Sept. 3, 2013 — The cover story in the September issue of ASBMB Today is about investigators who are juggling the demands of laboratories in two places at once. We have two Career Insights articles: one about how to compete with those lab diva-types and one about how to conduct salary negotiations skillfully. Contributor Lauren Amable profiles artist Lynn Fellman, who has embraced her new role as a biological science illustrator, and contributor Kamalika Saha interviews ASBMB member Ritankar Das, who graduated from the Universtiy of California, Berkeley, at the top of his class — at age 18. In addition, David J. Kroll, a columnist for Forbes magazine, writes about the work environment and science-outreach efforts at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where scientists do their research in full public view. Last, but not least, we hope you’ll consider submitting an open letter for our forthcoming series. Read the September issue..

Aug. 29, 2013 — Today, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology released its 2013 report on government-funded scientific research titled “Unlimited Potential, Vanishing Opportunity.” The report, detailing the findings of a survey of more than 3,700 frontline scientists from all fifty states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, depicts clearly the broad impact of cuts to federal investments in science funding. The survey, conducted in June and July 2013 by sixteen scientific societies representing a variety of scientific disciplines, asked questions regarding cuts to nondefense discretionary spending by Congress since 2010. These cuts reached a historic low in March with sequestration. Read more... 

Sept. 16, 2013 — In this podcast, we hear an interview with Charles Carter at the University of North Carolina, who talks about his paper of the week, Aminoacylating Urzymes Challenge the RNA World Hypothesis. The paper delves into how these peptide molecules were the ancestors to modern enzymes and worked alongside RNA catalytic units. Click here to listen to the podcast or go to www.jbc.org/site/podcast.

Aug. 30, 2013 — Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have identified a key protein as the first dual-function co-regulator of an estrogen receptor that plays a crucial role in cancer development, opening the way to improved therapeutic targets for several types of cancer such as breast, prostate, lung and brain cancer. Their research has been published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. More...