ASBMB taps 8 scientists and 1 politician for top awards

BETHESDA, Md. – The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) has announced the recipients of its annual awards competition. Eight scientists and one politician were singled out for their outstanding achievements and contributions to science. The awards will officially be presented at the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting, April 5-9, in San Diego, Calif.

I. Robert Lehman (Stanford University, Calif.) will give the Herbert Tabor/Journal of Biological Chemistry Lectureship. The award was established to recognize the many contributions of Herbert Tabor to the Journal of Biological Chemistry and the Society. Lehman received the award for his outstanding scholarly contributions to the field of DNA metabolism, his admirable track record as a mentor, and his unparalleled service to the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

C. David Allis (Rockefeller University, New York) will be honored with the ASBMB Merck Award for his seminal contributions to the field of chromatin biology. His research has helped define cause and effect relationships between specific histone modifications and specific gene expression events, as well as defined the enzymes and mechanisms involved in epigenetic regulation. The Merck Award is given to a researcher who makes outstanding contributions to research in biochemistry and molecular biology.

Alexandra C. Newton (University of California, San Diego) will be presented with the Avanti Award in Lipids. Newton has worked for over two decades on molecular aspects of lipid signaling, and as a result has been able to elucidate the molecular controls that regulate the function of protein kinase C. This award honors outstanding scientists whose research interests are in the field of lipids.

Mina J. Bissell (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif.) will receive the FASEB Excellence in Science Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement by women in biological science. Bissell is a world-renowned leader in the area of the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) and microenvironment in regulation of tissue-specific function with special emphasis in breast cancer, where she has changed some established paradigms.

S. Walter Englander (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia) will give the Herbert A. Sober Lectureship. This lectureship, which is awarded every two years, recognizes outstanding biochemical and molecular biological research, with particular emphasis on development of methods and techniques to aid in research. Englander is an expert in hydrogen exchange and has been a central figure in the development and application of hydrogen exchange-base methods that revolutionized insight into the biochemistry and biophysics of proteins.