͵͵

Member News

AAAS names fellows

ASBMB Today Staff
May 15, 2023

Nine members of the ͵͵ and ͵͵ Biology are among 505 scientists named 2022 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ASBMB members who are AAAS fellows in chemistry are Vahe Bandarian, Alexander Drohat, Elizabeth Komives, Audrey Lamb and Juliette Lecomte. Fellows in medical sciences are Gerard Blobe, Thirumala-Devi Kannegante and Ghislain Opdenakker. Bonnie Firestein is a fellow in neuroscience.

Bandarian

is a professor of chemistry and associate dean for student affairs at the University of Utah, where he has been reconstructing the biosynthetic pathways for various natural products. His lab explores the molecular basis for radical-mediated modifications that lead to complex peptide and nucleic acid based molecules. He is a 2022 ASBMB fellow and serves as chair of the ASBMB Meetings Committee and on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Drohat

is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the  School of Medicine, where he studies the structure and mechanism of DNA base excision repair enzymes. His lab investigates how DNA glycosylases recognize and remove mutagenic DNA lesions, to guard against cancer and other diseases, and how they affect epigenetic regulation by mediating active DNA demethylation. 

Komives

, a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, studies the biophysics of protein–protein recognition. Komives’ team studies the transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B’s interactions with DNA and coactivators. She has contributed to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of serine proteases and recently has focused on the Cullin 5 family of E3 ubiquitin ligases, which use combinatorial protein-protein interactions to mediate degradation of a large number of cellular proteins.

Lamb
, chemistry professor and department chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio, studies how bacterial pathogens make the molecules that they need to survive and infect humans. Her lab explores how bacteria produce metallophores and riboflavin (vitamin B2) — pathways that are potential targets for the design of new antimicrobials. Lamb also has joined with other labs to study cancer and diabetes. She is a member of the ASBMB Council.

 

Lecomte

, a professor of biophysics at Johns Hopkins University, probes the structure, function and evolution of the hemoglobin family of proteins. Of particular interest are thermodynamic and dynamic aspects of protein-cofactor interactions. Her team taps X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy to achieve their goals.

Blobe

is a professor of medicine, pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University. He studies how transforming growth factor-beta, or TGF-β, signal transduction pathway affects cancer. His research has established novel paradigms for TGF-b co-receptor function in regulating the trafficking and signaling of associated receptors, as well as the role of these TGF-b co-receptors in cancer biology.

Kannegant

is a member, vice chair and endowed chair of immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She provided the first genetic evidence for NLRP3 inflammasome activation in response to microbial components and elucidated its roles in diseases, contributing to the inception and expansion of the inflammasome field. Her lab also discovered Z-DNA-binding protein 1 as an innate immune sensor that activates PANoptosis, a form of inflammatory cell death implicated across the disease spectrum, pioneering a new research area.

Opdenakker

is an emeritus professor at and former chairman of the Rega Institute for Medical Research at Belgium’s University of Leuven. He introduced the concept how extracellular proteolysis and other posttranslational modifications lead to autoantigen repertoires in susceptible hosts and thereby helped to identify preventive and better treatments for autoimmune diseases.

Firestein

, a professor of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers University, studies how guanine metabolism impacts neuron development and recovery from injury. Her lab identified the postsynaptic density protein-95 interactor cypin as a regulator of neuronal development that influences the cytoskeleton and its function. She is a member of the Journal of Biological Chemistry editorial board.

 

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.

Related articles

AAAS names fellows
ASBMB Today Staff
NAM names members
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.