͵͵

Member News

Miller named distinguished professor; UVA appoints Garcia–Blanco

ASBMB Today Staff
Jan. 2, 2023

Miller named distinguished professor

The University of Kentucky has named Anne-Frances Miller its 2022-23 College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor.  Miller, a chemistry professor, is being honored for her outstanding research, effective teaching and professional service. She will deliver the annual Distinguished Professor Lecture in the spring.

Anne-Frances Miller

The studies enzymatic redox catalysis, working to understand energy efficiency in biological systems as well as mechanisms for optimizing the storage of intermittent energy and deploying it with maximum versatility.

For her research, Miller has received the Biophysical Society Young Investigator Award and the 2021 Herty Medal from the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. She was invited to chair the Gordon Research Conference in her field, and she recently completed a term as chair of the American Chemical Society’s division of biological chemistry.

Miller’s academic leadership includes re-inventing a molecular biophysics course to enhance student quantitative thinking. She has sought to make science more accessible to artists through the development of courses such as “Plant Pigments, Fragrances, and Fibers.”

Miller was recently elected to the ͵͵ and ͵͵ Biology Publications Committee, on which she previously served from 2013 to 2016. She was a member of the Journal of Biological Chemistry editorial board from 2007 to 2012.

UVA appoints Garcia–Blanco as chair 

Mariano A. Garcia–Blanco, an expert in virology and RNA biology, has been named chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He comes to UVA from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, where he has served as chair of the biochemistry and molecular biology department since 2014.

Mariano A. Garcia–Blanco

Garcia–Blanco’s lab is known for its research on RNA-binding proteins in infection and immunity. His work has identified numerous RNA-binding proteins that affect the replication of flaviviruses such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika. They also have studied the role of RNA helicase DDX39B in alternative splicing of the interleukin 7 receptor, which affects autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis.

A member of the United Nations’ Council of Scientific Advisers for the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Garcia–Blanco previously served on the National Institutes of Health’s National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology and, most recently, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 

Garcia-Blanco has taught undergraduate, graduate and medical students such topics as gene regulation, nucleic acids, cancer biology, and autoimmunity. Along with his research and teaching at the UT Medical Branch, he has been an adjunct professor of emerging infectious diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. He was a faculty member at Duke University from 1990 to 2014.

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
ASBMB Today Staff

This article was written by a member or members of the ASBMB Today staff.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in People

People highlights or most popular articles

Transforming learning through innovation and collaboration
Award

Transforming learning through innovation and collaboration

Nov. 22, 2024

Neena Grover will receive the William C. Rose Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education at the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.

Guiding grocery carts to shape healthy habits
Award

Guiding grocery carts to shape healthy habits

Nov. 21, 2024

Robert “Nate” Helsley will receive the Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator in Lipid Research Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.

Leading the charge for gender equity
Award

Leading the charge for gender equity

Nov. 19, 2024

Nicole Woitowich will receive the ASBMB Emerging Leadership Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.

Honors for de la Fuente, Mittag and De La Cruz
Member News

Honors for de la Fuente, Mittag and De La Cruz

Nov. 18, 2024

César de la Fuente receives the American Society of Microbiology’s Award for Early Career Basic Research. Tanja Mittag and Enrique M. De La Cruz are named fellows by the Biophysical Society.

In memoriam: Horst Schulz
In Memoriam

In memoriam: Horst Schulz

Nov. 18, 2024

He was a professor emeritus at City College of New York and at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan whose work concentrated on increasing our understanding of mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism and an ASBMB member since 1971.

Computational and biophysical approaches to disordered proteins
Award

Computational and biophysical approaches to disordered proteins

Nov. 14, 2024

Rohit Pappu will receive the 2025 DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences at the ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12-15 in Chicago.