included Rudolf W. Glaser, George Howard Parker, Theobald Smith, Carl TenBroeck, and William Morton Wheeler. At the Rockefeller Institute, he co-discovered the vector and mode of transmission of Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis. This discovery, and the research he conducted with Rudolf W. Glaser, quickly established him as an outstanding biological researcher. However, a change in leadership at the Rockefeller Institute resulted in research priorities being given to the disciplines of general physiology, physical chemistry, and nutrition. This shift in the research agenda away from the biological sciences precluded career advancement at the Rockefeller Institute for post-doctoral fellows like Lacaillade. It was the height of the Great Depression, and even biologists with terminal doctoral degrees found it difficult to find positions. In 1935, Lacaillade accepted a position as an assistant in biology at St. John's College in Brooklyn, New York. Although a small single-gender college for men, the Department of Biology there under Dr. Andrew I. Dawson had an impressive record of research achievements. Lacaillade remained at this institution for the remainder of his career until his retirement in 1970. He eventually became Distinguished Professor of Biology, Chair of the Department of Biology, and the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions. Lacaillade quickly developed a reputation as an outstanding teacher, mentor, and scientist. He taught introductory courses in biology as well as advanced ones in parasitology and entomology. He preceptored graduate students and guided their dissertation research. Above all else, he was a superb mentor who provided sage advice to pre-professional students planning careers in medicine and dentistry. Lacaillade effortlessly adapted to the transformation of St. John's College, with an annual enrollment of some 600, to St. John's University, with an average annual student census of 20,000. He also oversaw the geographic relocation of his department from Brooklyn to the then new campus in Jamaica, New York in 1955. He proved to be a stabilizing presence during the faculty strike of 1966 and its aftermath which included a reorganization of the university. Throughout his life, Lacaillade was admired as a man of letters. His interests spanned art, literature, opera, and the theater. He had a passionate interest in English literature, about which he wrote, and was proud of his collection of first editions of English writers. Charles William Lacaillade was an eminent success as a research biologist early in his career. However, his greater successes came later as an outstanding educator and mentor. As such, he had a positive and lasting influence on the lives and careers of many students and colleagues. He passed away on 17 September 1978 in Danvers, Massachusetts.

Seymour J. Klebanoff: Discoverer of WBC killing mechanisms

Seymour J. Klebanoff, MD, PhD, died peacefully on August 31, 2016 at the age of 89. He began his medical and scientific career at the University of Toronto (Doctor of Medicine, 1951), where he coauthored his first paper, dealing with renal anatomy, in 1950 (1). Klebanoff proceeded to complete Doctor of Philosophy studies in biochemistry at the University of London (1954), followed by postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Toronto and the Rockefeller University. Studies conducted at the Rockefeller, investigating thyroid peroxidase and its role in iodinating tyrosine to form thyroid hormones, attracted the attention of the distinguished endocrinologist Robert H. Williams, founding chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington. Klebanoff was recruited to the University of Washington, where he spent the remainder of his career, making many important scientific contributions and serving in key leadership positions.

E-36: The First Proto-Megascience Experiment at NAL

E-36, an experiment on small-angle proton-proton scattering, began testing equipment at the National Accelerator Laboratory (NAL) using a newly achieved 100 GeV proton beam on February 12, 1972, marking the beginning of NAL’s experimental program. This experiment, which drew collaborators from NAL, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, USSR), the University of Rochester (Rochester, New York), and Rockefeller University (New York, New York) was significant not only as a milestone in Fermilab’s history but also as a model of cooperation between the East and West at a time when Cold War tensions still ran high. An examination of the origin, operation, and resolution of E-36 and the chain of experiments it spawned reveals the complex interplay of science and politics that drove these experiments as well as seeds of the megascience paradigm that has come to dominate high energy physics research since the 1970s.

Bioinformatics approach finds new drug candidates

Microbes are full of undiscovered molecules, including antibiotics. But many species remain difficult to culture or simply contain large swaths of genes that remain inactive under laboratory conditions. Hoping to harvest untapped molecules without growing a single cell, Sean F. Brady of Rockefeller University and colleagues looked to genomic data from the human microbiome for inspiration. “Genomic sequences are coming at us fast, and we need tools to turn that information into molecules,” Brady says. So the researchers mined previously reported DNA sequences for nonribosomal peptide gene clusters. With those data, they synthesized the predicted structures of 25 peptides and tested them for antibiotic activity. Two peptides, dubbed humimycin A and humimycin B, are effective against several pathogenic bacteria. Humimycin A drastically improved survival in mice infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) when given in conjunction with the antibiotic dicloxacillin (Nat. Chem. Biol. 2016, ...

Editorial introductions

Current Opinion in Gastroenterology was launched in 1985. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of gastroenterology is divided into 12 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce one of the Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Anthony KallooAnthony KallooDr Anthony Kalloo is a Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, USA. He is the Director of The Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has special interests in Natural Orifice Surgery, therapeutic endoscopy, biliary and pancreatic diseases and sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. After receiving his medical degree from the University of West Indies Medical School, West Indies, Dr Kalloo interned and completed his residency in Internal medicine at Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC, USA. He completed his fellowship training program at the combined Georgetown University, USA, VA Medical Center, USA and NIH program. He was an Instructor in Medicine at Georgetown University prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 1988. He was an Associate Editor of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He is the founder and immediate past medical director of The Hopkins Gastroenterology and Hepatology Resource Center (www.hopkins-gi.org), a 3000 page multilingual web resource for patients and physicians. He has authored over 150 scientific papers, review articles and book chapters. He has pioneered and has multiple patents including the use of Botulinum Toxin in the gastrointestinal tract, endoscopic cryotherapy and the winged biliary/pancreatic stent. He is the pioneer of Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), a technique that will enable abdominal surgery without the use of incisions. Dr Kalloo is a Past Panel Chair for Gastroenterology and Urology Devices with the United States Food and Drug Administration. He is the recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Educator of the Year of the Award from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Fred S. GorelickFred S. GorelickFred S. Gorelick, MD is a Professor of Medicine (Digestive Diseases) and Cell Biology at Yale University School of Medicine and a physician scientist who cares for patients and does research. He went to medical school and did a residency at the University of Missouri in Columbia followed by a GI fellowship at Yale University. Afterwards, he trained in research with James D. Jamieson, MD, PhD at Yale and Paul Greengard, PhD at the Rockefeller University. His laboratory studies acute cell and tissue injury using models of pancreatitis and he is specifically interested in identifying pathologic signaling pathways that can be therapeutically targeted. He also works with Dr Greengard's group to examine the proteolytic generation of the protein responsible for Alzheimer's disease. Dr Gorelick has been the Acting Chief of the Digestive Diseases Section, the Digestive Diseases Research Training Program Director and is the Deputy Director of the Yale MD-PhD Program. Dr Gorelick has also served as the President of the American Pancreatic Association and has chaired grant review committees for the NIH. His laboratory has received support for over 30 years from the NIH NIDDK and NIAAA, from the Veterans Administration, and the State of Connecticut.

The Kunkel legacy and hepatitis C virus infection

In commemoration of Henry Kunkel's 100th birthday, the effect of his legacy on the investigation of hepatitis C virus is recounted. The delineation of a major cross-idiotype (WA) among patients with essential mixed cryoglobulinemia led to the discovery that HCV was the etiologic agent for this disease. Studies of the cryoglobulins led to the discovery that WA RF reacted specifically with HCV-VLDL like particles that on electronmicroscopy and binding studies appeared to be the virion within a lipid shell. This particle mediates cell entry via LDLr and may serve to avoid the immune response by masking the virion. In addition, the WA B cell may be a prognostic marker for cutaneous vasculitis and B cell malignancy in HCV-infected patients.In commemoration of Henry Kunkel's 100th birthday, this is an account of how his legacy had a role in the investigation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. There is a bit of a historical basis for the legacy of this great immunologist having a role in virology. He began his research career studying hepatitis. Later he worked with HCV in his studies of mixed cryoglobulins although he didn't know it at the time.There may also have been a Kunkel historical basis for why he accepted me as fellow in his laboratory considering that my credentials paled in comparison with those of the fellows and PhD students in his laboratory. Like Henry I was drafted into the Navy following my internship, I had had minimal research experience in medical school and only one minor publication, and I had a passion for clinical investigation. It may have been fortuitous that while on active duty at the Bayonne NJ Naval Base I visited Henry Kunkel in my Navy uniform and told him I was interested in studying SLE. I did not know at the time the dramatic role the Navy had played in his career or that one of his major training goals was to teach MDs to use clinical observation as a focus for delineating disease mechanisms in the laboratory. When I started work in the laboratory on discharge from the Navy, the first thing he told me was that it took five years to make a clinical investigator so I might as well get a Rockefeller University PhD while working in his laboratory. I was sure I would leave the laboratory after two years so I declined his offer. I did not leave until six years later!

Improving People’s Lives: #SPECares

President's column Wealth is not new. Neither is charity. But the idea of using private wealth imaginatively, constructively, and systematically to attack the fundamental problems of mankind is new.—John Gardner Historical philanthropy was primarily driven by religious convictions or the desire to remain in power. Around the time of John D. Rockefeller, something remarkable occurred as the great wealth created by industrialization ushered in a different sort of giving, targeted at improving people’s lives. Rockefeller started as an office clerk at age 16, creating his own firm 4 years later. His success in building Standard Oil was unprecedented—the firm would eventually be broken up into more than 30 individual companies that would grow to become Exxon, Mobil, Amoco, Sohio, and others. He gave away most of his wealth, founding the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University, but much of the giving was targeted at achieving specific goals. One example was focusing on eradicating hookworm disease across the southern US. Oil industry leaders have a long tradition of philanthropy, just one more way our industry serves the public good. SPE has set aside a modest amount of money for disaster relief in areas where our members reside. To date, we have contributed more than USD 100,000 to various efforts including USD 10,000 each to relief efforts following this year’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador and the Fort McMurray wildfires in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. Most of us donate to charities according both to our abilities to do so and our convictions. One of the things I have been most pleased to see is not the donation of money, but the time and energy SPE members have contributed to charitable causes. I joined SPE in 1975 and one of the first activities I participated in was a section activity to raise money for scholarships, one of the most common areas for giving. SPE members have often been ready to volunteer for many efforts designed to benefit the public or deserving individuals or groups. I am thrilled to see sections and chapters around the world contributing their time and efforts to a wide variety of activities. In June, the SPE Board of Directors adopted “SPE Cares” as the name for global SPE volunteer initiatives, thereby promoting community service worldwide while bringing together students and young and experienced professionals. We can shed a positive light in the oil and gas industry and make a difference in our community outside our careers.

Opioid America: Two Heroes and Two Culprits

Opioid America: Two Heroes and Two Culprits

Helping Basic Scientists Engage With Community Partners to Enrich and Accelerate Translational Research.

Engaging basic scientists in community-based translational research is challenging but has great potential for improving health. In 2009, The Rockefeller University Center for Clinical and Translational Science partnered with Clinical Directors Network, a practice-based research network (PBRN), to create a community-engaged research navigation (CEnR-Nav) program to foster research pairing basic science and community-driven scientific aims. The program is led by an academic navigator and a PBRN navigator. Through meetings and joint activities, the program facilitates basic science-community partnerships and the development and conduct of joint research protocols. From 2009-2014, 39 investigators pursued 44 preliminary projects through the CEnR-Nav program; 25 of those became 23 approved protocols and 2 substudies. They involved clinical scholar trainees, early-career physician-scientists, faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, and others. Nineteen (of 25; 76%) identified community partners, of which 9 (47%) named them as coinvestigators. Nine (of 25; 36%) included T3-T4 translational aims. Seven (of 25; 28%) secured external funding, 11 (of 25; 44%) disseminated results through presentations or publications, and 5 (71%) of 7 projects publishing results included a community partner as a coauthor. Of projects with long-term navigator participation, 9 (of 19; 47%) incorporated T3-T4 aims and 7 (of 19; 37%) secured external funding. The CEnR-Nav program provides a model for successfully engaging basic scientists with communities to advance and accelerate translational science. This model's durability and generalizability have not been determined, but it achieves valuable short-term goals and facilitates scientifically meaningful community-academic partnerships.

294 Extensive alopecia areata is reversed by IL-12/23p40 cytokine antagonism

S | Clinical Research II: Pathophysiology and Therapeutics 294 Extensive alopecia areata is reversed by IL-12/23p40 cytokine antagonism E Guttman-Yassky, B Ungar, S Noda, M Suprun, A Shroff, R Dutt, S Khattri, M Min, Y Mansouri, X Zheng, YD Estrada, GK Singer, M Suarez-Farinas, JG Krueger and MG Lebwohl 1 Dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, NY, 2 Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology, The Rockefeller University, New York City, NY and 3 Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New

DNAJB1‐PKRACA ‐ A Novel PKa Fusion Protein That Drives Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FLHCC) is a rare liver tumor that usually occurs in adolescents and young adults. Characterized by hepatocytes with deeply eosinophilic, granular cytoplasm interspersed with fibrous bands, FLHCC is without signs of cirrhosis as in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. To characterize its molecular pathogenesis, we performed RNA‐seq and whole genome sequencing of FLHCC paired with normal liver from the same patient.The majority of the DNA was unremarkable with few recurrent mutations or structural variants such as amplifications or inversions. The exception was a heterogeneous deletion of ~400 kB in one copy of chromosome 19. This produced a chimeric transcript and a fusion between the heat shock protein DNAJB1 and the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PRKACA) which retained full enzymatic activity. This chimera has been found in every patient (n>200). Differential expression analysis of RNA‐seq revealed many changes in the gene expression in FLHCC. These were generally consistent between patients with FLHCC and different from HCC samples from the TCGA or published reports of other cancers. Some of the observed changes can directly be linked to increased activity of PRKACA. Other changes involve pathways known to participate in the initiation and progression of other cancers, which, along with an increase of PRKACA activity, represent targets for therapeutic intervention. Several of these targets are now being explored in cellular models, genetic, and PDX mouse models, as well as clinical trials.Support or Funding InformationThe Rockefeller University Center for Clinical and Translational Science Grant 2UL1RR024143, The Sohn Foundation, The Rockefeller University, The Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation

My Early Days with Ari Helenius: Detergents and Viruses.

My Early Days with Ari Helenius: Detergents and Viruses.

The History of Mycoplasma pneumoniae Pneumonia.

In the United States in the 1930s, although the pathogen was not known, atypical pneumonia was clinically distinguished from pneumococcal pneumonia by its resistance to sulfonamides. Reimann (1938) reported seven patients with an unusual form of tracheo bronchopneumonia and severe constitutional symptoms. He believed the clinical picture of this disease differed from that of the disease caused by influenza viruses or known bacteria and instead suspected “primary atypical pneumonia.” For many years, the responsible infectious agent was tentatively classified as a filterable virus that could pass through a Seitz filter to remove bacteria and was reported to be a psittacosis-like or new virus. After that, Eaton et al. (1942, 1944, 1945) identified an agent that was the principal cause of primary atypical pneumonia using cotton rats, hamsters, and chick embryos. Eaton et al. (1942, 1944, 1945) did not perform an inoculation study in human volunteers. During the 1940s, there were three groups engaged in discovering the etiology of the primary atypical pneumonia. (1) Commission on Acute Respiratory Diseases Diseases directed by John Dingle, (2) Dr. Monroe Eaton’s group, the Virus Research Laboratory of the California State Public Health Department, (3) The Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research directed by Horsfall. During 1940s, the members of the Commission on Acute Respiratory Diseases concluded that the bacteria-free filtrates obtained from the patients, presumably containing a virus, could induce primary atypical pneumonia in human volunteers via Pinehurst trials. During 1950s, serological approaches for identification of the Eaton agent developed such as Fluorescent-Stainable Antibody, and at the beginning of the1960s, the Eaton agent successfully grew in media, and finally accepted as a cause of primary atypical pneumonia. Thus, technical difficulties with visualizing the agent and failure to recognize the full significance of the Pinehurst transmission experiments resulted in a lapse of 20 years before acceptance of the Eaton agent as Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This review describes the history of M. pneumoniae pneumonia with a special focus on the recognition between the 1930 and 1960s of the Eaton agent as the infectious cause.

An exciting time to study the nucleus.

Some exciting new findings were reported at the Minisymposium “The Cell Biology of Genetic Information” held at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. G. V. Shivashankar (Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore) spoke about how geometric constraints, such as extracellular matrix stiffness, can regulate nuclear organization in mammalian cells, from nuclear shape to chromatin dynamics and gene expression. The regulation is mediated by a pathway that includes focal adhesion, perinuclear actin, and chromatin modulations. Reduction of adhesion was found to reduce perinuclear actin filaments and increase the turnover of core histones (Toh et al., 2015 ), suggesting that gene expression and chromatin state tightly couple with changes of extracellular conditions. In another system, K. Weis (ETH Zurich Institute of Biochemistry, Switzerland) showed that nutritional or pH conditions could affect nuclear stiffness and chromatin dynamics in yeast. Genome organization and expression can also be regulated by nucleolar function (S. Huang, Northwestern University) and by differentiation (A. Wood, Northwestern University). Chromatin state, in turn, was shown to play a key role in shaping physical properties of the nucleus (A. D. Stephens, Northwestern University). A more euchromatic genome associates with a more elastic nucleus. These reports demonstrate dynamic functional coordination between the organization of the genetic material in the nucleus and cytoplasmic and extracellular function in response to environmental changes. The MCM helicase was reported to play important roles in preventing early replication stress– and loss-of-function–induced mitotic missegregation and genome rearrangement in fission yeast, resembling micronuclei in cancer cells (S. L. Forsburg, University of Southern California; Sabatinos et al., 2015 ). Micronucleolus formation, on the other hand, was shown by A. Spektor (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) to be one of the causes of chromothripsis common in cancer cells (Zhang et al., 2015 ). Y. Kim (University of California, Berkeley) showed the activity of CHK-2 to be part of a conserved feedback mechanism that is important for meiosis and is facilitated by HORMA-domain proteins within the chromosome axis in C. elegans (Kim et al., 2015 ). Single RNA tracking in live cells defined the kinetics of mRNA export and demonstrated that mRNA remained associated with the outside of the nuclear envelope for an extended time upon exiting the nucleus in budding yeast (A. Lari, University of Alberta, Canada; Smith et al., 2015 ). Influenza virus mRNAs were shown by A. Mor (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center) to be spliced and exported through nuclear speckles—nuclear organelles highly enriched with factors for pre-mRNA splicing. The reports on development of innovative methods provided exciting and more precise tools for future studies of nuclear functions. R. E. Kleiner (Rockefeller University) showed a novel chemical proteomics approach for quantitative profiling of direct binders to phosphorylated γ-H2AX (Kleiner et al., 2015 ) or other proteins in the future. Y. Chen (University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign) spoke of a specific cross-link method, TSA-Seq, for measuring cytological distance in micrometers between genes and specific nuclear organelles, which can also be used to identify DNAs associated with specific nuclear organelles. D. S. Nelles (University of California, San Diego) showed that clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 technology can be suited for tracking RNA in living cells without modifying the targeted RNA (Nelles et al., 2015 ). These findings provided glances at current studies and future research trajectories. There remain many black boxes regarding nuclear structure, function, and coordination between the nucleus, cytoplasm, and extracellular environment in normal and diseased conditions. The increasingly sophisticated tools make it an exciting time to explore these mysteries.

Frank H. Field And Joe L. Franklin Award For Outstanding Achievement In Mass Spectrometry: Albert John Roeland Heck

AWARDS Frank H. Field And Joe L. Franklin Award For Outstanding Achievement In Mass Spectrometry: Albert John Roeland Heck ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2016, 94 (1), pp 36–43January 4, 2016Cite this:C&EN 94, 1, 36-43Figure1of1Sponsor: Waters Corp. Citation: For his outstanding work in the field of protein mass spectrometry and his role in the development of enabling technologies for both proteomics and structural biology. Current position: scientific director, Netherlands Proteomics Centre; professor of biomolecular mass spectrometry and proteomics, Utrecht University, the Netherlands Education: B.Sc., chemistry, VU University Amsterdam; M.Sc., Ph.D., chemistry, University of Amsterdam Heck on his role models:“I have been lucky to meet in my career several very inspirational mentors, from which you pick up various things. Among these role models, Peter Roepstorff of the University of Southern Denmark, Brian Chait of Rockefeller University, and my former postdoctoral supervisor, Richard Zare of Stanford University, stand out. Their common denominator is that they are very smart, extremely creative, but also have a scientific joie de vivre. Perfect role models for me.”What his colleagues say: “He is not only an outstanding mass spectrometrist but effortlessly moves forward on problems that cut across a range of chemistry, biology, and physics fields. His work has led to a new means of visualizing the structures of cells and protein complexes, making him a major figure in the field of protein mass spectrometry and a leader in both proteomics and molecular structural biology of large molecular machines.”—David Clemmer, Indiana University

"I make efforts, people make comments": Prof. H. Zanyin Gaw-pioneering the world, the trailblazer and founder of China's virology research.

"I make efforts, people make comments": Prof. H. Zanyin Gaw-pioneering the world, the trailblazer and founder of China's virology research.

Exposure to HIV-1 Tat protein potentiates the rewarding effects of morphine and reinstates extinguished conditioned place preference

Exposure to HIV-1 Tat protein potentiates the rewarding effects of morphine and reinstates extinguished conditioned place preference

Eric Harris Davidson: A systems biologist who studied how genomes function.

The phrase “force of nature” has popped up repeatedly in social media responses to the announcement of Eric Davidson’s death on September 1, 2015. This sobriquet reflects his huge influence on the fields of developmental biology and evolution. His career began about the time Watson and Crick published the structure of DNA, and his contributions continued into the genomic era in which we are now immersed. But his stature wasn’t due to this timing. As Pasteur once said: “Dans les champs de l’observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits prepares.” (“In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind”). Perhaps Eric’s strong focus on the function of the genome and his great intellect also contributed to this influence. His unwavering focus on how the genome does its job must also play a role. Furthermore, he clearly took genuine delight in confronting complex biological problems, and he erected broad views of the process of nature. This point is documented in his dedication to the third edition of Gene Activity in Early Development, where he credits his father with teaching him about organizing complex perceptions. Eric Davidson was born on April 13, 1937 in New York City, New York. He is the son of Morris and Anne Davidson. His father was a renowned abstract painter of the mid-20th century who maintained a school of painting near Provincetown on Cape Cod, Massachussetts. Eric attended the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate, and earned a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University (then Institute). He continued at Rockefeller as a post-doc, and then as assistant professor until 1971. He then moved to the California Institute of Technology, where he remained for the remainder of his career.

Microbial Ecosystem Follows Deterministic Dynamics

Do simple laws govern the dynamics of complex ecosystems? Are these dynamics predictable? These are hard questions to address because of the intrinsic complexity of ecosystems and the lack of data available. In a new study, Stanislas Leibler from the Rockefeller University, New York, and colleagues [1] take on this problem by tracking the population dynamics of a closed ecosystem of three microbial species at an unprecedented level of detail. Using a novel method of automated counting of single cells, which tracks the abundances of the species as frequently as every 400 seconds for 90 days, the authors find that the intrinsic dynamics of the three-species ecosystem are strongly deterministic, that is, the system’s evolution is highly reproducible under controlled external conditions. Despite the high level of determinism, the observed abundances of the species don’t have a simple dependence on position and time and, to current knowledge, are unpredictable. This means that although the dynamics of the system is not left to chance, we don’t know how to model its future states.