First Appeared Wednesday, 30 April '03

Five Researchers Elected to NAS

Five UCSF faculty members were elected yesterday (April 29) to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

They are: Cornelia I. Bargmann, professor and vice chair in the Department of Anatomy and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; John D. Baxter, professor of medicine in the Diabetes Center; Cynthia J. Kenyon, Herbert Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and director of Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging; Robert M. Stroud, professor of biochemistry and biophysics and of pharmaceutical chemistry; and Arthur Weiss, Ephraim P. Engleman Distinguished Professor in Rhematology and chief of the division of rheumatology.

Cornelia Bargmann studies how genetics and development of the nervous system contribute to specific behaviors. Focusing on olfaction, or the sense of smell in the tiny nematode known as C. elegans, her research has clarified the specific neurons and the specific mechanisms within these neurons that allow the worm to discriminate between different odors in its environment. She has also examined the genetic regulation of social behavior in the worms, and recently identified for the first time a molecule that directs neurons to form connections with each other during an animal's early development - creating synapses essential to all behavior.

John Baxter is an expert on the endocrine system and metabolism. In 1979, he cloned the gene for human growth hormone, which later was only the second genetically engineered product to receive government approval. His research seeks to understand how receptors in the nucleus of a cell affect human health and disease. His focus has been on the function of the thyroid hormone receptor and the use of thyroid hormone-like compounds to treat obesity and cholesterol disorders. He is working on "selective thyroid hormone receptor modulators," or STRMS, that facilitate the beneficial effects of the thyroid hormone while avoiding dangerous side effects.

Cynthia Kenyon studies the genetics of aging. She made international news when she discovered that blocking the activity of a single gene in the roundworm C. elegans doubled the animal's lifespan. The gene, known as daf-2, encodes a receptor for insulin as well as for a hormone called insulin-like growth factor. The same or related hormone pathways have since been shown to affect lifespan in fruit flies and mice, and therefore are likely to control lifespan in humans as well. At UCSF's new Mission Bay campus, she will direct the new Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging. The center supports research on the biology of aging as well as research programs in diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and eye disorders.

Robert Stroud seeks to understand molecular mechanisms of key biological processes, as well as the signaling between processes within the cell. His research focuses on how signals cross membranes and how membrane proteins and channels within membranes work at the level of atomic structure. His laboratory also develops methods to quantify the relationship between bonding affinity and molecular structure. Targets for drug design include HIV integrase and drugs to combat resistance in HIV protease.

Arthur Weiss is an authority on the mechanisms by which the immune system's T cells are activated. He is interested in understanding how T cell receptors initiate the cascade of chemical changes that provide the T cell-regulating signals, which play a prominent role in autoimmune diseases. T cells are not activated by stimulation of the receptors stimulation alone, and he also studies signals involving interactions between molecules on an antigen presenting cell and T cells. CD28, a T cell transmembrane protein that binds to molecules expressed on B cells and macrophages, initiates an unidentified signaling event which may activate genes that regulate lymphokine activity. His laboratory seeks to identify the events involved in CD28 signaling and their relative importance in T cell differentiation/activation.

The five UCSF researchers were among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 11 countries elected at the 140th annual meeting of the Academy. Election to membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a US scientist or engineer. Those elected today bring the total number of active members to 1,922.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, which calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.

Links:

Full NAS news release

The Bargmann Lab

Kenyon Lab

Stroud Lab

Arthur Weiss